Smith Needs No Limelight : Pro football: Fullback is a respected blocker and a Raider mainstay.

Raider fullback Steve Smith is a throwback to the days when football players had more grit than flash.

As long as he’s on the field making the key block, run or catch, Smith is happy.

“That’s just the kind of person I am,” said Smith, a seven-year veteran. “I don’t really care too much about looking sweet. What’s important for me is to be comfortable and to work hard.”

Smith has never been selected to play in a Pro Bowl, and even though he has one of the most common names on the Raiders, it’s not a household name in Los Angeles.

Smith, however, has the respect of his peers and coaches.

“He’s just one tough guy,” Coach Art Shell said. “Playing fullback for us is a dirty job. Steve accepts his role and he also enjoys his work. He’s the consummate team player.”

Since being selected in the third round of the 1987 draft, the former Penn State fullback has been a Raider mainstay, mastering the ability to play wherever he is needed.

Consider the running backs Smith has played alongside: Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Eric Dickerson, Roger Craig and Greg Bell. What has kept him in the lineup is, pure and simple, blocking.

In his seven seasons, he has carried the ball only 378 times for 1,473 yards. That would be an average single season for some of the backs he has blocked for.

“We kid him a lot because he’s basically the third guard in the backfield, and he never really touches the ball a lot,” defensive end Howie Long once said. “His job is a thankless one, and he’s a totally selfless player.”

One reason Smith has adapted so well to his role may be that he didn’t enter the NFL with high expectations.

“My last year in college, I wasn’t even interested in playing professional football,” he said, adding that he graduated from Penn State with a degree in hotel, restaurant and institutional management.

“I had job interviews lined up and everything when the Raiders drafted me. Football is something that just happened.”

Being the 81st player drafted might have been a surprise to Smith, but not to those who followed his football career.

He made a name for himself as a runner who was not asked to block much.

“When he first started playing, he was always the youngest but also the biggest,” said Smith’s mother, Norma, who lives in Maryland. “He played tackle his first two years, before he switched to running back.”

Smith was a standout tailback at DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Md., rushing for 1,065 yards in 139 carries his senior year.

At Penn State, though, he was asked to switch to fullback before his sophomore season.

“I wanted to play and the quickest way for me to get on the field was to play fullback,” Smith said. “My whole role changed as a football player. Instead of avoiding people as a tailback, I had to start hitting people as a blocking back.”

He started for two seasons with the Nittany Lions and played on their 1986 national championship team. He even ran some, finishing his collegiate career with 1,246 yards rushing and a 5.4-yard average.

But he considered the NFL a pipe dream.

“Ever since I was little kid playing little league football, my parents and coaches always stressed to me that you can’t plan on playing professional football,” Smith said. “They told me that you have to get your education because there are only a small percentage of people who actually make it. So, I firmly believed that I couldn’t depend on football.”

In his second season with the Raiders, Smith replaced Frank Hawkins as Allen’s blocking back and has been the regular fullback ever since. On Sunday, he will play in his 90th consecutive game when the Raiders travel to San Diego.

“I got my work ethic from my parents,” he said. “When I was growing up, they taught me that you have to work hard to get what you want.

“They never sat me down and lectured me. I just observed them get up early in the morning and go to work all day and then come home that night. I watched them both go and make things happen. They weren’t the type who sat around and waited for things, so I was being taught about stuff without even knowing it.”

Smith realized his value to the Raiders last off-season, when he was courted by six teams that wanted to sign him as a free agent. But after a few visits, he signed a three-year deal with the Raiders.

Shell, who played during the 1970s, when the Raiders featured fullbacks Marv Hubbard and Mark van Eeghen as their main ballcarriers, believes that Smith would have been effective in the team’s old-style offense.

“In the old days, he would have been a rushing leader because we featured the fullback more,” Shell said. “I like to kid him when I tell him that if he played with me, he would have been a 1,000-yard rusher.”

Every so often, Smith asks to carry the ball more and sometimes his wish is granted. Two weeks ago, for instance, he rushed for 51 yards in the Raiders’ 16-13 victory over the Chicago Bears.

“He came to me before the game and told me if we gave him the ball on the first play, he guaranteed five yards,” Shell said. “We did and he gained 12.”

So for a week after that game, Smith wore a smile to practice. But in the Raiders’ 31-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday, he carried once for four yards. Back to reality.