#28

 

BRUCE SMITH

There was only one place Bruce Smith was going to end up after he ended his career with the Washington Redskins in 2003, and that was the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. It was a no-doubter since Smith finished his career with 200 sacks, putting him first on the official list of all-time sack leaders.

But the numbers don’t tell the full story with Smith. Yes, he would get to the quarterback with frequency. But what he did during the week was force opposing offensive coordinators to account for him on every play and they still couldn’t stop him—or even come close. In so doing, Smith’s prowess opened up pass rush angles for Buffalo Bills teammates like Darryl Talley and Cornelius Bennett on the Bills defense. He was the dominant stud on a defensive team that was loaded with playmakers and he was nearly the equivalent of Reggie White.

But it almost didn’t happen for the first overall pick in the 1985 NFL draft out of Virginia Tech, as Smith was saddled with a know-nothing head coach in Hank Bullough for the majority of his first two seasons with the Bills. At the time, Smith was not the dynamic 285-pound missile who rushed the passer from his right defensive end position for the majority of his career. His build was more similar to that of Baby Huey, the rotund cartoon duck who was in anything but good shape. The 1985 season was a banner year for the Chicago Bears, not the Buffalo Bills. The Bears used a rotund rookie of their own in William “The Refrigerator” Perry to see spot duty on Buddy Ryan’s defensive line and to serve as a smashing power back in the Bears’ offense. Bullough decided to let Smith follow the same route and said he thought “Smith could do for us what Perry did for the Bears.”

It’s a good thing for Smith, the Bills, and their fans that owner Ralph Wilson fired Bullough nine games into the 1986 season and replaced him with Marv Levy. The team would turn it around under Levy’s leadership as he handed the offense over to Jim Kelly and focused the defense around Smith. The move would allow the Bills to become the dominant team in the AFC and much of it was due to Smith, who took the promotion seriously, got himself into remarkable condition, and became the most artistic pass rusher the game had ever seen.

Smith had an array of moves and lightning speed. What made him artistic was his ability to combine the two and just obliterate opposing tackles. “I knew there were some tackles out there who could contend with speed and some who knew how to counter moves, but if I could combine the two that would make things awfully tough,” Smith explained. “There was a lot of hard work involved but it was all worth it because my teammates believed in me and so did my coaches.”

The Bills would eventually make it to the Super Bowl four straight times in the early 1990s and infamously lose all four of them. They had their best team and their best chance in Super Bowl XXV when they faced the New York Giants in Tampa, Florida. The Bills were a high-scoring juggernaut that season and were coming off an AFC Championship Game in which they had obliterated the Los Angeles Raiders, 51–3. Smith was involved in one of the key plays in the Super Bowl when he came around the corner and sacked Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler in the end zone for a second-quarter safety. The remarkable aspect to the play was that Hostetler held on to the ball as Smith delivered a karate chop with his right arm just as the Giants quarterback was bringing the ball into a passing position. Hostetler could easily have dropped the ball and Smith or one of his teammates could have fallen on it for a touchdown instead of a safety.

“That’s football but it still was a shock to me that Hostetler did not lose that ball,” Levy said. “Bruce came with such speed and so much pressure and force that it really was a remarkable play on his part not to fumble the ball and not to give us a touchdown. I know Bruce was shocked and my guess is that Hostetler was a little bit shocked that he held on to the ball.”

The 1990 season was probably the best of Smith’s career. He had a career-best 19 sacks and from that point on through the next seven seasons, Smith would be double-teamed on almost every play. His speed, strength and skill made that move almost moot. “I welcomed the double-team,” said Smith. “They don’t double-team guys who can’t play. It was a sign of respect and it just made me play that much harder. I was determined to beat that double-team before that second guy came in, because I knew it was coming. It was just a matter of the lineman turning his head for that split second, and I was gone. Usually, the second guy was reaching for me, because I’d beaten the first guy so quick[ly].”

Smith, for his part, believes that he was the best defensive end to ever play the game. He knows that White has a lot of supporters as does Deacon Jones, but he refuses to take any kind of backseat. “I’m not saying that I’m the best defensive end pass rusher to play the game just because I’m the NFL all-time sack leader,” he said, “but because of the degree of difficulty I had to overcome to achieve that feat.”

Smith said that playing in a 3–4 defense throughout the majority of his career and having so much responsibility against the run made his job tougher than any other defensive lineman’s. Smith’s determination made blocking him against the run an exhaustive process. Normally, offensive tackles block speedy defensive ends to the outside and the running backs cut inside the defensive end to make their yardage. But Smith’s quickness allowed him to catch and bring down the running back unless the tackle was able to sustain that block throughout the play.

“I don’t remember that happening too many times,” Smith said. “I could spin off the block and I could throw the tackle aside,” Smith explained. “To block me for more than the initial surge was almost impossible.”

Smith was always straight-forward and blunt in the Bills’ locker room. “There was not much modesty to his game,” Levy said. “He would tell you he was the best. But what made him special is that it wasn’t just bluster. He would go out and prove it nearly every week. He was a very special player and I believe he was the best defensive end in the history of the game.”

Smith’s 200 sacks, 43 forced fumbles, 15 fumble recoveries, and 1,078 tackles make a strong case in his favor.