After cranking up the machine, he began to run laterally, legs churning, feet almost dancing, the black polyurethane flying beneath him.

He moved left and then changed directions and moved right, never slowing or losing balance. He ran as if he had no time to waste.

"It's a dynamic workout," Ken Lucas says of his treadmill regimen. "I worked hard this offseason. I wanted to be in the best condition of any athlete on the field."

But he's not on the field at practice Tuesday. Lucas, who is the Carolina Panthers' best cornerback, did pushups and ran and backpedalled. He hopes to return in the next three weeks.

Twelve days ago, teammate Steve Smith hit Lucas with at least two cheap shots and broke his nose. Lucas has not practiced since. He began running Monday. Assistant strength coach Sean Powell held a stopwatch and shouted Lucas' time as Lucas sprinted across the field.

"It hurt so bad," Lucas says. "Very painful. Man, I just lost everything."

He's talking about conditioning.

I talk to Lucas, 29, by telephone an hour before Tuesday's practice.

It is the first interview he has done since Aug. 4, when he and Smith returned to camp and addressed the media after the punch-out.

That day, Lucas said that he had forgiven Smith.

I can't fathom having the strength to do that. Most of us allow lesser slights to infect us.

We cling to the anger. It becomes as much a part of us as our clothes.

How do you let it go?

"I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it was easy," says Lucas. "I never thought I could."

He adds: "I could have hurt him in a serious way."

Did you think about it?

"I didn't," he says.

But if somebody goes after you, don't you, at some level, want to go after them?

"It takes a strong spiritual person not to," Lucas says. "I was shocked and surprised that I could forgive him."

Lucas and Smith were on the side of the field, Lucas kneeling, Smith standing, when Smith attacked. Smith, also 29, seemed to take an instant dislike to Lucas when he came to Charlotte as a coveted and expensive free agent four seasons ago.

He doesn't say what provoked Smith. He does say that the broken nose and discolored eye were the best possible result.

"It could have ended a lot of different ways," says Lucas. "I could have lost my eyesight, I could have lost consciousness, I could have lost my life."

He said Aug. 4 that the incident "brought the team closer together."

Do you really believe that?

"Absolutely," he says, dropping the monotone and speaking with passion.

He says people who know him know he wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it.

Did you ask the defense to forgive Smith?

"We all got together," says Lucas, meaning the offense and defense in the aftermath of the attack. "It was open. People could express any opinions. It was like a counseling session."

Lucas asks if I've ever encountered a family with a problem that could tear it apart. If the family understands the issues that created the problem, he explains, and don't allow them to fester, they become stronger.

After his first round of sprints, Lucas said he lost everything. Because of him, the Panthers have not.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.