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February 1, 2004
CONNECTED: Smith tied to both teams
By John Delong | JOURNAL REPORTER
Rod Smith is at the Super Bowl as an analyst for a Charlotte radio station. He might just have the most-interesting insight of anybody in Reliant Stadium today because of strong ties to both teams.
Smith spent the first four years of his career as a cornerback for the Patriots, then went to the Panthers as their first pick in the 1995 expansion draft. He was a starter on the 1996 Panthers team that lost at Green Bay in the NFC Championship game.
"I want Carolina to win," Smith said bluntly. "I live in Charlotte and have established a business there, and I have a lot of friends on the team. But I still have strong ties to the Patriots. I still play golf with Ty Law, I still keep up with Lawyer Milloy, and I usually go spend a couple days in L.A. each summer with Willie McGinest.
"So I can't wish anybody any ill will. If the Panthers win, I'm going to be very happy. But you better believe if the Patriots win, I'll head up to Boston next weekend and join in the partying and enjoy their success."
Smith, a college football analyst for ESPN during the fall, takes pride in the fact that he was the Panthers' first expansion pick. There's some debate about whether that makes him the Original Panther, because the team had already signed some free agents, but he'll claim it anyway.
"I think it's kinda cool," he said. "They signed a couple of free agents before that, so who knows if it's official, but I'll claim it."
Coming to the Panthers at the time was a painful experience, though.
"It's really tough to leave your first team," he said. "It's a traumatic experience, really. You get to know a city, you get to know the organization, you get to know your teammates, and I was happy up there. So I didn't want to come to the Panthers.
"When Bill Parcells told me he was putting me on the expansion list, I almost broke down in tears. He said, 'This is going to turn out to be a great situation for you. You'll get taken high, you'll start, and you'll wind up making twice as much money.' But I wanted to stay so bad that I almost called him back and offered to take a pay cut."
Smith played four years with the Panthers before retiring in 1998.
"Obviously, things worked out pretty well for me once I got to Carolina," he said.
"I stayed there and I still live there, so that tells you something. But I don't think many people understand what a traumatic experience it is when you have to leave your first team."