Steve Smith Will Quit Playing In The NFL If The Baltimore Ravens Trade Him

According to NFL.com, Steve Smith will be so upset if the Baltimore Ravens traded him that he would walk away from his career in the NFL.

Since the Baltimore Ravens have only a single victory this season, there is a very slim chance that they will be one of the 12 NFL teams that will be competing for the Super Bowl when the playoffs start. That has led to a lot of speculations about Steve Smith, as he is getting closer to the end of his NFL career, which began in 2001.

The general assumption in the NFL is that veteran players will generally want to be with a contending team during their final years. Steve Smith has never won a Super Bowl during his illustrious NFL career. At the age of 36, his window of opportunity to be a champion is closing rapidly.

Despite being 36-years-old, Steve Smith still ranks among the best wide receivers in the NFL. He is only one of five players to average more than 100 reception yards a game. Smith is one of them.

Knowing that, fans and sports writers have started to speculate that Steve Smith could be traded to a team that can provide him with a better chance of winning the Super Bowl. His longtime team in the NFL fits that description. The Carolina Panthers have yet to lose a game during the regular season.

The Carolina Panthers are not going to comment on a trade before it happens as that is against the rules in the NFL. However, it would be a ridiculous assumption to think that they would love to have their former star wide receiver back. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton has received a tremendous amount of praise around the NFL for being able to win with a weak wide receiving corps.

Steve Smith can thank his own son for adding fuel to the fire. He took to Twitter to suggest that the Carolina Panthers should trade all of their wide receivers to the Baltimore Ravens, so that his dad could go back to his former NFL team.

Panthers should trade all their receivers to Baltimore and bring back my dad. #dreamteam

— Peyton (@peytondsmith) October 18, 2015

It would make sense for the Baltimore Ravens to acquire more selections in the upcoming NFL Draft. They are a team that desperately could use an infusion of young talent. A player like Steve Smith is still highly coveted in the NFL, so general managers are willing to deal for him.

Despite that they could benefit from a deal, the Baltimore Ravens publicly expressed that they have no desires to trade Steve Smith to another NFL team.

Steve Smith said he'd quit today if the #Ravens traded him. John Harbaugh said there's "no chance" the #Ravens would do so.

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 23, 2015

That bodes very well for Steve Smith that the Baltimore Ravens would publicly comment on a speculation. Usually, general managers and head coaches in the NFL refrain from doing so because they do not want to spark even more speculations.

While some may think that Steve Smith is just bluffing so that the Baltimore Ravens do not force him to move to another NFL team, it would not come as a shock to see the star wide receiver walking away from the game. The belief is that he will be heavily weighing retirement at the end of this season. Ravens officials are probably going to try to talk him into playing another year, but the decision will fall on Smith himself.

As for this very moment, though, Steve Smith is not retiring from the NFL.

[ Featured Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images ]