Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAIN PRICE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
BRUCE SMITH A NEW MAN
Welcome to the much cooler and surprisingly calmer Bruce Smith. Must be the California sun.Gone are the days when the Buffalo Bills' Pro Bowl defensive lineman got his kicks out of taunting quarterbacks and offensive linemen or arguing with his coaches.
Gone, too, are the tirades of last year, when Smith picked Super Bowl week to tell all about racist hate mail he had been receiving from Bills fans. Talk about distractions.
Just call Smith the mild-mannered professor. With his wire-rimmed glasses, he looks the part.
Smith, the former Virginia Tech star, attributes his low-key demeanor to maturity. A series of injuries over the past two years contributed to his maturity, he said.
Last season, knee surgery kept Smith out of all but five regular-season games. Football is his life, and the injuries turned his life upside down.
While sidelined, Smith had plenty of time for reflection. Plenty of time to think about how soon his career might be over.
"I'd rather go over the deficit with President Clinton than go through what I had to go through this past off-season," Smith said. "The work ethics, the hours and hours of lifting weights and riding the Stairmaster.
"Running in the swimming pool, agilities. It seems like my day would never end when I had to do my rehab."
Smith is anxious for play to start and the hype to stop.
"This whole week is nice," Smith said. "But I have all this energy built up inside of me, and it's anxiously awaiting to be driven out or explode out.
"I'm just looking forward to getting out on the field on Sunday."
Smith said he even has dropped another annoying habit: bickering with his coaches.
"In 1990 and '89 and those years in the past, I used to come over to the sidelines after plays were over and tell them, `Look, they're doubling- and triple-teaming me. We've got to do something to alleviate this problem. Put me somewhere else so maybe I can be single-blocked and can take advantage.'
"But now I don't complain; I don't say anything about it. I know that those things are going to happen. I just have to make the adjustments and, hopefully, the guy that's playing next to me can take advantage of themselves being single-blocked."
Smith said he isn't surprised or upset that the Cowboys are favored.
"Dallas has the right to be a seven-point [now 6 1/2] favorite," he said. "They have a better record. Apparently they've been playing better, and we've been unsuccessful the last two Super Bowls. So that's fine and dandy. . . .
"The only way you get respect is to win the Super Bowl. Hopefully, after we win the Super Bowl we'll be able to get that respect, but until then we shouldn't be getting any respect because we haven't earned it yet."
Does that mean the pressure is on the Bills?
"There's always pressure any time you're playing a game like this," Smith said. "This is the game of the world."
A game in which Smith must perform well for the Bills to win.
A teammate attributes some of the Bills' success to Smith's health.
"He's a great player, and I think everybody realizes that," Buffalo linebacker Shane Conlan said. "He's a big-play type of guy. Part of the reason that we're so successful this year is because he's healthy."
Said Bills defensive coordinator Walt Corey, "Bruce Smith is what you'd call a franchise player. He's like having two or three extra guys on the field because he's going to draw two or three extra blocks, and it's going to make some of your average players above average, and that's the key.
"You've got to have players that other people isolate on so that your other players kind of shine."
Smith, all 6 feet 4 and 274 pounds, has a way of illuminating. Still, he claims his star will not shine bright until he gets that Super Bowl monkey off his back.
"I don't consider myself as ever having made it until I reach my final goal," Smith said. "And that final goal is to win a Super Bowl. And also possibly being inducted into the Hall of Fame one day.
"I just happen to be one of those players that would like to be rewarded someday later on down the line for my work ethics and for my commitment to playing this game."