Monday, April 19, 1999

Smith's past makes future look bright

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BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Akili Smith (Saed Hindash photo) | ZOOM |

        It must have been a sight, 6-year-old Kabisa Akili Maradu Smith, walking down the street with his mother, pushing a grocery cart to and from the store. There was no other way. Money was tight. Akili's father was in prison.

        Ray Smith had driven the getaway car in a robbery. It was a mistake that cost him 2¹/₂ years in a California penitentiary. Akili doesn't remember much about that now. Ray can't forget it.

        “I didn't really relate to what was happening,” Akili Smith said Sunday. “I just knew I was going to see my dad every weekend.”

        Ray Smith got out of prison and his wife said goodbye. She wasn't sure he could change his life. Ray took custody of Akili. That was some 15 years ago. The father has spent his life since guiding his son away from the temptations he'd found and the mistakes he'd made.

        “My dad has raised me terrifically. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for him,” Smith said.

“Instant leader”
        He is standing at the podium at Spinney Field, freshly anointed as the latest savior of the Cincinnati Bengals. He is 6-foot-2, 223 pounds, runs 40 yards in 4.5 seconds and last year at Oregon threw 32 touchdown passes. He rides the crest of the new wave of NFL QBs who are big, strong and fast, who can think and create on the run. He is not shy about his abilities.

        “Hopefully I can step in here and become an instant leader,” Smith said.

        At the end of the day, he is his father's son. Akili is who can happen when good choices are made and commitments are upheld. “My dad said he would always be with me,” Smith said. “He stuck to his word.”

        Where do we start? Do we say that Ray Smith entered the ministry after leaving prison, and is now a deacon at the Mt. Airy Baptist Church in San Diego? That he raised his son with the sort of love and generosity of spirit that we all need? That Ray Smith saved his own life in order to save his son's?

        It's all true. Ray established the Triple Crown Youth Coalition, a community outreach program. He worked with drug dealers and gang-bangers. Whenever he had a project — cleaning up graffiti, getting trash out of the canyons — he took Akili along.

        “Watch how your friends end up compared to where you end up,” Ray would say.

A different road
        A problem with lots of kids is, they don't grasp their parents' wisdom until it's too late. What's the saying? The older we get, the smarter they become.

        This wasn't the case with Akili. He took it all in early. “A lot of my friends were gang-bangers,” Akili said. “Some are dead.”

        Akili played sports. The kids in the neighborhood sensed he had a future, so they watched out for him. At Oregon, he overcame a slow start and an assault charge (and acquittal) stemming from a bar scuffle, to become the leader he says he'll be here.

        Before last season, Smith talked 60 teammates into staying at school over the summer. “I just said, "You're not going home,'” he said.

        Sunday, when someone asked Smith what he thought of the new Paul Brown Stadium, he said, “It feels like it was primed just for me, to be quite honest.”

        Take what you like from first impressions. But Akili Smith looks good. He is poised and confident. You can see the charisma from here to there. Smith is 23, but seems older. When he laughs, he throws his head way back. He is not too cool to let you know this is the time of his life.

        He looks to have lived up to his name: Kabisa Akili Maradu is Swahili for power, creativity and intelligence.

        The father goes from prison blues to a church robe. What a ride. He takes his son along. It's a good, straight road they've traveled. And it's only just begun.

        Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.

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