Steve Smith Says He Found Out He Was Cut On The Radio, Rips The Panthers

On the day the Carolina Panthers officially cut him, Steve Smith said there would be "blood and guts" on the field if he ever played his former team.

In Week 4 Smith's Baltimore Ravens played Carolina at home and he made good on his promise, torching the Panthers for two touchdowns.

On Wednesday Smith took the feud with his former team a step further. He called into WFNZ radio in Charlotte and ripped the Panthers for the manner in which they cut him.

Smith describes a summer meeting with general manager Dave Gettleman where Gettleman called him a "shadow of a player he used to be" and said he was jealous of Cam Newton.

Gettleman later cut him without telling him face-to-face and Smith found out about it on the radio, Smith says.

"8:05 I drop my kids off at school. 8:15 I heard on WFNZ that I've been released. He doesn't even have the cajones to tell us to our face - we have to hear from someone else And then he calls, and the first thing he says, like everybody says, 'Well, it wasn't personal.' If the first thing that comes out, 'It wasn't personal,' guess what - it's personal."

Later in the interview Smith seemed to call out the Panthers' handling of the Greg Hardy domestic violence situation. He said about the notion that he was a distraction to the team:

"I didn't beat my wife. Yeah, I hit some teammates six and seven years ago, but I didn't beat my wife. I didn't get arrested for DUIs. I didn't fall off no motorcycles... I made mistakes. But building this big old crutch about it, as if I pushed their hand...."

Smith said his Sunday's victory over the Panthers wasn't fun because he was so focused, he didn't get to have fun. He also said he wouldn't have anything to say to Gettleman if he saw him today: "I don't have anything to say to Dave Gettleman. He told me what he thought of me, and my play [on Sunday] told me what I thought of him."

Listen to the whole thing here >