Billy Ray Smith: Superior Sequel?

Billy Ray Smith is at this trendy restaurant, doing autographs. A woman walks up, asks him to sign one for “Lisa.”

“These days there’s a lot of different spellings for the name Lisa, right?” recalled Smith. “So I ask her, ‘How is that spelled?’

“ ‘It’s spelled some funny way,’ she tells me.

“But then the next woman in line walks up and says, “ ‘Sign this to Tim, spelled T-I-M.’ ”

If there’s one thing Billy Ray Smith hates, it’s people who think football players’ neck sizes are in inverse proportion to their brain sizes. Smith has a neck the approximate size of your waist. He also has a college degree in finance, and a future as a stockbroker or public speaker . . . or even a dry comedian.

Smith looks down at this woman. He gives her one of his Billy-Ray-from-Arkansas smiles, in which it takes four hands to count the teeth.

“T-I-M, hmmm?” he drawls. “Is that a capital T or a small T?”

Five seasons old and all grown up. Charger Billy Ray Smith has gone from uneasy inside linebacker, country boy and son of former NFL star to devastating outside linebacker, city-wise millionaire, and a man for whom the word “Junior” no longer applies.

“I think that he has finally made everybody forget about me,” said Billy Ray Smith Sr., a former 14-year Baltimore star defensive end who is now a Dallas stockbroker. “That’s always been the point, hasn’t it?”

The point is, the Chargers’ defense. Ranked 10th in the AFC last season, this year it is ranked sixth. Ranked 11th against the pass last year, now it is ranked fourth.

Otherwise unoccupied historians have figured that the Chargers’ turnaround from 1-8 to 8-1 is statistically the most remarkable in NFL history. The biggest on-field reason for this has been the defense.

And this defense belongs to Billy Ray Smith.

He strokes it, slugs it, runs it. He grabs it by the front of its shirt to keep it moving. He clutches it under the arms to keep it from falling.

A couple of times a game, when the welts start to show, when psyches have been beaten to the edge, when nobody wants anything to do with this Charger defense, Billy Ray Smith signs for it.

Cited defensive end Joe Phillips: “Raiders, second quarter. There’s a mix-up, and in the huddle, a couple of guys start cussing each other out. Billy Ray jumps in and stares at them and says, ‘Hey, shut the hell up, here’s how we’re going to do it.’

“There is silence. And everybody listens.”

Said defensive back Gill Byrd: “Raiders, third quarter. We’re tired and don’t remember all that stuff the coach has been telling us all week. The Raiders do something different, lining up Marcus Allen behind Todd Christensen. A sure sign of a hook pass play. But nobody remembers that.

“All of a sudden, Billy Ray is shouting, ‘Change in formation, change in formation, be alert, be alert.’ We go, oh yeah . He was right. They ran the hook pattern.”

Said defensive end Lee Williams: “I’m not just trying to say something positive, but Billy Ray is having an All-Pro year. I play next to him. I should know.”

The 6-foot 3-inch, 233-pound Smith, who always smiles, hears this and does not smile. He will hear none of it. He will believe even less. A Pro Bowl player, him ? A team leader, him ?

Not so fast. Until now, his five-year career has been one of mistaken identity.

“People who say that the defense has taken on my personality . . . does that mean I’m schizophrenic?” he asked.

- He came to the Chargers out of the University of Arkansas in 1983 as a first-round pick, the fifth selection overall, the top defensive player in the draft. He was a defensive end/outside linebacker.

He was promptly moved to inside linebacker. Better you turn a pitcher into a catcher.

“I never really felt suited for it,’ he said. “Inside linebackers like to play smash-mouth. They lose brain cells faster than any other profession in the United States.”

- Last season, he was moved to outside linebacker and asked to begin calling the defensive plays and acting like a team leader.

He loved the position, and came into his own with a team-high 110 tackles. Only he couldn’t figure out whom to lead.

“Every week, there were 10 new guys in the huddle,” he said. “My father used to say, don’t even learn a guy’s name for two years. But some of these guys weren’t around two games.”

- This fall, he missed more than three weeks of camp because of a contract dispute. Newspapers referred to him by the accepted term of ‘holdout.’

However, he says he wasn’t “holding out” for anything. He said it was just a complicated contract and he couldn’t get it worked out in time to begin camp.

Sure enough, when the figures came out, the five-year deal was complicated enough that it will pay him until the year 2025. It is worth about $600,000 a year for each of the five years.

“It was the last contract I would sign, so it would take time to structure, and negotiations didn’t start until late,” he said. “I wasn’t really holding out. I was just waiting for them to finish it.

“Anyway, I can’t worry about what anybody writes or says about me. The only way a sportswriter can hurt me is to run on the field and tackle me. Even then, it better be from my blind side. If I see him coming, chances are I’ll get one shot at his knees.”

- The last time Smith was in Dallas, he was confused for another linebacker from that part of the country.

“A bartender asked me, ‘Are you Brian Bosworth?’ ” Smith recalled. “I said, ‘Yes I am, can I start a tab?’ ”

Things are better now. A couple of months after his 26th birthday, Billy Ray Smith has found definition.

“It has gotten so, you can just look in Billy Ray’s eyes and tell he will get the job done,” Saunders said. “He’s taken on this aura, this air about him.”

- Complemented by the All-Pro linebacker Chip Banks on the right side, Smith has found the freedom to lead the team with 43 tackles and 3 pass interceptions. He even has three sacks, though he is no longer blocked by running backs but by bigger offensive lineman. Running backs and their coaches have wised up.

“I’ve seen him run right over Marcus Allen, and then on the next play, run right around him,” said linebacker Mike Humiston. “Running backs can’t handle him.”

- He has actually found somebody to lead.

“Even in the beginning of this season, we get a big play, it was a couple of pats on the back and then back to the huddle and worry about the next play,” said Smith. “But now, with every big play, there are four or five guys slamming others guys on the head, bouncing around.

“We are familiar with each other now. It’s easy to lead when you know people.”

- For both his ability and intelligence, he has found unrequited respect.

“It is the inside linebacker’s job to make the calls at the line of scrimmage,” Humiston explained. “But every time I have played there, Billy Ray has made the calls before I got to them. Before I open my mouth, he is shouting ‘slide draw’ or ’28 toss’ and things about what the other team will do.

“He is right so much, I am in awe.”

Said defensive end Les Miller: “I respect his ability. I’ll see him jump over a pile, just give his body up, and make the tackle on the other side of the pile.”

Said nose tackle Chuck Ehin: “The other 10 guys just make up the huddle. Billy Ray runs the huddle.”

Smith takes all of this in the same kind of smooth stride with which he runs the Marcus Allens over.

“I am just doing what my role dictates,” he said. “I’ve got to be on top of things. I’ve got to know when somebody needs a pat on the helmet or a kick in the butt. I’m just doing my job.”

Charger Notes Quarterback Dan Fouts is not the only Charger who is hurting. Seven other Chargers are on this week’s injury list, the most this season. The Chargers are so banged up that on Wednesday, usually their first day of contact workouts, they practiced without pads. The worst injury appears to be Jim Lachey’s sprained knee. The left tackle is listed as questionable and probably would be replaced by Curtis Rouse.