Smith lightens locker room, dims opponents’ hopes
Brian Beaudry
Friday May 6, 2011
Khreem Smith strikes terror in opposing quarterbacks, bursting through offensive lines like an Alien bursting through a sternum. Several times in Arizona’s final drive, Smith caused Rattlers quarterback Nick Davila to hurry passes or collided with him mid-throw, causing incompletions.
After wreaking havoc as Arizona tried to score from within the Shock 5-yard line, Smith capped off the evening by morphing into Superman, saving Spokane’s day by blocking Fabrizio Scaccia’s long field goal attempt as time expired, clinching the victory for the 3-4 Shock.
In the locker room, though, the Shock deal with a different Khreem Smith.
“On the field, Khreem’s one of the best D-linemen I’ve ever coached,” said Shock line coach Travis Crusenberry. “He’s a different cat off the field. He uses a lot of jokes, keeps it light, a lot of fun. But as soon as he steps on the field on gameday, he flips the switch. He’s an animal.”
“I just like to have fun,” said Smith. “I take a lot of pride in – they say a lot of Florida guys are very out there, and vocal, so I use that to my advantage.”
The veteran lineman shares not only knowledge learned from an extensive career full of championships in the af2 (Memphis Xplorers, 2005), AFL (Chicago Rush, 2006) and CIFL (Chicago Slaughter, 2009) and time in the NFL, but he shares his own brand of humor with teammates.
“I love doing pranks – I’m a prankster,” Smith said.
After Kyle Rowley’s second three-interception game of the season (one more than he had all of last season), he came into the locker room to find his helmet completely wrapped in athletic tape. On the tape was written “No more picks,” a message Rowley took to heart as he didn’t throw an interception in the next two games.
In stints with other clubs, Smith offered tales of Icy Hot in jockstraps and itching powder in pads. Naturally, all of the pranks took place in practice – games are another matter entirely. Smith might be all smiles until he hits the field, but once he gets there, he becomes a menace to the opposition.
“Right when they’re about to do the anthem, I get in a little zone,” Smith said. That zone has him leading Spokane in tackles for a loss and second on the team with two sacks officially on his record, not to mention the blocked kicks and quarterback hurries.
One of the oldest players on the Shock, Smith finds himself in a new place, all joking aside. Now he’s not just one of the guys, but a leader - a sage warrior on the defensive line.
“Mentor – I don’t like that word. I just want to help someone, just like someone helped me. Just trying to be helpful,” said Smith. “At the end of the game, that’s what you want – you want the guys that you played with and the guys that you played against to feel that you were one of the good guys in the game.
“Now I’m considered one of the veterans…but at one time, I was young, so I used to look up to other guys. When I was in the league, I used to look up to [Pat Williams, Kevin Williams, and Jared Allen], and see how they got focused.”
Kevin Williams used to throw up just prior to every game. “I can’t do that,” Smith said, mentioning that he prefers watching comedy to keep himself loose before games.
Smith learned plenty from his Pro Bowler teammates. Last year, the first-team All-Arena defensive end for the Milwaukee Iron finished his season where it started in 2011: in Spokane, with a playoff loss to the eventual champion Shock. Evidently a big believer in the adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Smith found his way onto the champions’ roster.
“They beat us last year, so I told myself I’m going to come here [to Spokane],” said Smith. “I like winning.”
And that’s no joke.
