Fabric of success

Smith's time in textile factory taught him value of work

NEW ORLEANS -- The dye, Antowain Smith recalls, would eventually come off his hands and arms.

But in some ways, he never wanted it to disappear. Not when it could serve as a reminder. Maybe that's why he tattooed the names of his beloved grandparents -- John and Clara Smith -- onto his right bicep a few years back. It was a way of honoring their sacrifice, and remembering the selfless way he chose to repay the debt many years ago.

Long before his circuitous football career delivered him to the Super Bowl's doorstep, Antowain Smith worked full time for almost three years in a Prattville, Ala., textile factory, loading and unloading heavy tubs of wet, freshly-dyed fabric. Smith postponed a college football career so he could take that back-breaking, $3.65-per-hour job and make enough money to care for his aging grandparents, who raised him after he was born to a 16-year-old mother.

That's why no matter how far New England's leading running back goes in life, the mark that Gurney's Manfacturing made on him will never completely fade.

"I look at it as doing something I wanted to do," said Smith, whose surprising emergence as the Patriots' top rusher this season was almost as unexpected as New England's team success. "Everybody makes a big deal of it. 'You delayed your career, going off to college and everything. What a big sacrifice.' To me, it wasn't a sacrifice at all. It was just something that I truly wanted to do for some very special people."

Smith is the best kind of Super Bowl story. He never really dreamed he'd be here to begin with, so he's drinking in the scenery, full of appreciation for the way life twists and turns. No air of entitlement for him, or misguided belief that playing on football's grandest stage was his destiny.

Just a refreshing blend of wonder and satisfaction, mixed with a healthy dose of thankfulness.

"It really hits me when I go back home to Alabama," Smith said. "Sometimes we'll be riding down through Prattville, and I'll be like, 'I can't believe I used to work there.' It's an old abandoned building now. Then you go back and reflect. I think that makes me enjoy the moment that I'm at right now that much more."

Smith was 18 when he began work at the factory, after he graduated from high school in 1990 and before he enrolled at Eastern Mississippi Community College, in 1993. He had played football just his senior year in high school, but still attracted the interest of college scouts.

He received a scholarship offer from Auburn but as a Prop 48 student, he would have had to sit out his freshman year. Instead he decided his first responsibility was to care for his grandparents, who had first cared for him. After that, there would still be time for football.

"Of course, there were times I wanted to go out and be partying with my boys, hanging out, having fun, doing the things that teenagers do at that point in their life," Smith said. "But I had something that was more important to me that allowed my attentions to be at home taking care of my grandparents. To me that came first."

Smith's grandmother died in 1993. His grandfather died in 1996, during Antowain's senior season at the University of Houston.

"That's the only regret that I have, that my grandparents never got to see me make it to the point where I am now," said Smith, who Buffalo chose with the No. 23 overall pick in the 1997 draft. "I know they're with me spiritually and as long as they're right here on my right bicep, I know that they'll always be with me."

In truth, Smith's football career didn't just get started late. It almost ended early.

Very early. Smith would have quit after just one day of training camp at Eastern Mississippi, were it not for his his lack of wheels. And we're not talking about his 40 time.

"My first day of practice, I quit," he said. "But nobody would come and get me. I didn't have a car. That's the only reason that I stayed. Hey, I hadn't done anything in three years. I worked at a factory for those three years. I hadn't lifted any weights. I hadn't run or done anything to get myself in shape to play football again. So after that first day, they like to have killed me. I'll be honest with you.

"So I could never imagine myself being in the position I'm at right now. It just feels great to overcome all the things that I feel like I overcame in life to be at the point where I'm at right now."

Where Smith is right now, no one could have seen it coming. Released by the Bills in May, he signed a one-year deal with New England for the NFL veteran minimum of $477,000, plus a modest $25,000 bonus, just before the Patriots reported to training camp. He failed the team's conditioning test and looked like the first-round failure that the Bills had deemed him to be.

He doesn't look like a failure now. Despite not starting until Week 3 -- just like Patriots' wonder-boy quarterback, Tom Brady -- Smith rushed for 1,157 yards on 287 carries this season. The Patriots are 10-0 when he carries at least 20 times, and Smith posted four 100-yard games, averaging 91 yards rushing in the last six games.

The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder has been head coach Bill Belichick's favorite bludgeoning ram, giving New England a balanced attack that can beat you with the run or pass. With the Patriots expected to try to shorten the game by winning the time of possession battle, a Smith-led running game could prove pivotal to New England's Super Bowl upset chances against the high-flying Rams.

Smith's emergence has forced New England opponents to, at times, commit a safety to run defense. That opens up more in the Patriots' passing game and allows New England to effectively play-action.

"If me and the big boys up front get a chance to do our jobs, hopefully everybody will forget about me," Smith said.

Not likely. Smith, who turns 30 in March, already has been forgotten about more than once in his football career. And he'll always remember it.

"It fuels your desire a little bit, knowing the hard road that you had to get to this point," he said. "When you're out there on the football field, it seems like everything comes easy, knowing the hard struggles that you went through."

Yet another mark that never goes away.

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

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