The sounds made in July are much different than the ones made in August. In mid-July, as he talked about the regular-season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, his former employer of ' nine years, Pro Bowl defensive end Neil Smith said: "They told me that they felt like I was on the decline. With all those things, it's always going to stick with people. If I need any motivation, I just go back I to whatever they told me, dig it up, and I don't think that come (Aug. 31) I will be lacking any motivation for that game."
Late Saturday night, moments after the Broncos had wrapped up a 3-2 preseason and started looking ahead to the regular season, Smith was asked again about the meaning of Sunday's matchup against his ' former employer of nine years.
"It's no big issue to me," Smith said as he slipped on a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses. "It's just another ballgame for me I'm just going to approach it like that."
The truth? The truth is a lot closer to what what Smith said in July in Greeley, sitting outside the Broncos' dining hall, when the matchup with the Chiefs was still five meaningless preseason games and six long weeks away. Now, the moment Smith, Denver and Kansas City all have been awaiting since last April, when the Broncos landed one of the top free agents available, is six days away. As the NFL gets ready to kick off its first weekend of matchups, no matchup -not Dallas' Emmitt Smith vs. Pittsburgh's Greg Lloyd, not Green Bay's Brett Favre vs. Chicago's Bryan Cox -- is more appealing than Smith vs. Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer and the team that deemed him expendable.
"If there's anybody hat I have to prove something to, that's Neil," Smith said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to be good. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be great. In order to be great, you've got to talk to yourself. You've got to look yourself in the mirror and say, 'Hey, they're talking about you, Neil. Whatcha gonna do?"
"And I can only do two things. I can pick up my bag and walk aid say, `Well, I don't care what they say, it don't matter to me, I'm still Neil Smith.' Or I can come out fighting. That's why I'm here. I'm going to come out fighting, no doubt."
There's plenty of incentive, aside from the incentives in his one-year, $1.5 million contract. Smith still resents the Chiefs elected to re-sign Derrick Thomas rather than him. He resents the Chiefs' accusations that Smith's Pro Bowl seasons are in his rear-view mirror.
And no matter how tame he might sound today, Smith still wants to beat Schottettheimer and the Chiefs almost as badly as John Elway wants to beat Atlanta coach Dan Reeves and the Falcons Sept. 28. Even if his comments in August are more controlled and guarded than they were on a" innocent July day.
"It's very, very upsetting," Smith said Saturday night, moments before he exited the Broncos' locker I room at Mile High Stadium. "I felt rejected. But in spite of it all, I've got to continue on with my career. They say I'm washed up and I'm not the same. That's what they think.
"They made a decision and they have to live will that. But I'm sure in the back of their minds, they known I'm not washed up. They look at film. They see I've been a little nicked up in places, but I'll tell you what. I feel great now."
Now, Smith's post-sack home-run swing belongs to Denver. The catchy, red-and-yellow Breathe Right nose strips he used to wear have been traded in, like, the Broncos' orange uniforms, for a new model. Now Smith wears equally catchy blue-and-orange Breath Rights. And now Smith teams with Alfred Williams and Michael Dean Perry instead of Thomas, his long time friend and co-sacker. I Smith still refers to Thomas as his "little buddy.' Smith used to abuse quarterbacks from the left side Thomas from the right. They made five trips together to Honolulu, site of the NFL's Pro Bowl.
"For eight seasons, we came out of the locker room together, we warmed up together, we did everything together," Thomas said last spring, shortly after Smith defected to Denver. "So him not being here, it's a transition for him but me, too. It's a transition for everybody."
Yet it was Thomas who inadvertently cost Smith his job in Kansas City. Needing to bolster a punchless offense, the Chiefs decided they could afford to re-sign only one of their two superstars. After studying game film of last season's performances, when Thomas was credited with 13 sacks and Smith only six, the Chiefs made their decision. They rewarded Thomas with a seven-year, $27 million deal.
"I'll put it like this," said Smith, who rejected a multiyear deal from the Chiefs that averaged $3.6 million per season last November. "The contract that they gave Derrick Thomas, it was no comparison. What they offered me wasn't even his signing bonus, let alone what I was asking to make. I don't feel like I have to play for that ... I don't feel like I should because I've done the same things Derrick ;has done and more.
"When they made the decision, it didn't surprise me because Marty never drafted me. I was there before Marty got there. Derrick Thomas was Marty's No. 1 draft pick. If they wouldn't have signed Derrick Thomas, then there would have been animosity. That makes yourself look bad, and you're not going to make yourself look bad. I'm sure they're getting slack for it and we'll see after this season if there's anybody on the line who can step up and be a Neil Smith for them. It's going to be hard on Thomas."
Now, with kickoff coming up quick, Smith is trying to convince the public, and himself that he is not as obsessed with the Chiefs as many might think. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not. The sounds are different in July than in August.
"I'm going to be very emotional, I'm sure I will," Smith said Saturday. "I know I'm going to be up for it. I have to be because I know exactly what Marty is going to tell them. Marty is going to say, `Hey, we can block him.' He's going to pump them up and challenge them. They're going to try to run my way. I just have to get myself prepared and ready to go."