Ravens’ Steve Smith Sr. nears a receiving milestone for the ages

Steve Smith Sr. doesn’t have the luxury of riding off into the sunset as Baltimore Ravens receiver. He can either do the job, or he can’t.

“Being a wide receiver up in age, you can’t be a backup,” Smith, 37, said by phone from Dallas on Saturday. “A lot of quarterbacks who are up there in age, they come in and play a little bit here or there. They can’t play, and you don’t want them to play. As a wide receiver, they’d rather give your position to a young guy they can develop.

“I have to be an intricate part of the offense. I have to be a chain mover.”

There’s no question Smith can do that. He’s the NFL’s oldest player at his position, and he’s three catches away from 1,000 for his career, something only 14 receivers in league history have done. His Ravens have won two in a row heading into Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, who have won eight straight.

“It’s a testament to him that he’s been as feisty and tough has he has been,” said Hall of Fame receiver James Lofton, who also played until he was 37. “I watch him play, and I don’t see a big difference between what he’s doing now, and what he was able to do five years ago.”

Smith has 36 catches this season for 417 yards, six of those receptions going for 20 yards or longer.

“I don’t run like I used to, but realistically I’ve never really caught a lot of go-routes in my career anyway,” he said. “I’ve never really been a guy who’s had double digits consistently in touchdowns. I’ve been more of a guy who can really move the chains, who can be a possession receiver, but can also take a 10-yard route and make it into a 35-yard gain.”

In essence, Smith has done the same with his career. He’s a 5-foot-9, undersized overachiever. He likes to say he took the “scenic route” from University High in Los Angeles to the NFL, with stops at Santa Monica City College — where fellow receiver Chad Johnson got more attention than he did — to the University of Utah, where he overcame a broken neck suffered on a kickoff return and spent an entire off-season in a halo brace. He was a third-round pick of Carolina in the 2001 draft.

Smith is in his 16^th NFL season, with five Pro Bowls and three All-Pro designations. Now, he stands at the brink of another milestone, with a resume that puts him squarely in the Hall of Fame discussion.

“I’m enjoying the moment and knowing this is not what I expected, and nobody expected this,” he said.

There’s a significant age gap between Smith and most of his teammates, and neither side lets the other forget it.

“I’m playing with guys who are leaving college, and I just dropped off my kid at college,” he said. “I joked with a few of them, ‘Between you and my son, neither one of you morons can rent a car. You’re not old enough.’ They just look at me and get all offended. Because they come at me with these old jokes.”

Lofton knows the feeling. When he played in his first Pro Bowl, his quarterback was Archie Manning. And at the end of his career, Lofton had teammates who would play against Archie’s son, Peyton.

“You have these benchmarks when you’re playing,” Lofton said. “The first one is when you get to 30, and everybody says, `Oh, he’s 30 now.’ And the next one is when you’ve played 10 years in the league. Then it’s, `Oh, he’s got double digits.’ Then all of a sudden you’re playing in your 15^th year and you have rookies come up to you and say, ‘I hadn’t started school when you were a rookie.’

“I remember one time at practice, [Buffalo Bills running back] Thurman Thomas came over and pinched me. He said, ‘I just wanted to see if you were real.’”

Smith has had his share of pinch-me moments this season, including having his 11-year-old son, Boston, work as a ballboy during warmups for a home game against Pittsburgh two weeks ago. That rekindled memories of his own childhood.

“My dad delivered parts for an electrical company,” Smith said. “Once or twice every summer I got to be with him in his truck when he was making deliveries. I looked forward to that, going into the mountains of Beverly Hills and Pacific Palisades, and my dad using a map to find the addresses. Teaching me, ‘This is north, this is south.’ And my son had an opportunity to come on a work day for me. It was really special for me.”

Stuff like that never gets old.