Sep 28th 2008 2:20PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Falcons, Panthers, NFC South, NFL Fans, NFL Media Watch, NFL RumorsSteve Smith is your new all time Carolina Panther career leader in touchdowns scored. It happened on a medium in that saw him sitting wide open, followed by a broken tackle and then some zipping towards the end zone.

Of course, it wasn’t all that easy, because Smith slowed down heading into the end zone and nearly had the ball DeSeaned by a pair of defenders (although he wasn’t heavily showboating just waltzing) before falling down into the end zone and spiking the mess out of the ball.

The sideline crew got the ball back from the fans and quickly put in Smith’s hands. It is after all, a pretty memorable ball in terms of what it represents for Smith’s career.

And Smith did the classy thing (which I actually kind of called: “What if he gives the ball to Lucas??!?!?”) by running straight to number 21, who he previously punched in the face, and gave it over to him.

Does it make up for sticking Ken Lucas in the jaw during training camp? Um, no. But it does show that the Panthers have more or less moved past the preseason incident, at least on the face of things. Smith might not be remembered by the general public as a classy individual — the announcers haven’t even mentioned giving the ball to Lucas, amazingly — but he’s a better guy than a lot of people give him credit for, and that showed today.