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Earlier this year, former NFL wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. found himself at the center of a messy situation concerning an alleged affair with a cheerleader for the Ravens. He declined to address the situation after the story made headlines, but he has broken his silence on the matter close to 10 months after the accusations came to light.
There are plenty of perks that come with being a professional athlete, but there’s only so much you can do to keep members of the public from prying into your private life and having some dirty laundry aired out for the rest of the world to see.
That’s the unfortunate reality Steve Smith Sr. found himself facing earlier this year, as the man who spent 16 years in the NFL between the Panthers and the Ravens found himself targeted by a man who accused him of engaging in an affair with his wife, a cheerleader for the latter, while posting a number of screenshots to support his claim.
Smith was eventually with a lawsuit seeking over $100,000 in damages stemming from a “homewrecker” statute in South Carolina that permits a spouse who has been cheated on to take the outside party to court. His lawyers have been handling that case, but he has not opted to chime in himself—a decision he elaborated on while addressing it for the first time during a recent interview.
Steve Smith Sr. danced around a question concerning the affair allegation he found himself facing while explaining why he won’t apologize
Smith was the featured guest on the most recent installment of The Pivot, and Ryan Clark took the opportunity to raise the topic of the affair accusations around the 19:00 mark of the sitdown.
Smith declined to get into the specifics and said he won’t be apologizing in a public manner while reflecting on the fallout, saying:
“I still—and won’t—release any apology, because I don’t need to apologize on a private matter to a whole bunch of strangers. I grew up old school. Mind your business.
We could be neighbors, but don’t bring your ass in my yard knocking on the door talking about what’s going on,
cuz you ain’t going to like who and what’s in the hand of the person that’s opening the door…
I’m never going to mention or say what is or isn’t cuz for a whole bunch of strangers that’s watching this with that opinion, don’t really matter, because you don’t know. I’m not here to explain.
What I won’t do is I won’t explain myself because I was wrong, but I also won’t defend myself and I’m not going to walk around apologizing to everybody because that ain’t how it’s supposed to work. I’ve told people and I’ll saying it again: You’re not my God.”
Smith had been married to his wife Angie, the mother of his four children, since 2000, but it sounds like they have separated when you consider Clark referred to her as his “ex-wife” (North Carolina law says parties must be separated for a full year before filing for divorce).
Smith petitioned for the aforementioned lawsuit to be dismissed over the summer, and court records show the man who accused him of engaging in the affair had filed for a divorce from the woman at the center of the situation nine months before she met the five-time Pro Bowler. However, it does not appear it the matter has been settled.