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Tough decision to leave Mizzou
Updated: Friday February 16, 2001 3:48 PM
Former Missouri defensive end Justin Smith is expected to be a top-10 pick in the 2001 NFL Draft on April 21. Smith recorded 22 1/2 sacks and 53 tackles for a loss in his three years in Columbia. This is the first in a series of Draft Diaries from Smith. Check back weekly for another NFL Draft Diary from him at CNNSI.com. After Mizzou's season ended, I wasn't really leaning toward anything. I was all for coming back, and I was all for going out. I just had no real basis for my decision. And I just didn't want to be the guy that comes out too early for no good reason. My parents and grandparents were always asking me, "What are you going to do?" And I kept telling them that I didn't know until I got my evaluation back. Basically my whole decision to leave school early came off of the evaluation that you send in to the NFL. My tape guy at MU sent in all the tapes and then a few weeks later they give you a projection back, and my projection came back as a first- or second-round pick. I talked to my family and we just decided that I should go ahead and come out and not risk getting injured. I was hoping the evaluation would come back where it did, but when it came back it was a big relief. As soon as he called me, I was thrilled, because it sounded like he was going to say like third or fourth round. And I was just squinching on the phone, and when he said one or two I was like, "All right, sweet!" So then I made my decision off that. I changed my mind a lot. All of my teammates pretty much thought I was leaving, but I really didn't think I was going to toward the end.
Toward the middle of the year when the season was going bad, I was definitely thinking about leaving Mizzou. And then as the season ended, I was talking to my friends and teammates, and I thought that I'd probably come back. And then two days before I got the phone call, I thought I'd definitely come back. But when I got the evaluation back, I just made my decision and never looked back. It was tough to leave, because all my friends are there, and I felt like we had a chance to be good next year. It was tough to make, but I knew that as a business decision it would be wise to come out and just go ahead and get my NFL career going. I remember lying in the dorm room at two-a-days last year thinking, "Man, I could either be doing this in the NFL next year, or I could be doing this in college again." During my freshman year, I approached football as something that I hoped to be doing for awhile. And that's probably what helped me train for it and give it all I had every day. I didn't think about my career as having just a year or two left; I hoped I'd have 10 or 11 more years. I definitely want to finish up and get my degree. I think it's important, even if you don't need it for financial security or anything like that... I still want to do some business stuff in the future. I just don't want people to be like, "Oh, this guy just has a lot money because he plays football and he's a dumb jock." I think it would be good to have my degree, just to say that I wrapped it up. I probably have a year or year-and-a-half left to get my degree in agricultural economics and I may go back after my rookie year to take some more classes.
My family was very supportive of my decision to leave school early. They pretty much told me to do whatever I wanted to do. If I wanted to stay at Mizzou, that was fine with them, and if I wanted to leave for the NFL, that was fine with them, too. I'm old enough to make that decision and they were supportive either way. I was really kind of shocked how little they really gave me input and what they thought. Pumping iron in Steel CityI've been in Pittsburgh for the past month at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center training with the other seven SFX clients who are in the NFL Draft. They are busting our ass two times a day and we are getting good workouts in. They have state of the art medical equipment here if you do have a problem or anything. I really don't have any injuries so that wasn't a big deal. But the indoor facility where we run has that new Astroturf, which is good on your joints and stuff, so that's top of the line to run on. The UPMC complex has everything you need. We are just getting great workouts. They are feeding us right and we are getting good supplements. They've got us on all these multivitamins, essential fatty acids, creatine, glutamine and stuff like that. They are providing us with every possible benefit that they can. When I was at home training, I'd wake up at like 10:30, maybe eat breakfast, and then go over to my football facility and just work out by myself. And you really can't push yourself as hard as you can with other people who are getting ready for the NFL. Here in Pittsburgh, we usually get up about 8 o'clock and meet downstairs in the lobby of the hotel and have breakfast. From there we drive over to UPMC and we usually get there by about 9 a.m. Then our workouts begin at 9:15, starting with a warmup and stretching. From there we go to individual drills that they have at the Combine, like vertical jump, broad jump, three cone and the 40-yard dash. Then after we get done running, we do a little conditioning. Then after that we do our abdominal workout, which usually takes about 10 or 15 minutes. And then we shower up and eat lunch at the cafeteria. After lunch, we come back over and watch film of our running. Sometimes we'll watch a little film of NFL tapes too. Then after that we usually lift for about an hour-and-a-half, and then our workout is over and we take a Met-Rx shake and come home. If I was still training back at Mizzou, everybody at school would be training for the next season at MU, and that's not what I'd be training for. So I needed people with my same interest and my same goal. We go until about 4:30 or 5 every day, so it's pretty much like a 9-5 job. Pressure cooker next week in IndianapolisIt wears on a guy a little bit thinking how much the Combine and workouts will determine your future. I really haven't tried to think about it too much, but I know when you are at those workouts and you are on that line thinking this could cost me potentially millions of dollars, it's going to be a big impact. We are used to stress all the time every day we play, so I'm ready for it. I think it will be a good challenge, and hopefully it won't hurt me, it will just help me. From the training here at the UMPC, we'll know every drill and everything will just be like practice again. Nothing will be new, so we won't have to be worried about too much stuff. Nothing will throw us off guard. We will be ready for everything that they throw at us. You train all this time for two days. It's going to be nerve-racking at the Combine, but you got to be prepared for it and just relax, just go in and know that you got to do some drills and do it to the best that you can and let the chips fall. I hope to definitely help myself at the Combine. Just go in and do the best I can and don't look back on it. And hopefully improve my stock in the draft. A lot of people say that the Indianapolis track is slow, so we'll see what I'll do at the Combine. I have no idea as of yet if I'll do all the drills there, but whatever my agents think, I'll probably do. It's a jockeying game right now. You have to prioritize and have a little strategy going into this. I know nothing about that and my agents know all about that, so I'm going to let him really map out what I'm going to do at the Combine next week.
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