SUPER BOWL XXVIII / BUFFALO BILLS vs. DALLAS COWBOYS : A Star Is Born : With a Smelly Shoe and a Dress He Doesn’t Wear, Smith Becomes a Commercial Hit

For nine years, Buffalo Bill defensive end Bruce Smith sought national recognition. Now he has it.

For four years, he has sought victory in the Super Bowl, and, this week, he has another chance at that.

But what good is it, being poised at perhaps the pinnacle of your success, if you can’t share it with your biggest fan?

That’s what Smith keeps asking himself after taking a detour Monday on his way to Atlanta for Super Bowl XXVIII. Smith stopped off in Virginia to visit his father, George, who is suffering from a serious heart condition.

“It’s a very disappointing situation,” Smith said Wednesday. “I talked to my mother last night and things don’t seem to be getting too much better.

“The most important thing on his mind is making sure that we win this game, and I’m going to respect his wishes.

“At the same time, I don’t know if all of this is in order because his health is the main thing right now. But the most important thing is to win this game and he’ll be happy.”

For a long time, the only thing, it seemed, that would make Smith happy was national recognition.

He certainly had the credentials:

--Six Pro Bowl selections.

--Four Super Bowl berths.

--A sack total of 105 1/2, sixth on the all-time list.

--And a path strewn with offensive linemen brave enough to stand in his way, offensive backs courageous enough to block him and quarterbacks foolhardy enough to try to get past him.

But it wasn’t enough. Despite the accolades and accomplishments, Smith felt underappreciated.

Until now.

Bruce Smith has arrived, has become an overnight success after nearly a decade.

And what did it take to push him into the national spotlight?

To the items above, add:

--A smelly shoe.

--And one dress.

Smith has been performing on a television screen all these years as a football player. But it is his appearance in two commercials that seems to have caught everyone’s attention.

In one, actor Dennis Hopper sniffs Smith’s shoe in awe of the bone-rattling man who wears it. The only sign of Smith is on action film clips.

In the other commercial, Smith loses a bet over how many potato chips he can eat, but refuses to put on a dress as specified in the wager.

We’re not exactly talking Robert DeNiro here. Smith doesn’t utter a word in either commercial.

He simply does what he does best: look ferocious.

And it works. People remember.

When Smith sat down for a Super Bowl news conference this week, one of the questions asked of him was, “If you were to wear a dress, what color would it be?”

Hey, the man wanted national recognition.

Smith has become the latest in a long line of athletes who became national symbols of meanness and toughness--Charles Barkley in cleats, Mike Tyson with a helmet.

In describing the recent earthquake in Los Angeles, one person said it was like being picked up and tossed by Bruce Smith.

This isn’t the first time the camera’s eye has given fans a better look at one of their heroes.

Longtime Laker center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seemed too introverted and aloof to many fans to have much commercial appeal until he took a part in the movie “Airplane” that showed his sense of humor.

Suddenly, there was a personality behind the goggles.

So, too, with Smith.

But none of this would work if he wasn’t producing on the field as well as on the sound stage. And Smith believes he is producing better than ever, that he is coming off his best season. His coach, Marv Levy, agrees. So do many of those who must face him.

Add to that his appearance this week in a record fourth consecutive Super Bowl and the timing couldn’t be better.

Everywhere Smith goes in Atlanta, he is treated like a superstar, regarded among the biggest of the big names.

“It’s nice,” he said, an easy smile softening his features. “I’ve been striving for this for a long time. I’ve worked my butt off for I don’t know how long. It’s gratifying.”

True, he was an All-American at Virginia Tech, the winner of the Outland Trophy and the first player chosen in the 1985 draft.

But Smith, who stands 6 feet 4, struggled with a weight problem. At 310 pounds, he found it took a lot of extra effort to make his way into opposing backfields.

“I was fat,” he said candidly. “But I eventually found it was much easier to stay in shape than to get into shape. I just didn’t like being 310 pounds.

“By losing 40 pounds, I gained a lot of endurance. The key to this game is being able to play 60 minutes instead of 30 to 35 minutes.”

For Levy, it all came to a head a few years ago. Smith, recovering from a knee injury, didn’t want to come into Bill headquarters to get back into shape. He told Levy he would work out at home.

No way, Levy told him. You either come in or you’re suspended.

Smith came in, the beginning of the rehabilitation of his attitude, as well as his knee.

“At first,” Levy said, “he couldn’t overcome his self-indulgency. He never realized his potential.

“Now he’s matured. He understands things better, like the value of playing the run as well as the pass.”

By 1990, Smith was a dominant player. Using his quickness, his strength and his leverage, he collected 19 sacks, had 101 tackles, was the consensus NFL defensive player of the year and was part of Buffalo’s first Super Bowl team.

Smith waited for the endorsements to roll in, waited for the national consensus that he had earned what he saw as his rightful spot next to that defensive superstar from across the state, Lawrence Taylor.

But it didn’t happen. Part of the problem, Smith believed, was that playing in Buffalo would limit his marketability.

“That didn’t help,” he now says, “didn’t help at all.”

But Smith told the Buffalo News that “it would have been different in a place like New York (City). I would have been pretty much like Lawrence. Would have been a soap opera.”

That’s nearly what his life became anyway. In 1991, a knee injury limited Smith to five regular-season games and 1 1/2 sacks.

At the Super Bowl, he said that racist hate mail might drive him out of Buffalo altogether.

Still, he came back strong in 1992 and stronger still in ’93 after signing a four-year, $13.5-million contract during the summer.

At 30, he finally seems content with his life.

He only hopes there is time for his father to enjoy it with him.