Top Ravens Receiver Retiring After This Season to Be with Family

Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. announced this week that he is going to retire at the end of the season.

Since he joined the Ravens in 2014, Smith has been away from his family in North Carolina, where he played for 13 seasons with the Panthers.

“I’m retired after this,” Smith, 36, said after practice Monday, explaining his game plan after this season was to “go home” and “be dad.”

“A lot of fathers have coached me, and so I want to be able to do the same,” Smith said in an interview last year. “I want to coach my kids.”

Smith and his wife, Angie, have four children, and he said they made the decision as a family that he would retire.

His youngest son, Steve Jr., is one year old.

The oldest, Peyton, will be starting college in the fall and playing soccer, according to ESPN.

While he made the decision in April to retire, Smith only made the announcement this week, ESPN reported.

Having declared this season will be his last, the wide receiver will be a force to be reckoned with, with The Baltimore Sun recollecting that Ray Lewis announced his retirement and then capped it off with a Super Bowl ring in 2013.

“All my chips are on the table,” Smith said.

“He’s going out at the top of his game,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh told the BaltimoreRavens.com.

Last year, Smith had more receptions than any other Raven, with 79.

Screenshot from Baltimore Ravens/YouTube.