RB Robert Smith (B1G Freshman of Year, 2x Pro Bowler, All Pro)

[Buckskin86]

Once a star at OSU and the NFL, Robert Smith now content just seeing them
by Bill Livingston
Saturday July 12, 2008

When it comes to science, a small child either looks backward or upward, to the dinosaurs or the stars.

Robert Smith looked up. Today, at the age of 36, he still sees stars, albeit with ever more powerful implements.

"I was a fan of astronomy as a little kid," said Smith, "but I didn't buy my first telescope until my rookie year in the NFL. I was out on a lake at night, fishing, and looking at the sky when it hit me. Shoot, I can afford a telescope now. So I went straight out and bought one."

Smith was one of the amateur astronomers profiled in last year's PBS special "Seeing in the Dark." The show was not about his football career. It was about intellectual curiosity.

The drive to reach the top level consumes most pro athletes and leaves little time for outside interests. Then there is Smith, his eye fixed to a 16-inch, computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, showing the Andromeda galaxy to kids near his south Florida home. No wonder friends call him "Copernicus."

AP file photo

Robert Smith played eight seasons in the NFL with Minnesota, scoring 32 touchdowns.

The rigor of scientific inquiry always appealed to him. In "Seeing in the Dark," he said, "When I think of science, I don't just think about discovering facts or observing. I think about it as more of a philosophy, and questioning everything, and examining everything. It takes diligence, not just accepting what you're being told, but carefully examining all angles of any issue. That's the great thing about science. It doesn't start with the conclusion and then try to fit the facts in. It takes the facts and you work toward a conclusion."
It is a splendid explanation of why a rebel is often just someone with more information.

Smith never fit the mold. In the NFL, he criticized what he saw as the religious zealotry of players like the late Reggie White. At Euclid High School, he was a Steelers fan in Browns country. "Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert," he said, when asked his favorite players.

Because of a difficult home life, he hardly watched college football and thus lacked an appreciation for what can be the voracious, all-consuming monster of Ohio State football.

Smith incurred the wrath of many Ohio State fans when he sat out the 1991 season, charging assistant coach Elliot Uzelac ordered him to miss two classes. To some, he was a symbol of principle, an unassimilated, independent thinker with his academic priorities in order.

Smith, who had intended to be a pre-med major in Columbus, returned for his sophomore year of eligibility, his third academic year, then left for the NFL. Critics invoked a popular television program of the era about a teenaged medical prodigy and called him "Doogie Howser." Such detractors noted that Smith did not get his OSU degree.

Smith said he has one class left to get a degree as a history major and is taking it at the University of Miami.

"I'm interested in theoretical physics and cosmology, things that intrigued me after I read Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time,'" said Smith.

Beth A. Keiser/AP file photo

While injuries limited Smith's effectiveness as a pro, he most regrets a dispute at Ohio State which cost him a year at Columbus.Today, he regrets missing the season in Columbus.

"If I had it to do over, I wouldn't sit it out," he said. "That meant I let a guy run me out of the program. You look like a whistle-blower if you say it outside the system, instead of staying and saying, 'I'm still here.'"

After undergoing four operations on his knee, he quit the NFL in 2000, following his best season when he was the league's second-leading rusher with 1,521 yards. The New York Giants' Jason Sehorn called him "Eddie George with another gear," referring to the Buckeyes' back who won the 1995 Heisman Trophy. Had Smith played another season at OSU, former coach John Cooper always thought he would have won college football's top award too.

Once a star at OSU and the NFL, Robert Smith now content just seeing them - Sports News and Analysis by Bill Livingston | The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com

 

[akronbuck]

did he get his history degree yet.​

I was in pre-med classes with him and we both changed for others and I would knock that down to about 9%​

I would knock that 9% down to 1% .

 

[Buckskin86]

Mr. Unbreakable
Mark Podolski, [email protected]
07/24/2008

Nearly a generation later, no junior has come close to winning Mr. Football

Like nearly everything he did as an athlete in high school, when the subject of the Mr. Football award is brought up, Robert Smith is always in a class by himself.

It's been almost 20 years since Smith, a Euclid graduate, was named Mr. Football in Ohio for a second straight season. The state is still looking for another player to duplicate that feat. According to Columbus Associated Press Sports Editor Rusty Miller, who created the award in 1987 and oversees the voting, it won't be easy.

