McGuinn Files: Bruce Smith (subscription required)

[Coach Tuesday]

Longtime Green Bay sports writer and draft enthusiast Bob McGuinn has been writing articles for the Athletic deep-diving into the draft history of certain players.  I’ve been reading each one of them and they’re fascinating.  This week’s is about Bruce, highly recommend it.  Still the best athlete I’ve ever rooted for.  I don’t know that the Bills will ever have someone so dominant again.  He stands alone.

 

https://theathletic.com/2230162/2020/12/04/bruce-smith-bills-hall-of-fame/?source=user_shared_article

 

“It came down basically to Ray Childress or Bruce Smith,” Polian said. “I remember the discussion very clearly. The question was, what would (Smith) become versus what would Childress become? There was no such word as ceiling in those days. But to apply today’s verbiage to it, Norm’s position was, Childress has a ceiling. He’s not nearly as talented as Bruce, particularly as a rusher.

 

“There was no question that Bruce was the talent that, particularly, Norm had seen. Norm said Bruce would grow up and mature, that he had a much better chance to be a game-changer over time than Ray does. Childress had such a high motor and was in such great shape. Norm’s position was, his talent is so overwhelming, we can work with the other part of it. Rare talent is what you should take. Norm’s wisdom, if you will, in recognizing that this overwhelming talent existed in Bruce’s body correctly carried the day even though Ray had a great career.”

 

ALSO:

 

“It got so he would come back in April and come into my office and say, ‘Do my fat,’” said Jones, who spent 20 years in Buffalo, eight years in Chicago and now is in his third season with Indianapolis. “I’d say to him, ‘Bruce, how ‘bout a hi? Or a how are ya?’ It was always, ‘Do my fat.’ If he wasn’t an 8 on the caliper, he’d be upset. At 265, if you can get a guy in at 13 percent or 14 percent, you’re happy. There’s Bruce hanging out at 8 percent or 9 percent. We see that more and more today than we ever saw before because of nutrition, education, performance coaches. But Bruce Smith was ahead of his time.”

Edited December 6, 2020 by Coach Tuesday

[Buftex]

Bruce was a pleasure to watch.  It always wish he had spent his entire career in Buffalo.  I understand the reasoning...but it was really depressing, to me, when they let him go.  Thurman and Andre were undoubtedly done when they were released..but Bruce was still playing good football. Great player.

[QCity]

That, is a very good article.

 

“Keep in mind, Reggie and I were the best of friends,” Smith said. “I loved Reggie to death. We were two completely different styles of players. Reggie was built for power. He’s like a Mack truck. I guess I was the sports car. We didn’t talk about this very often, but we did have one or two conversations about it. Reggie said, ‘Bruce, if you ever played in a 4-3 defense, you would have never been touched.’

 

And I agree with that.

[Saxum]

1 hour ago, Coach Tuesday said:

“It got so he would come back in April and come into my office and say, ‘Do my fat,’” said Jones, who spent 20 years in Buffalo, eight years in Chicago and now is in his third season with Indianapolis. “I’d say to him, ‘Bruce, how ‘bout a hi? Or a how are ya?’ It was always, ‘Do my fat.’ If he wasn’t an 8 on the caliper, he’d be upset. At 265, if you can get a guy in at 13 percent or 14 percent, you’re happy. There’s Bruce hanging out at 8 percent or 9 percent. We see that more and more today than we ever saw before because of nutrition, education, performance coaches. But Bruce Smith was ahead of his time.”

 

Love Rusty Jones stories.  No one knew how valuable he was until he was promoted so coach could fill position with a fiend, got tired of new role and then went to Chicago because Ruben recruited him and their All Pro LB became healthy every year and he said Rusty extended his career.

[machine gun kelly]

3 hours ago, QCity said:

That, is a very good article.

 

“Keep in mind, Reggie and I were the best of friends,” Smith said. “I loved Reggie to death. We were two completely different styles of players. Reggie was built for power. He’s like a Mack truck. I guess I was the sports car. We didn’t talk about this very often, but we did have one or two conversations about it. Reggie said, ‘Bruce, if you ever played in a 4-3 defense, you would have never been touched.’

 

And I agree with that.

it is just amazing to me a 3-4 DE in really a true 3-4 unlike today when almost all teams are somewhat of a hybrid.  He had 200 sacks in 19 years, the all time sack leader and as Reggie said to him, if he played in a 4-3 what would the numbers look like then.  Reggie may have been 198, but Greene was 40 down to 160.  Below that it gets bunched up so he far outplayed along Reggie any DE we’ll probably ever see again in our lifetimes.  LT maybe one of the best overall defensive football players of all time, but on the sack metric, he’s at 132.  Think of that.

