Tuesday morning, wearing a Broncos uniform, Smith found himself getting ready to play the Green' Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.
"I took the long road here," the 10-year NFL veteran said.
Smith signed a one-year deal with Denver to prove he wasn't finished. He was guaranteed $1.5 million by the Broncos. "I put my career on the table," the defensive end said. "And I' rolled the dice."
At age 31, Smith was willing to bet $1 million on himself to make incentive clauses in the Denver contract. He cashed them all.
"But this wasn't a money issue," insisted Smith, who made the Pro Bowl for a sixth time in '97, despite playing I much of the season with one arm, the the result of a painful triceps injury. "I always had a dream that I would , one day play in the Super Bowl. I never gave up on that."
Money can't buy the only thing his NFL career has ever left Smith wanting a championship ring.
"We came up against a good team. They may go or, and win the Super Bowl." - Jaguars Pro Bowl wide Weiver Jimmy Smith on Saturday, Dec. 27, 1997, aftet, Denver defeated Jacksonville 42-17 in an AFC wild-card game.
"The 1997 season's first snapshot came along with a message. It came Monday, April 14, the day defensive end Neil Smith signed a one-year, $1.5-million deal with Denver. As Smith stood inside the media room at the Broncos training complex wearing a loud seven-button Bordeaux brick-red suit, he proclaimed he did not come to this city for its microbrews. He came to taste a title.
"I m happy because I'm coming to play for a group of guys that I know have the same mentality that and that's to go out and to win the champion Smith announced. "We're not talking about the AFC West championship. We're not talking about the Conference championship. I'm talking about the overall championship, and that's the Super Bowl. Anything less than that, I think is a failure."
"What Smith did not know was Denver's football history. From the moment the Broncos won the first AFL game, beating the Patriots 13-10 in Boston on Sept. 9, 1960 ... to the time they wore those funny-looking' vertically striped socks ... to the season the Orange Crush captured the spirit of Denver and the team's first Super Bowl berth in the 1977 season ... to the other three Super Bowls former Broncos head coach Dan Reeves led Denver to in the 1986, '87 and '89 seasons ... the only way each of the Broncos' 37 seasons, had ended was in failure.
But this Broncos team was the greatest bunch of finishers this city has ever known. This Broncos team provided Denver with the soothing salve it needed to wipe away the seemingly permanent sting from 37 previous seasons of failure and four other not-so-Super Sundays. This Broncos team stormed the throne room, grabbed the trophy, handed this city the kind of memory sports are supposed to provide.
GREELEY - Neil Smith got the cold shoulder from the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago and left for Denver. When he returned this off-season, he got the cold shoulder again. This time, however, they just didn't want to see his face. They particularly didn't want to see his finger with the Super Bowl ring on it.
At least they're consistent. After nine years as a Chief, the Broncos defensive end has come to expect that from his old team.
"Some congratulated me, but others really didn't have anything to say," Smith said Monday, the day before the Broncos break camp. "James Hasty came up and flat out said, `I didn't want you all to win.' And I respect that. When I was on the other side I felt the exact same way. I respect a guy who's truthful.
"What hurt me more than anything were the guys who I thought were friends and it took them so long to come around and say, 'OK, congratulations to you but not to the Broncos.'"
And the coaching staff and front office?
"Nope," Smith said. "But you know what? That didn't surprise me. I guess I'm just a different guy. They make themselves look bad. If you can't face what you messed up, then you're less than a man to me. That's how I feel to whomever's in control. You can start from the head coach to the general manager. I don't think the owner has anything to do with it because he's not hands on. Mr. (Pat) Bowlen is."
Bowlen is a regular at training camp while Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt is a regular only on Sunday. Compared with an Al Davis, who practically calls plays in Oakland's huddle, Hunt's modus operandi is refreshing. The problem is, Smith says, he's never around. Smith credits Bowlen for much of the Broncos' success.
"Most definitely," he said. "In my nine years, I only saw Mr. and Mrs. Hunt when I was with Kansas City, truthfully, on game days. I can't recall them coming out to a practice. What's so good about the situation I came in is Mr Bowlen has a lot of hands on.
The big part of the success of this team is that he's here. Every day. When you least', expect it, there's the guy on the sideline with ! shades. There you go. He's there. That's cool."
After earning his sixth Pro Bowl berth, Smith toyed with free agency at season's end but pending triceps surgery scared away teams. He re-upped with Denver for four years and $13.6 million, figuring at 32 he can still improve with the Broncos employing two line coaches and that he has a better shot at returning to the Super Bowl than. with the Chiefs.
After all, the Chiefs are still the Chiefs, a team with the growing stigma of not winning, the big one.
"Well, it's true," Smith said. "It's reality. I think (Chiefs coach) Marty (Schottenheimer) has a ghost that's haunting him. He's got some kind of spell. We had some great ball-clubs. We could compete with anybody. And we could win against anybody. He wants to win. He just has to have a way to take a team to another level. It's so important in preparation how to do it. I won't go word for word how Mike (Shanahan) did it last year, but I was so proud to be a part of it."
Shanahan is not a screamer, Smith says. When something goes wrong, he talks to players like adults. As for Schottenheimer, who has reached the playoffs 11 of the last 13 years but has yet to coach in a Super Bowl, is he a screamer?
"To a certain extent," said Smith before adding with a smile, "He cries more than he screams."
SAN DIEGO - On the worst day of his football life, Neil Smith hopped in a car and drove until his tears dried.
"You want to know if I cried?' Smith said. "Yeah, there's no doubt... There were tears that were shed I'm not afraid to say I did."
A year ago, Kansas City coldly informed a five-time Pro Bowl defensive end he wasn't good enough to help a team win a championship anymore.
"It hurt me tremendously," Smith recalled. "If you have feelings, you can be hurt. I think every man can cry. A man who say he don't cry, there's something wrong."
On that harsh winter day when he was cut loose by the Chiefs, Smith climbed behind the wheel of his Chevrolet and drove north for almost three hours, through the Missouri countryside, all the way to Lincoln, Neb., where he had played football in college years earlier.
Then, he turned that Chevy around, plotted a new direction for his career. and took off for Denver.