OPINION

By Dennis Dillon

updated 7:22 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2009

He may the second most renowned Bruce in Tampa this weekend -- Bruce Springsteen, who will perform at halftime of Super Bowl 43, has a legion of proselytes stretching from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon -- but Bruce Smith also could take center stage.

Springsteen is The Boss. You can call Smith the King of Sacks, the Sack Meister Extraordinaire or any other sobriquet that befits the NFL's all-time leader in planting quarterbacks.

Just don't circumscribe his 200 sacks and call it a career. There was much more to a body of work that surpasses the standards for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Smith, who played 19 seasons for the Bills (1985-99) and Redskins (2000-03), was one of six players elected to the Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon.

As dominating a pass rusher as he was, Smith also was a consistent run stopper who had more than 100 total tackles in four different seasons. He made 91 solo tackles in 1996, 87 in '93 and 82 in '90. Those are impressive numbers for any end, but especially for one who played most of his career in a 3-4.

"I didn't really understand what the complete package was until after my second year (1986)," Smith said by cell phone while he was driving to a golf course in Tampa earlier this week. "There were talks, rumors floating around that, 'Yeah, he's a great pass rusher, but he doesn't play equally as well against the run.' That's when a gentleman came into my life and taught me how to study film and study formations."

Ted Cottrell, then Buffalo's defensive line coach, showed Smith what to look for. If an offensive lineman had his weight on his heels, the play most likely was a pass. If his weight was more on his hands, it was likely a run.

Soon, Smith had developed into a complete end who made plays all over the field. Former Bills coach Marv Levy recalled a moment during the 1993 AFC championship game against Kansas City, when Chiefs quarterback Joe Montana was near the end of his career.

"Bruce chased him out of the pocket and made a tackle along our sideline," said Levy. "Poor Joe went rolling over and came up on his feet about 6 inches from me. He looked at me and said, 'I'm getting too old for this s---.' "

Hall of Fame offensive tackle Anthony Munoz played against Smith several times and rates him among the top three ends -- "if not one or two" -- he faced during his career.

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"Sometimes you played against a defensive end and knew his strength was pass rushing. Or maybe he was a much better run stopper than pass rusher," Munoz said. "With Bruce, it was every aspect of the game -- pass rushing, run defense and intelligence. He had the whole package."

Football is only part of the Bruce Smith story. It's also about "the hard work that my mother and father put into raising me, the community and the village that raised me, and the individuals who saw more in me than I saw in myself at such a young age," Smith said. "They saw the potential that I had, and they cultivated me, they motivated me, they inspired me. That's really what it's all about."

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Growing up in Norfolk, Va., Bruce and his two siblings, George and Linda, had the foundation every child needs: their parents. George W. Smith worked as a shipping clerk and cab driver after he was honorably discharged from the military because of an injury. Annie Smith worked in a factory and, later, drove a bus.

"They worked for minimum wage, doing something they didn't really like," Smith said. "But they did what they had to do to put food on the table, a roof over our heads and clothes on our back.

"My father always told me, 'No matter what you decide to be in life -- if you're going to be a construction worker or a doctor or a lawyer -- you make sure you're the best.' So when I had an opportunity to do something I had a passion for and I loved, that's when special things happen. "To be in the position I'm in today is a real blessing."

Today, Smith should be standing tall and proud -- as a new member of the Hall of Fame.

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