ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611050022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.
SOURCE: ED MILLER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Watch him.
If you tune in the game between the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills today, do yourself a favor. Take your eyes off the football - at least a few times - and watch Buffalo defensive end Bruce Smith.
Watch him burst out of his stance, spitting rage and intensity. Watch him take on two blockers, or maybe three. Watch him make his teammates better, just by stepping on the field.
Watch a future Hall of Famer who, at 33, is having one of his best seasons ever.
``Every now and then there's someone for whom chronological age is not accurate,'' Bills coach Marv Levy says. ``He's a pretty good example of it.''
Smith, perhaps the greatest football player ever to come out of Virginia Tech, has gray in his mustache but none in his game. In the immortal words of Dennis Hopper, he's still a baaad man, man.
As bad as they come.
Watch him.
A real student of the game
Watch him leave the country, in fact.
``Ever been to Canada?'' he says to a visitor.
Smith is cruising in his wife's BMW, all sleek and air-tight. It's climate-controlled. Immaculate. A radar detector chirps - they're legal in New York, Smith reminds - as the Buffalo skyline rolls by.
On the console is a CD changer that looks as if it could launch a Patriot Missile.
From the speakers, a blues guitar screams.
``I like all kinds of music,'' Smith says. ``I guess I'm playing the blues because we lost.''
The night before, the Bills lost a wild game at New England. Buffalo led 18-15 with 2:47 left but lost 28-25.
The team flew out of Providence after the game and Smith got home at 3:30 a.m. By 10 he was at Rich Stadium, watching film.
``I can't sleep after a game, whether we've won or lost, until I've studied the film, broken it down to find out how I played, and how we played as a unit.
``I'm the first one in on Mondays.''
For 10 years, he's also been coming in on Tuesdays, which is the players' day off. He studies film of the tackle he'll be facing in the next game. And of the guard who'll be helping the tackle. And, sometimes, of the tight end or running back who'll be helping the guard and the tackle.
Smith draws at least two blockers ``about 95 percent of the time'' he estimates.
``He's a factor on every play, run or pass,'' Bills running back Thurman Thomas says. ``That was a big thing for [1995 NFL Defensive player of the year] Bryce Paup last year, people double- and triple-teaming Bruce.''
Studying the tendencies of his opponents helps Smith offset the mismatches, if they can be called that.
``He's a bit of a closet studier,'' Levy says. ``I don't think he likes to let many people know that.''
The best bargain in the NFL
Smith has been a Buffalo favorite since 1985, when he was voted AFC defensive rookie of the year. Lately, though, he's had his detractors.
The reason? His very public complaints about his contract.
Smith will make $2.2 million this year, which makes him the 19th-highest-paid defensive player in the league, according to his agent, Leigh Steinberg.
Smith says flatly that he should be the highest-paid defensive player in the league. He threatened a walkout at the beginning of the season.
Instead, he's taken out his feelings on opposing players.
Watch Smith get angry. Watch Colts quarterback Jim Harbaugh pay, when Smith has four tackles, one sack and seven quarterback pressures against the Colts.
``He's a hell of a ballplayer. He's great,'' Harbaugh said afterward. ``He's underpaid, by the way. I wanted to tell him that before the game but I thought it might tick him off.''
Too late. He's ticked.
``It's definitely been a motivator,'' Smith says.
Smith acknowledges that few people will feel sorry for someone making $2.2 million per year. What he wants from Bills management is treatment befitting his status. He wants - you guessed it - respect.
Smith can certainly make a case that he has been taken for granted by Bills owner Ralph Wilson. In 1993, he signed a four-year deal, scheduled to run through the 1996 season.
But the Bills came to Smith and asked him to renegotiate. They asked him to give some money back, so they could clear salary cap room and sign the players needed to make another Super Bowl run.
Smith came out $600,000 poorer in the deal. He did it to help the team, he says.
Meanwhile, Buffalo hands out signing bonuses like Halloween candy: $5 million to offensive lineman John Fina, $2 million each to linebacker Chris Spielman and receiver Quinn Early. All are fine players.
None is Bruce Smith.
