Krieger: For Smith, it's all about effort, wins

Published August 19, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Sports Columns & Blogs

ENGLEWOOD - You won't find a lot of 36-year-old starting wide receivers in the NFL, but I don't suggest you mention this to Rod Smith.

"Only people that bring it up is you, you and your crew," he told me the other day when I asked if his window was closing.

"It's going to close eventually, but, hopefully, I'll be the one to close it. I don't worry about that. The minute I start worrying about not playing, what I'm going to be doing when I'm not playing, I might as well leave then, because that means I'm not putting out here 100 percent mentally and giving the guys what they deserve, which is all of me, period. When it's over, it's over. Until then, I'm just giving what I have."

Like Javon Walker, who joins him this year in the starting lineup, Smith will see his first preseason action tonight after sitting out the opener with a sore hamstring. He is now indisputably the most productive receiver in Broncos history. He has the most catches (797), receiving yards (10,877), receiving touchdowns (65) and touchdowns (68). When he catches his third ball of the regular season, he will become the first undrafted player in NFL history to catch 800 passes. Of course, he's already the first to catch 700. Or 600.

"It's not good enough," he said. "It's not good enough because you know eventually somebody else is going to come along and break those records. So I've got to put them out of reach. I don't want 'em to be broke. But if they are broke, it's going to be from a guy who's been here a long time and he's done things the right way. It's warranted then."

Smith has put up these numbers by not paying attention to them. He has been both example and enforcer of the team-first mantra that has produced the Broncos' winning culture.

"I play for wins," he said. "That's the only thing that really matters to me, is how many games we win. One guy told me my winning percentage is 66 percent. When I start, we've won 66 percent of our games. That makes me feel good because it's actually higher than Jerry Rice's, even though he's played in 500 more games or something.

"That's the way I base my career, on wins and losses. Two Super Bowls is fine, but we should have had at least four by now. But we don't. So that's what I'm reaching for, trying to get a third one. And how can I get Al Wilson his first one? What can I do to help John Lynch get his second one, Champ Bailey get his first one, Jake Plummer get his first one?

"What can I do any way, shape or form? That's what I'm going to give until I basically can't move anymore or the organization says, 'You know what, we're going in a different direction.' That's when I look at the window and see whether I keep it open or close it. Until then, I don't worry about it."

The Broncos are rich in locker room leadership, but no one demands more of himself than Smith.

"I have no choice," he said. "That's one thing about being a leader of a football team or any team or any organization or company. Ninety-nine percent of the time, no one gives you that position. You earn it. If that role is on you, then it's on you.

"It got on Al real early and he didn't understand it. One day we had to sit down and tell him: 'We look up to you. Even the veteran guys look up to you because of the way you perform, the way you prepare, the way you do things.' He didn't know that he was a leader of the team. He was in his third year in the league.

"But once he got an understanding of it, he took that role and he ran with it. It's an honor that your peers look up to you that way. So you have an obligation to those guys to be one of the guys that is first on, last off, doing things the right way, being on time, the little things that a lot of people don't write about. Those things are very important in this organization. I helped kind of set the standard, I feel, and I want it to continue when I'm gone."

Until then, Smith will continue to represent the old-school values required to work his way up from the practice squad. Just don't make a big deal about the old part.

"The good thing about getting older in the organization, that means you've been here for a while," he said. "That part, I'm blessed. Trust me, that's a dream for me.

"That's the part that I don't understand, how some young guys in this business come in here thinking that the NFL owes them something, the team owes them something, and you come in with a different attitude. I could never imagine coming in with that type of attitude because I know they don't owe me nothing. I'm privileged to be here and I'm going to take advantage of the opportunities.

"When it's over, it's over, but until then, shoot, I'm scrapping and battling and clawing just like I did when I first walked out there."

Seven-hundred ninety-seven catches ago. Not to make him sound old.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News