“It wasn’t really much. All I did was stock papers and get them ready to be sent out,” said Smith, who was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Missouri. “I learned a lot even just being in the stock room just learning about how they get their stories together. So I don’t have a problem talking to the media. I feel very comfortable around them.”
Smith isn’t too concerned with the extra cameras and attention that will be on him and the Dolphins during the filming of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Miami Dolphins.” Since he has been around the business a little he knows what to expect in terms of the variety of questions that will be asked.
Things can heated every now and then between reporters jockeying for that exclusive interview, especially in the searing heat of summer in South Florida during training camp. To that end, Smith doesn’t seem to be bothered by the physical heat in store either.
“I’m from Texas so I’m accustomed to getting heat waves and things of that nature,” he said. “Coming from Missouri it’s a little different but growing up in Dallas, Texas, it gets very hot there as well.”
If there is one aspect of newspapers and the journalism industry as a whole that Smith has come to respect it’s the competitive nature. Beat reporters from papers in the same market really get into the battle for that one big scoop or that unique angle to a player profile that the other does not have.
“It’s a crazy process,” Smith said. “Football is competitive but getting that story is very competitive, too. There’s a lot that goes into putting out that story for the readers to read and for them to be happy with what they’re reading.”
