Dolphins' Smiley a load of laughs ... and just a load

[DolFan619]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/pro/dolphins/sfl-flspskolnick22sbaug22,0,3877349.column

Dolphins' Smiley a load of laughs ... and just a load

Ethan J. Skolnick
Sports columnist

August 22, 2008

DAVIE - He tells you in his Georgia twang that it's the "honest-to-goodness" truth, as if there's any reason to doubt his tale. When he was 5, a teacher requested a report about what he would do when he grew up.

Football, he wrote.

"It's all I have ever wanted to do," Justin Smiley says.

And he was right.

But did he want to be a guard, a grunt? Didn't he want to touch the ball, get the glory?

"I was always fat, man," he says, smiling. "I mean, honestly. I wanted to play fullback, you know. But I got too tall for that."

Fat? How about stocky? Pudgy? Big-boned?

"Fat's fine," he says. "Make people laugh. That's what it's about."

That's some of what the 6-foot-3, 310-pound Smiley brings to South Florida. He is a character, a cutup, a country charmer who even convinced a San Francisco 49ers cheerleader to become his wife. He is a man's man, a guard's guard, a guy who hunts in the presence of Outdoor Life Network camera crews and has taken up drumming, though he's struggling to progress beyond basic rock beats.

More importantly, the 26-year-old former 49er blocks and does that well.

He is a proven, physical NFL player, which is why the Dolphins' new regime requested that he write something else this offseason: his name in cursive on a contract.

Not only did the $9 million guarantee represent the team's largest financial commitment to a 2008 veteran free agent, it was more than twice as much as the franchise had ever guaranteed a free-agent guard. ( Jeno James got $4.25 million in 2004.)

The Dolphins once boasted all-time greats Larry Little and Bob Kuechenberg, then developed stable starters such as Roy Foster and Keith Sims.

Of late, they have tried low-level free agents, mid-round draft choices, position conversions. They have consistently failed to find consistency.

The anonymous nature of Smiley's position has spared him some scrutiny this offseason, but his fall performance will reflect greatly upon a front office that is rebuilding from the trenches out.

He is the second-oldest member of the line, younger by four months than Vernon Carey. Smiley is charged with providing stability to a unit that not only projects as a long-term strength for the first time in forever, but could be a pleasant short-term surprise.

"I hope they give us the opportunity to stay together and build some continuity," Smiley says.

They plan to.

It's easy to see why he is part of the plan: his toughness.

The University of Alabama product started nine games at right guard as a rookie in 2004, and all 16 at left guard in 2005. In the second game of 2006, he used his left shoulder to block Rams linebacker Brandon Chillar on a counter play. It popped out of place. His adrenaline kept him in the game. A reduced practice schedule, which included no one-on-one pass protection drills, kept him in the next 14. He adjusted to a torn labrum by playing in a harness, keeping his arms tight and inside, and keeping his secret from opponents. He didn't give up a single sack.

"That was the best season I had the whole time I was there," he says.

Right labrum surgery sidelined him for the final eight weeks last season. Still, the Dolphins agree with his assessment that, if healthy, he has "all the qualities to be one of the better guards."

"I just need to put my complete game together," he says.

His confidence came across in March when, responding on radio to the suggestion that the Dolphins could have pursued Alan Faneca instead, he called the former Steeler and current Jets guard "ancient." Smiley now says he was just joking, calling the 31-year-old Faneca "an unbelievable ballplayer."

He seems serious when he speaks of this line's potential, glowing about the poise shown by rookies Jake Long and Donald Thomas.

"The sky's the limit for us, man," he says. "I really feel it."

And, honest-to-goodness, the guy makes good predictions.