When Torrey Smith first arrived in Baltimore, cornerback Domonique Foxworth nicknamed him "Tweeter" for how much he used social media.
Smith constantly had his head buried in his phone, texting friends or getting online. Terrell Suggs still uses the nickname from time-to-time.
But the name doesn't really fit Smith these days. The 25-year-old receiver has unplugged.
He's ditched his cell phone and deleted the Twitter app. Now he doesn't even bring his cell phone to work most days.
"My biggest thing is that I want to clear the distractions when I'm in the building, unless it's something that I have to communicate with my wife, or I'm waiting on a phone call for something that's very important," Smith said. "It really has been a lifestyle change for me."
Smith typically leaves the phone at home on the charger. It's usually in airplane mode so he doesn't even get text messages. When Smith goes home, he'll pick it up for a few minutes, but it's nowhere near the kind of all-consuming activity it used to be. He still sends some occasional tweets, but the volume has significantly dropped and he doesn't check any responses.
His wife, Chanel, is a big fan of the change.
"She loves it," he said. "I can get distracted with my phone easily, so she loves it. I've definitely been more attentive."
Smith decided to make the change earlier this season after he felt like the outside distractions reached a point that were more than he wanted to handle. He wanted to put his attention on football, and create some separation from everything else.
"I was having a lot of things going on outside of football. And if you can't communicate to know what's going on, then you can't let things bother you. That was my reasoning behind it, and it worked for me," he said. "I can come in here and have a clear mind and not really worry about anything else besides what's going on here."
The biggest concern with leaving the phone behind is his baby at home who is just six months old. Having no way to communicate with his wife and son is somewhat concerning in the event of an emergency, but Smith made sure his wife could contact him if something happened.
"The only thing I really have to worry about is, 'Hey, what if something goes wrong?" Smith said. "Well, Chanel has Jacoby's number. She has Steve's number. She has all of my teammates' numbers."
His friends and family have noticed the significant change. Some texts will go unanswered for days, even to good friends.
Before ditching the phone, Smith was in a constant group message with quarterback Tyrod Taylor and former Ravens receiver Tandon Doss. They would constantly go back and forth cracking jokes throughout the day. That group message is much quieter these days.
"For the most part, now it's just me and Tandon talking to each other," Taylor said. "Torrey will be silent for a few days and then he'll peak his head in to talk for a minute. I think I might just kick him out of the group chat."
"I kind of killed group chat," Smith said with a laugh.
Smith has no plans right now to make the phone a key part of his daily routine again. He'll go back to carrying his phone in the offseason when he has more time on his hands, but right now it's all about football.
All the other distractions will be left outside – on the charger, in airplane mode.
"The further away I get away from my phone, the further away I get from negative vibes," he said. "Right now, we only have 16 games and I have to be as focused as I can for us."
