Babb: Shaun Smith must back up his mouth on Chiefs’ defensive line

[Tribal Warfare]

Shaun Smith must back up his mouth on Chiefs’ defensive line
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

The Fat Man walked through the Chiefs’ locker room Thursday afternoon, lifting his eyebrows and looking down on the diminutive equipment man pretending to box an oversized opponent.

This might have been the same man who, a day earlier, the Fat Man jokingly told to “shut up, you (bleeping) midget equipment guy.” Anyway, 325-pound defensive lineman Shaun Smith walked toward the exit, his game-week documents tucked under an arm in a binder, until running back Thomas Jones started mocking Smith’s voice from inside the shower room.

Thomas pointed out Smith’s rotund figure, and Smith reacted. He always reacts.

“Shut up,” said Smith, “you (bleeping) troll.”

Many of his taunts begin the same way, and most of them end with a bleeping nickname. Defensive end Glenn Dorsey is the bleeping “Elephant,” because, Smith said, that’s what Dorsey’s body resembles. Fullback Tim Castille is the bleeping wide receiver, because Smith believes Castille doesn’t like to block.

“You’re not always in the mood to hear it,” Dorsey said Thursday, after Smith left, “but you know it’s coming.”

In return, Smith said that he is known as the “Fat Man,” and he’s OK with that as long as you’re OK with what he’ll sling back.

“The mouth of the South,” Smith said.

Now, though, Smith is more than just a mouthpiece with a battery-acid tongue and a razor-sharp wit. Until Tyson Jackson returns from a left knee injury, Smith is the Chiefs’ starting left defensive end. He might like to have fun, but he now has a serious job.

Good thing for the Chiefs that, at least according to Smith, there’s more to him than the nicknames and profanity. He runs a foundation, 91 Ways, that helps underprivileged youngsters and their families. He has made it here the hard way, first as an undrafted free agent with Dallas in 2003, a practice-squad player with three teams, and an integral part, he said, of the Las Vegas Locomotives’ 2009 United Football League championship.

“I take it seriously,” Smith said. “I have to prove myself each day. Even this year in training camp, I had to prove myself that I can play. Everybody has a story, man.”

He has been all over, and he has plenty to say about most of it. Which is fine, and the Chiefs are willing to put up his mouth, if the rest of him proves he can play.

“It’s good that you have all sorts of personalities,” coach Todd Haley said, “as long as everybody’s for the team, which Shaun is.”

Haley said that Smith is a good teammate, regardless of the way he does it. Early in Wednesday’s practice, Smith hollered at running back Jamaal Charles — “Hey, Jamaaaaal!” — while players were stretching. Not yelled or shouted at Charles, but hollered — in a way that made Smith’s voice vibrate and might have rattled windows in a neighboring county.

Most players laughed. Others ignored Smith. Castille was just glad that, for once, someone else was Smith’s target.

“He always yells at me,” Castille said. “You’ve got to have somebody like that in the locker room to keep everybody loose.”

That’s one way to look at it, and it’s good for the Chiefs that most players have a sense of humor. Not everyone does, of course. It was during the 2008 season that Smith reportedly slugged quarterback Brady Quinn in the Cleveland weight room when both were playing for the Browns. He also had a history of run-ins with Bryan Cox, his defensive-line coach in Cleveland, and he was suspended four games last year for failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs.

Then this week, after the Chiefs beat the Browns, Cleveland’s Alex Mack accused Smith of grabbing Mack’s genitals in a pileup during Sunday’s game.

Smith said that he might be a lot of things, but that he is no bleeping dirty player.

“I don’t get into dirty play and all that,” Smith said and then added that he wasn’t cited by the league for unsportsmanlike play. “I didn’t see a FedEx letter in my locker or anything.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about. They just need to start worrying about winning up there.”

For now, the Chiefs are willing to deal with the Fat Man and all that he is, because of all that he could be for the team. Smith has been part of eight tackles in two games, and he said that nothing else should matter if he helps the Chiefs stop the run.

That’s good enough until it’s not anymore, and while it is, his teammates will continue rolling their eyes and laughing and dealing with their loudest, most vile teammate. Then again, perhaps it’s for the best that the Chiefs put Smith’s locker in a corner, where most times he has only a brick wall and his neighbor, linebacker Derrick Johnson, to insult.

“Derrick is a sloppy locker mate, for one,” Smith said when Johnson walked up.

Johnson turned toward him with a smile.

“Oh yeah?” he said, and what else could he say?

“We have our own jokes,” Smith said. “The thing is: Get them before they get you.”