After watching his teammates go through a two-hour workout, Rod Smith addressed the media this afternoon at Broncos headquarters and said thoughts of retiring have not entered his mind.
Smith, the team’s all-time receptions leader, underwent hip surgery in late February at Vail. He has been off crutches for two weeks, but still is unable to jog. Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said he hopes Smith can be ready by the start of training camp in late July.
“If I ever think (about retiring), I’ll quit,” said Smith, who ranks fourth among NFL active receivers with 849 catches in 13 seasons. “When I think that, it’s done. It’s over. When the time comes, I’ll know. Hopefully there will be an easier sign to walk away.”
Smith said he will not go back on the field unless he is 100 percent healthy.
“I’ll be a lot smarter about my decision to go back on the football field,” Smith said. “I want to make sure I’m out there making the football team better and not worse.”
Smith turned 37 on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to talk about age; my age has nothing to do with it,” Smith said. “If they didn’t think I could go out there and perform, they wouldn’t have me in the building. It’s that simple.”
Smith said his hip began bothering him in 2004. More damage was discovered than the surgeon expected, Smith said.
“After the doctor went in there and looked, he said, ‘There’s no way you played (last season),'” Smith recalled. “There was more than a tear. There was cartilage damage. There was bone on bone. Parts of it was bone spurs. Chips, fragments, all that.
“I told him I played every game. He said, ‘Well, I don’t see how.’ I told him pain is secondary. If I can be out there for three hours to help the team, that’s what I’m going to do.
“It probably never was more than 80 percent during any game,” Smith added. “My thing is to make plays. I realized how much it limited me after I looked at it. It was putting way too much strain on my body to make the routine plays I was used to making.
“I was just trying to win football games,” Smith said. “My thing is to not make excuses for me or for our team.”
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
