He played college football for the Missouri Tigers, earning All-American honors.

He played for the Cincinnati Bengals for seven seasons after being chosen with the fourth overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft.

As a sophomore, Smith set a new school sack record with eight and was named to first-team All-Big 12.

Despite missing all of the preseason as well as the first regular-season game, Smith logged a Bengals rookie-record 8.5 sacks, breaking the mark of 8.0 set by James Francis in 1990.

He finished second on the line in total tackles (53) and first in solos (41) and had the second-most sacks by an NFL rookie in 2001, topped only by the 9.0 of Pittsburgh's Kendrell Bell.

By the end of his fifth year, he had moved into fifth place on Bengals all-time sacks list with a total of 34.

[7] He had been mentioned by many pundits as a candidate to win the 2011 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, and finished third with 6 out of 50 votes.

[11] Smith is originally from the town of Holts Summit, Missouri, which is near Jefferson City, the state capital.

He earned All-State honors and was two-time all-district football choice at Jefferson City High School.