"Many of (Mr. Football winners) over the years were well-known when they were juniors," said Miller. "Being a big (high school) football star in Ohio is a lot different than being a star in different states. In many ways, they're like a rock star. Still, Robert's the only one who's won it twice. What does that tell you?"

It tells anyone who follows high school football that finding another player worthy enough to get his name on the Mr. Football award twice will be difficult. Mentor's Bart Tanski became the first player from Lake County to win the award last season. The area's other winner is Euclid's Tony Fisher, who took home the honor in 1997.

"To win the award, the numbers have to be eye-popping," said Miller. "Second, the player has to be on really good team, and third, the player has to be on a good team that a lot of people see. Robert met all of those criteria. The trick is to do all that early enough in your career so that you're a legitimate candidate as a junior."

Smith won the award as a junior in 1988 after Zanesville's Buster Howe won the inaugural award in 1987. Smith averaged 8.8 yards per carry en route to 1,564 rushing yards that season. The following year, he repeated as Mr. Football after rushing for 2,042 yards and scoring 31 touchdowns. The highlight of Smith's senior season was a 31-30 playoff loss to St. Ignatius in which he played quarterback for the Panthers.

"Robert gave the award a lot of credence," said Miller.

Indeed he did, but Smith wasn't aware the award existed until he was told by then-Euclid coach Tom Banc he was a finalist toward the end of his junior year. There wasn't much fanfare either when he found he won Mr. Football for the first time.

"I think I was at Burger King when someone told me," Smith said.

Times have changed since. Mr. Football now garners plenty of attention across the state, and Smith is well aware of that fact. A player emerging as the second two-time Mr. Football winner would be huge news in Ohio. Smith wouldn't mind some company.

"I definitely think it's possible," said Smith, the Gatorade National Player of the Year as a high school senior. "I think now the voting swings heavily toward seniors, so that in itself will make it difficult for a junior to win it. But you never know."

As a senior against North, he ran for 295 yards and six touchdowns - in the first half. Against Massillon Jackson that same season, he rushed for 350 yards and four touchdowns. Those types of performances prompted St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle to implement a defensive scheme he monikered, "The Robert Smith Defense," for when the Wildcats and Panthers faced off five times from '87 to '89.

"To be honest, Robert forced us to really change a lot of what we were doing on defense," Kyle said. "We had to try our best to contain Robert. ... You never stopped him. Truly, I would have to sit here for about an hour telling you what the secondary had to do, what the linemen had to do and what the linebackers had to do. It was all based on trying to put a circle of defenders around Robert Smith. I don't remember doing that a whole lot with anybody else."

The News-Herald - Mr. Unbreakable

 

[Buckskin86]

Robert is one of the leading candidates to replace Upshaw...

Q: Who would be the leading candidates to replace Upshaw?

A: Former NFLPA president Trace Armstrong will be among the leading candidates. Former Vikings running back Robert Smith will be a candidate. Berthelsen will be under consideration and so will legal counsel Jeffrey Kessler. Troy Vincent, the former NFLPA president, will be under consideration. It's possible the firm could look at current union president Kevin Mawae. One thing will be clear. Over the next season, the union will proceed cautiously in memory of Upshaw. Anyone challenging Upshaw's legacy will lose support. Though Upshaw had his critics, he clearly has been one of the sport's five most influential figures over the past three decades. He caused labor turmoil that led to great benefits for the union, and he presided over labor peace for close to two decades,

ESPN - Loss of Upshaw will delay labor negotiations - NFL

 

[Buckskin86]

Deadspin
Media Meltdowns
Ex-Vike Robert Smith Goes To The Blog Mattresses Against Mike Florio (Update)
By DAULERIO, 12:00 PM on Thu Feb 12 2009

As blogs become more and more mainstream, comment sections have been invaded by some higher-profile participants. (See: Wilfork, Bianca.) But Ex-Viking Robert Smith has taken his beef with PFT's Mike Florio even further.

