John Harbaugh Insults Chuck Pagano, Steve Smith Blasts Gettleman

Sep 28, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh looks on in the second quarter against the Carolina Panthers at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Lunchtime Links, where we round up all the latest Ravens news from around the web for your convenient consumption. Today we find that Steve Smith is still bitter about his split with the Carolina Panthers, John Harbaugh apparently insulted Colt’s head coach Chuck Pagano with his comments about crowd noise, and we take a look ahead at the Raven’s difficult schedule.

Steve Smith blasts David Gettleman

Steve Smith is obviously still bitter about his split with the Carolina Panthers, even after he showed them up on the field last Sunday with a dominant performance. Smith blasted Panther’s GM David Gettleman in a radio interview Wednesday for the way that he says Gettleman handled his situation prior to his release.

Smith claims that Gettleman told him that he was a shell of the player he once was, and that he was a distraction to both the team and jealous of Cam Newton. Smith claims he responded to the comments by asking if the Panthers were looking to cut his pay, to which Gettleman responded by telling him the Panthers were going to trade him.

Smith claims he heard about his release on the radio before he received a call from the team, and didn’t appreciate the way things were handled. It is understandable that he would be upset about the situation, but it seems like it is time to move on. Smitty made his statement on the field last Sunday, and hopefully he can focus on moving forward and helping the Ravens continue to win games.

Chuck Pagano “insulted” by John Harbaugh’s comments about crowd noise

John Harbaugh discussed the challenges of playing against the Colts in Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday, and apparently touched a bit of a nerve with head coach Chuck Pagano with one particular statement.

“We’ll have to work on the crowd noise,” Harbaugh said, according to The Baltimore Sun. “We had a loud stadium in Cleveland, and it’s only going to be louder in Indianapolis because it’s indoors. And rumor has it they pipe crowd noise in there, so we’ll see if that’s the case or not going back there again. But we’ll be looking forward to it.”

Pagano took the allegation that the Colts were piping in crowd noise a little bit personally and responded on Wednesday. “I think that’s more of an insult to our 12th man, if you will,” Pagano said. “I think he’s calling out our fans, which I think are the best fans in the National Football League. So we’ll see how our 12th man reacts to that insult.”