Steve Smith Sr.
American football player (born 1979)
Stevonne Latrall Smith Sr. (born May 12, 1979), better known as Steve Smith, is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Carolina Panthers. He played college football for the Utah Utes and was selected by the Panthers in the third round of the 2001 NFL draft. Smith spent 13 seasons in Carolina and three with the Baltimore Ravens. After retiring from the NFL, Smith became a sports analyst and show host for NFL Network.
A five-time Pro Bowl selection and four-time All-Pro (including a 2011 Pro Football Focus) selection. Smith emerged as one of the NFL's most productive wide receivers in history, leading the league in catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns in 2005. At the time of his retirement, Smith ranked seventh in NFL career all-purpose yards (19,180), seventh in NFL career receiving yards (sixth among wide receivers all-time) (14,731), twelfth in career receptions (1,031), and 26th in receiving touchdowns (81). Smith amassed (89) total touchdowns in the regular season and (100) total touchdowns including the postseason. Smith emerged as one of the most statistically efficient wide receivers of all-time, in the 2005 NFL season, Smith became the only player in NFL history to lead the league in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns and receptions (receiving triple crown) despite being on a team that was ranked (28th) in pass attempts.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Steve Smith Sr.” as american football player (born 1979). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american football player (born 1979). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q683017. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 2001, 2011 and 2005.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Steve Smith Sr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.