Last night, Deadspin received this email from one Robert Smith. No, not the lead singer of The Cure (which would have been awesome), but former Minnesota Viking Robert Smith:

I've been trying to post comments on some of Florio's stories and he is censoring out my posts ( as well as others I'm sure ). I have a problem with the way he has been presenting information in the NFLPA saga with Troy Vincent and it's clear that Mike is in Troy's pocket. It bothers me that someone who claims to have an "open forum" for these discussions is going out of his way to keep what he perceives as negative comments off of his website. Obviously, the blogs are not regulated like the regular media, but it's frustrating and disappointing that someone like Mike, who has so much respect in the industry, is manipulating information. I don't know what can be done about it, but I thought that a site like yours would be a good place to start to expose frauds in your industry.
Thanks,
Robert Smith

Media Meltdowns: Ex-Vike Robert Smith Goes To The Blog Mattresses Against Mike Florio (Update)

 

[Buckskin86]

Minnesota Vikings' first-round knockouts and flops
Pioneer Press
Updated: 04/23/2009
TOM POWERS

Welcome to Draft Weekend! I want to apologize in advance for any typographical errors in this column. But I have an excuse. See if you can guess what it is by choosing one of the following quotes from former first-rounder Troy Williamson:

"I'm disoriented from all those passes hitting me in the helmet."

"Never mind about my eyesight, why is it so dark at noon?"
Anyway, here's a look at some of the best and worst of the Vikings' first-round picks in recent years.

Falsely labeled as a head case: Robert Smith possesses the one trait that scares all professional sports franchises: He is intelligent. That's automatically strike one. In fact, while playing for Ohio State, Smith refused to skip a class in order to attend practice. Yikes! Strike two. And as if that weren't enough, Smith studied astronomy. Cuckoo ... cuckoo ...

The Vikings drafted him with the 21st overall pick in the 1993 draft. Smith not only became the best running back in franchise history but also proved to be a solid, compassionate, civic-minded individual. Although he was a fierce competitor, his feelings of self-worth weren't wrapped up in football.

Smith later went on to write a serious book and become a noted amateur astronomer.

Minnesota Vikings' first-round knockouts and flops - TwinCities.com

 

[akronbuck]

He's on Mike and Mike now and doing a great job. Sounding more Pro Buckeye and backing up Ohio State's tough win by, bringing up Oklahoma's lost in a nice way saying, how many players they lost from last years team. A little joke about the people that come up with the lines for games. :)

Pro Beanie talk.. Brought up, his 8th season was his first playing every game

 

[Buckskin86]

Best of the rest
Robert Smith

As a Buckeye: A two-time Ohio Mr. Football honoree from Euclid, Smith carried out a college career on his own terms. He set a freshman rushing record in 1990 with 1,126 yards, then sat out his sophomore season after a dispute with OSU coaches about what he deemed a lack of commitment toward his academic pursuits. He returned as a junior, again led the team in rushing (819 yards), then opted for the NFL.

As a pro: It should be no surprise that Smith was his own man with the Minnesota Vikings, as well. Injuries contributed to his slow start - he totaled only 1,829 yards after four seasons - and then he took off. Smith topped 1,000 yards each of the next four seasons, even leading the NFC in rushing in 2000 with 1,521 yards. And then he abruptly retired at age 28 as the Vikings' all-time leading rusher.

The skinny: The cerebral Smith hasn't changed much since leaving football. He wrote a book in which he decried the nation's obsession with football and celebrity; he began working for ESPN a few years ago as a football analyst; and he appeared in a PBS documentary about his interest in astronomy. One of a kind, still.

GameDay+

 

[Poe McKnoe]

He wrote a book in which he decried the nation's obsession with football and celebrity; he began working for ESPN a few years ago as a football analyst;

I like Robert Smith and all, but...

C'mon Man

 

[Buckskin86]

Q&A with Robert Smith
The former Vikings running back talks about Daunte Culpepper, Adrian Peterson, the Vikings' next quarterback and who he is rooting for in the NFC Championship Game.
By MICHAEL RAND, Star Tribune
Last update: January 23, 2011

Jan. 23--Former Vikings running back Robert Smith has kept himself busy since retiring about a decade ago, including working with Procter & Gamble in conjunction with a partnership with the NFL. Smith was on his way to see a Vikings fan in Montana as part of a contest related to the "Take it to the House" promotion between the two entities when he caught up with the Star Tribune's Michael Rand on a variety of subjects.

