Child support agreement between Devon Still and Channing Smythe was voluntary agreement

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still was accused by Channing Smythe, the mother of Devon's daughter Leah, of not paying child support for months. Still responded that the courts will take care of this matter. And according to Smythe, who was interviewed by TMZ this week, Still had stopped paying child support because he wanted both of them to move to Cincinnati.

"I don't feel that it was right for me to move her," Channing says via TMZ. "[Delaware] is where all her friends and family are and this is where we have been building our life. He was very upset about that and that’s when he stopped giving me money."

The child support that Still was paying was a voluntary agreement and not court-ordered, Smythe said. She has initiated the process to take it court. However, her lawyer, Gloria Allred, argued that Still is taking steps to avoid court.

"Channing does have a family law attorney who represents her in Delaware on the child support issue and who has been in communication with Mr. Still’s attorney in reference to the child support issue and other family law matters," Allred said in a letter to the NFL. "This attorney has asked that Mr. Still’s family law attorney accept service for Mr. Still, but Mr. Still’s attorney has declined to do so."

Despite this process and the inadvisable timing to make it public (there's too much support for Still, and their feel-good story this year), Smythe hasn't been critical of Devon or his character as a father.

"I don't consider him a deadbeat dad," Smythe told the Daily News on Wednesday. "I know he loves and cares for his daughter and he is there for her. I just need him to help me financially."

Channing tells us Devon is a "wonderful father" to Leah and visits her almost weekly -- and takes her to doctor's appointments whenever he can.

Smythe reiterated her financial issues, saying that she needs more money from Still because of "Leah's medical condition which prevents her from working."