5/8/2023 0 Comments The Vikings by Robert Fer...![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The New York Observer columnist Michael M. The Giants’ Jason Sehorn called him “Eddie George with another gear.” The trauma of life as an NFL running back was such that doctors often explored his knees, and yet Smith running with a football was an act of athleticism so beautiful it moved at least one journalist to drop Smith’s name into a sentence with Joe DiMaggio’s. He scored touchdowns on runs of 40 yards or longer in six seasons. He ran for more yards than any Viking ever. Robert Smith became an NFL star the old-fashioned way: He earned it. Such common sense behavior, alien to today’s egomaniacal athlete, is in keeping with the character, personality and intelligence of Robert Smith. ![]() Just a phone call to the man who’d written him up for the suburban weekly Euclid Sun Journal and now covers scholastic sports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. No contract negotiations by threat of retirement. When his e-mail showed up garbled, Smith called back to Fortuna, who dictated his farewell to football and thanks to friends. A free agent after eight seasons, he became the subject of high-dollar speculation: $40 million for five seasons, perhaps on a team less dysfunctional than the Vikings?įortuna calls him, and Robert Smith says: “I’m going to retire, and I want you to have the story.”Įven for his friend, Smith answered no questions. Only now have we noticed his transformation from sprinter to the full package. For a long time, Robert Smith was the NFL’s best invisible running back. ![]()
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