Q Your last year in the league was Daunte Culpepper's first as a starter. What was the dynamic like having a young QB as opposed to a veteran as you had experienced in several previous seasons?

A Daunte just kind of stepped into that role pretty comfortably. He was a very confident guy, which is very important for any quarterback, but especially for a quarterback who is starting out with a lot of talented players. I think that will be key for whoever comes in [to Minnesota] as the quarterback.

Q Do you remember any skepticism on your part or from veteran teammates in going in that direction with Culpepper when you had a championship-caliber team around you?

A (Laughs) I know there were a lot of people skeptical, myself included. We saw Daunte run the two-minute drills the year before. He was very mechanical. And I thought it was a really bad move. I wasn't alone. But he surprised us. He's one of those guys where you don't see what you have until game day arrives.

Cont...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/114401104.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L6bJkYipeM"]YouTube - Top 5 Teams In 2011[/ame]

 

[matt_thatsme]

He was going off about how tacky and tasteless he thought the announcement process had become with the hat game and other shenanigans. I think what really set him off was the DT from Jorja who announced his commitment to Auburn by pulling out a hat that said "Nick Who?" (a shot at Saban) on it. He had already gone off about this in his first segment on ESPNU and started his second segment the same way. Either Randy Shannon or Robert Smith's (who were in studio) mic was accidentally left on and said something to the other like, "Here he goes again, can't he..." and then ESPN cut the mic. Herbie is right on about this and it's not surprising that Shannon or Smith have a hard time recognizing honor and humility.

What is with the shot at Robert Smith? Please elaborate as to why Robert Smith would have a hard time recognizing honor and humility. Not trying to call you out, just curious.

 

[buxfan4life]

What is with the shot at Robert Smith? Please elaborate as to why Robert Smith would have a hard time recognizing honor and humility. Not trying to call you out, just curious.

Because he was a bit of a prima-donna while he played at OSU and took some unecessary shots at the coaching staff because he didn't feel he should have to work as hard as the other players on the team.

I met him while on campus, and that's about all I want to say on BP about Smith.

 

[matt_thatsme]

Got it. I met him in 2008 and he seemed rather friendly.....a bit socially awkward (which was surprising considering his job as an analyst), but friendly nonetheless. I remember the riff between him and the coaching staff regarding how he believed practices were interfering with his academics, but nothing about anything dishonorable. Personally, I always viewed him as a guy who was extremely talented as a football player, but who never really had much of a desire to play football.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Because he was a bit of a prima-donna while he played at OSU and took some unecessary shots at the coaching staff because he didn't feel he should have to work as hard as the other players on the team.

I met him while on campus, and that's about all I want to say on BP about Smith.

You are, of course, entitled to your view on Smith. And... I never recall meeting him on campus (like you, I was there at the time). But.. that said, I don't know that Smith was a prima-donna. He might have handled things differently, but if I recall his main problem was that he wanted to take a harder course load than is typical and his coaches were concerned it would cut into his time for football.

 

[FrancisSoyer]

I did watch the kid's commitment and his explanation of what the hat meant made absolutely no sense in relation to the question that was asked of him. The interviewer specifically asked if the hat was in reference to Saban and Wright went into some non-sensical, ramble about players needing to be replaced w/o mentioning Fairly. The kid apparently cleaned up what he meant after the interview but at the time ESPNU and I'm assuming Herbie took it to be a shot at Saban. Regardless of what the kid meant it was still stupid. What if Michael Bennett showed up to his presser w/ a "Cam Who?" hat? Most of us would think it would be a d-bag move that crossed the line.

I probably shouldn't have questioned Robert Smith's honor but I would question his humility and his sense of principles. Act out b/c you don't have enough time for your studies but leave school early and as far as I know never finish your studies...strikes me as a hypocritical. There are other things that make me feel this way but I'll keep them to myself.

Meh. Cooper didn't really run a tight ship from what I've seen. I'm glad that Smith stood up for what he believed in. Just because he didn't stay and get his degree doesn't mean he didn't have a point. Besides, he retired from the NFL when he was on top of his game to go back to school. It's obviously of some importance to him. BTW, I can find 1-2 highlights of Robert online. Anyone know where there are more?

Edit: I agree with Herbstreit here although these kids are getting every opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera. If ESPN would stop giving them the opportunity then this crap would stop.