GREEN BAY — Opposing quarterbacks and offensive tackles who call Za’Darius Smith a mama’s boy this season will do so at their own peril. But they wouldn’t be wrong.
The Green Bay Packers’ new outside linebacker arrived earlier this month after signing a four-year, $66 million free-agent deal that included a $20 million signing bonus and $34.5 million to be paid out in its the first two years. But he took a detour, first — a 14-hour drive from Baltimore, where he’d played his first four NFL seasons with the Ravens, to his mother’s home in Greenville, Ala.