There were no fights between the Ravens and Eagles at Wednesday’s practice, which is notable because of how many fights other teams have had at their joint sessions and because Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith has been known to engage in a scrape or two over the course of his career.
The lack of fights doesn’t mean that Smith was enjoying himself on Wednesday, however. Smith didn’t pay much lip service to the potential benefits of matching up with the Eagles when asked how things went after practice wrapped up.
“I’d rather be at home,” Smith said, via the Baltimore Sun. “Today’s my wife’s birthday, so I’m not at home. I’m over here doing this bull [crap] and missing my wife’s birthday. That’s my honest opinion. I’d rather be at home singing happy birthday to my wife, but I’m out here getting questioned to assess a rookie corner.”
The rookie corner in question is Eric Rowe and Smith said facing him for a few seconds at a time made it hard to judge “if he’s going to be the next Deion Sanders.” Rowe gave a colorful account of his conversations with Smith during the practice.
“He’s like, ‘I saw it in your eyes, you about to s— yourself.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, I don’t panic,'” Rowe said, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
There was one thing that Smith seemed to like about the practice, which ran less than the three hours that the Ravens usually spend on the field because the Eagles set the schedule. Smith said it was great and “like apple juice” to have a shorter session than he’s become accustomed to in Baltimore.