[scuba guy]

The good old days

As other posters have said in

Never lead the league in sacks was great at setting the edge and made rag dolls out of opposing Qbs

 

1 thing to remember the fins had Webb at there left tackle to guard Marino and Bruce,did not ever get that many sacks against Richmond Webb so for 17 years we played the fins 34 times plus playoffs

 

Bruce could of had more sacks if it weren't for that also

 

 

Edited December 6, 2020 by scuba guy

[Freddie's Dead]

5 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

Love Rusty Jones stories.  No one knew how valuable he was until he was promoted so coach could fill position with a fiend, got tired of new role and then went to Chicago because Ruben recruited him and their All Pro LB became healthy every year and he said Rusty extended his career.

 

Of the many stupidities of Mike Mularkey, getting rid of Rusty Jones was the stupidest.  He was light years ahead of any S&C coach in the NFL, and Mularkey fired him for JT Allaire.  Ugh.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Freddie's Dead

[Saxum]

4 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

 

Of the many stupidities of Mike Mularkey, getting rid of Rusty Jones was the stupidest.  He was light years ahead of any S&C coach in the NFL, and Mularkey fired him for JT Allaire.  Ugh.

 

Technically they promoted him and after trying new role.

 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2007-02-04-0702030148-story.html

Quote

Jones is the Bears' strength and conditioning coordinator. His former assistant with the Buffalo Bills, Jon Torine, has the same job with the Colts.

Both teams are lean, fast, healthy and in the Super Bowl. By today, after millions around the world have watched, the teams might change the prototype image of football players.

Jones came to Lovie Smith's staff two years ago after 20 years in Buffalo, where Bears guard Ruben Brown met him as a rookie.

 

"Rusty said, 'All right, you're a strong kid, you're fast, you're in the NFL. But let's keep you here,'" Brown said. "He taught me about nutrition and food. I can honestly say at one point I weighed 335-340. Working with him I got all the way back down to 290-295 and it wasn't by doing anything but changing my diet and 12 years later, I'm still in the NFL."

And he's still a Pro Bowl player.

Proper nutrition combined with stretching, weightlifting and recovery time transformed the Bears from a team plagued by injury into a team with few starters lost to injury during Jones' two years. Bears defensive stars Tommie Harris and Mike Brown are huge losses this season, but neither injury can be traced to inadequate conditioning.

Nutrition advice has made such an impact on players that Brian Urlacher says, "If Rusty tells me to eat dirt, I'll eat dirt."

 

 

And back to original subject Bruce:

Quote

Former Bills coach Marv Levy recalled that Jones was "way ahead" on nutrition when he helped turn defensive end Bruce Smith from a 315-pound prospect with "no idea of a proper diet" into a 265-pound all-time great pass rusher.

 

"The funny joke with me is I don't say 'Hi,' I say, 'Get your carbs,'" Jones said.

 

[Freddie's Dead]

3 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Technically they promoted him and after trying new role.

 

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2007-02-04-0702030148-story.html

 

 

Don't get in between me and my Mularkey hate.  I don't need to be confused with facts.

[BillsVet]

3 hours ago, scuba guy said:

The good old days

As other posters have said in

Never lead the league in sacks was great at setting the edge and made rag dolls out of opposing Qbs

 

1 thing to remember the fins had Webb at there left tackle to guard Marino and Bruce,did not ever get that many sacks against Richmond Webb so for 17 years we played the fins 34 times plus playoffs

 

Bruce could of had more sacks if it weren't for that also

 

Posts such as the OP's are what TBD was all about years ago.  People basically talking football...be it the players or the games.  

 

I wish there were fewer "what if" or LAMP type threads where people are trying to get clicks . 

 

Nice post and find CT.  👍

[QCity]

The article also touches on the incredible longevity of his career. Another thing to consider is they did not have the modern turf they use today in the NFL. The gridiron in Rich Stadium was basically a parking lot with a green outdoor patio carpet on it.

 

Another quote - 

 

As a member of the NFL Competition Committee circa 1990, Polian recalled the group considering a suggestion from someone in the league to outlaw blocking below the waist. It went nowhere, but not before Polian had a memorable exchange with Dolphins coach Don Shula.

 

“Coach Shula said, ‘That’s ridiculous. How are you going to block Bruce Smith if you can’t block below the waist?’” Polian said. “I jokingly said, ‘I’m for it.’ Coach Shula laughed and said, ‘Sure, you would be. If we had that rule, nobody would ever block him.’”

[BADOLBILZ]

 

Bill Polian gets credit for a lot of things that Norm Pollom did or made possible.

 

Pollom helped build a Rams team that would win 7 straight division titles in the 1970's.   

 

In some ways the hiring of Chuck Knox eventually had an effect like the Browns/Ravens franchise hiring of Bill Belichick did........Knox got fired but the people he brought with him from LA ended up drafting key, HOF foundation pieces of that 90's team.