SPARTANBURG There is no welcome mat when you come back to your football team a few days after sucker-punching a fellow player on the sidelines at practice.

But at least it's bearable when the fellow you punched opens the door and lets you in.

That's what Ken Lucas did for Steve Smith on Monday at Wofford College.

The morning after Smith faced his teammates during a private meeting that surely included more than a few Carolina Panthers mighty angry at him, Lucas told the whole world: “I have forgiven him.”

Lucas, with a broken nose and a purple bruise under his left eye, said he held no grudges and that he, Smith and the Panthers would move forward.

“I go to Bible study, just like he does, every week,” said Lucas, a starting cornerback. “For me not to be able to forgive him, then I'd just be wasting my time going to Bible study.”

Lucas said he knew it could tear up the team if he took any other approach.

“We could pretty much throw the season away,” he said.

So he chose unity.

“I have to admit it's tough as a human,” said Lucas. “But it's bigger than me and Steve.

“Where I get the courage and the grace to (forgive), I know it doesn't come from me. It comes from God. So I just give all the glory to God for how I'm handling the situation.”

Smith, the team's star receiver, spoke Monday, too. He used words like “broken” and “humbled” to describe himself in the aftermath of one of the ugliest moments of his adult life.

He owned up to his mistake and said he was without excuse.

“I'm completely wrong,” he said. It was “an asinine decision.”

Lucas was on the sidelines on one knee Friday when Smith, fuming over their argument about a practice play, put a fist to Lucas' face.

A day later, the Panthers suspended Smith for the first two regular-season games without pay.

He's not contesting the penalty.

“I'm a fallen man,” he said. “I'm a man who made a mistake.

“I intend to mend the bridges I have burned and help rebuild a bridge if I need to all by myself, but not do it in a spiteful way. (Instead), do it with the labor and the sound mind which God gives me.”

Regaining the trust of teammates, which Smith says he wants so much, hinges on whether his actions going forward are consistent with the words he spoke Monday.

“This issue that happened is going to be an opportunity for the Carolina Panthers and myself as an individual to show our true colors and be able to show the impact we can have, and not have this moment leave the legacy of who I am to my children, who I am to my teammates, who I am as a man,” said Smith.

Smith will miss the Sept.7 game at San Diego and Sept.14 home game against Chicago. He will not be able to practice or be around the team for those two weeks.

Smith also is expected to undergo counseling to help him identify, and hopefully extract, the root of his anger problem.

Plans are for Lucas to have surgery, but he said he expects to be out of practice for only two or three weeks.

Smith and Lucas were on the practice field Monday. Smith caught a pass on the first play of 11-on-11 team drills. Lucas watched from the sidelines, and put an ice pack on his eye for a few minutes while sitting in a tent.

Lucas said he and Smith talked Monday and began working to settle their differences.

“I have moved forward,” said Lucas. “I have shook his hand and looked him eye-to-eye today. We have discussed some things. We still have some more discussions, some more things to talk about as far as what can we do to go out there and co-exist on the same field, the same team and be productive and help this team win this year.”

Lucas said he and Smith have had personality conflicts for four years. He said the reasons for their differences are complex.

“He's an ultra-competitor and I'm a ultra-competitor, and we both hate losing,” said Lucas. “He expects to catch every ball and I expect to defend every ball. When you have those two types of individuals, then something has to give.

“Sometimes when it's 100 degrees out there, you're sweaty, you're tired, you're frustrated, (and) sometimes emotions get involved.”

Lucas said he believes the incident, as terrible as it was, will evolve into something good for the Panthers.

“I feel like what happened was a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It's something that has brought this team closer together. You all may say I'm crazy for saying that.

“If I could take it back, I wouldn't. It's a learning process. Trials and tribulations only make you stronger as a man, for me and Steve.”

When Smith faced the media Monday, he spoke for about four minutes and took no questions.

Though Lucas has forgiven him, Smith said he has not forgiven himself.