Working hard to stay in shape
Upset as he is over his contract, rage alone can't explain the season Smith is having. Well into his 34th year, Smith hasn't lost a thing physically, Levy says.
``His reactions are as good as ever,'' the coach says.
Says Smith: ``I'm in my prime.''
If so, he's right on schedule. About five years ago, someone asked Smith when he'd reach his peak. He said in his early to mid-30s.
``The reason is the method I've developed of staying in shape year-round,'' Smith says. ``Plus the study habits I've developed, and the eating habits I've developed.''
Ah yes, food. Watch Bruce eat. Or rather, watch what Bruce doesn't eat. It's a big reason he's still devouring quarterbacks.
When Smith left Virginia Tech in 1985, he had an Outland Trophy under his arm and 300 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame.
He loved good Southern food - chicken, biscuits, gravy - and didn't push away from the table until he had to loosen his belt a notch.
He had the talent to get away with it, but under the flab was a lean, quick, wrecking-ball of a defensive end.
About 10 years ago, Smith gave up the fattening stuff. He hardly touches red meat anymore. Fried foods are out. In are baked chicken, pasta, fruits and vegetables.
Also in is a grueling workout regimen that helps maintain his playing weight - a chiseled 273 pounds - year round.
His concern with fitness borders on obsession. ``When I work out, it makes me feel complete,'' he says.
Turning it on for the camera
Speaking of digestion, how long do you think it will take that rookie to digest that phone, the one Smith shoved down his throat after the kid failed to save him up to 44 percent on long distance?
Watch Bruce's commercials. He does spots for MCI, Direct-TV, Logo Athletic.
He's never been hotter.
Tom Bracken, vice president of advertising for Direct-TV, raved to the Buffalo News about Smith. Specifically, about the stare Smith gives the camera in a spot for Direct-TV's NFL Sunday ticket.
In the commercial, the announcer calls Smith a ``wimp.'' Smith shoots the camera a look that could stop a train.
``It sends shudders of fear down your spine,'' Bracken says. ``We were looking for people who could convey - just on a quick look - this very powerful image.''
Smith can deliver.
In the MCI spot, he makes a rookie eat a phone. In a Nike ad, done a few years back, actor Dennis Hopper is obsessed with Smith's sneakers, to the point of sniffing them in an empty locker room. All the while, Hopper fears that Smith will return and do ``bad things, man.''
Smith doesn't say a word. The murderous look in his eyes says it all.
Smith laughs about the spots. It's not him, he says.
``I can turn it on for the camera. I hear that all the time, that I'm a natural. It's one of my hidden talents, I guess.''
Smith says he does not try to intimidate on the field. He does not talk - ``I've got nothing to say'' - and tries to handle himself in a professional manner.
Still, he's got an aura. Teammates joke about not wanting to get him angry - at least at them.
``The look? Oh yeah, I see it all the time, coming off the field,'' says Thomas. ``I'm just glad he's on my football team.''
Born under the sign of Gemini, Smith says he's a dual personality.
``I'm one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet,'' he says.
Don't tell the advertising execs.
An enjoyable home away from home
Smith is, without a doubt, smooth. And articulate. He speaks softly, but seriously, in the confident tone of a man in command of his physical environment.
``I consider myself the consummate professional,'' he says.
Smith is accommodating. When an interview is interrupted by a meeting, Smith offers to extend it.
You would think the last thing he needs is another interview, but Smith seems eager to please. Running late, he calls to let a reporter know. Small wonder he was named to the Pro Football Writers ``All-Interview'' team in 1994.
Riding in the BMW, Smith points out some of the sights of his home away from home: the Peace Bridge to Canada, the downtown skyline, Canisius College.
Got to have some wings before you leave, he says.
``This is a second home. People have been good to me here, and it's definitely appreciated.
``Could I ever play for another team? I thought about it at the beginning of the season, when I was having contract troubles. But to actually put on another uniform, no.''
LENGTH: Long : 185 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Former Virginia Tech defensive end Bruce Smith,by CNBshown here sacking New York Giants quarterback Dave Brown, is happy
in Buffalo, despite recent contract problems. color. KEYWORDS: PROFILE