Steve Smith, legendary wide receiver and trash talker, has announced he will attempt to return to the Baltimore Ravens for the 2016 season, in a reversal of his preseason announcement to make 2015 his last year.
https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/682245818913435651
Steve Smith has spent just about half this season on injured reserve after tearing his Achilles tendon. Like many proud athletes, it appears he wasn’t willing to let an injury be the last play of his career. Like Mariano Rivera, he is going to do his best to go out standing on his own two feet, not wheeled off in a cart.
Of course, it’s no sure thing that he will be able to come back with the Ravens, if at all. He tore his Achilles at the beginning of November, and he will be 37 when next season begins. A ten-month turnaround on one of the most debilitating injuries an athlete can suffer is a tall order for a man with that many miles, and though Baltimore is thin at wide receiver, they may not be willing to carry a roster spot for Smith if he isn’t ready to start the season.
Then again, we are not so foolish as to doubt Smith, lest he find where we leave and nearly punch us, causing us to flinch and curl into a ball before his fist ever makes contact. We can’t wait to see him back on the field, doing Steve Smith things.
One final note — Smith may have entered the running for “Least Appropriate Use of a Cry-Laugh Emoji in 2015.” He’s a late entry, to be sure, but a very strong one.
