His teammates kid him about taking out the trash, which is OK with Aaron Smith. What's that about one man's trash?
The trash in this instance is the kind of sacks Smith gets at defensive end. They are defined as "when a quarterback trips or runs out of bounds," Smith said.
"Those would be trash sacks. I tell everybody, they don't write down how you get them, just the number you have."
And Smith has more sacks than Jason Gildon and Joey Porter combined, the two sack artists in the Steelers' 3-4 defense. Smith has three, one in each game, one fewer than he had the entire 2000 season and one more than Gildon-Porter, who combined for a team-record 24 last season.
Ends aren't supposed to get many sacks in the 3-4 unless they're named Bruce Smith and don't have to play two gaps. Steelers ends must play the gap on their right and left sides, allowing the linebackers to swoop in on the quarterback.
"We're sacrificial lambs for the linebackers," Smith put it.
For that reason, his sack-a-game average likely will tail off, but Tim Lewis, their defensive coordinator, believes Smith can become their most productive pass-rusher at end since Ray Seals rang up seven sacks in 1994 and 8 1/2 in '95.
"I think he can because of his athletic ability," Lewis said. "Whether they're trash sacks or not, they're sacks."
That was no trash sack Smith recorded Sunday when he reached up with one hand and yanked Cincinnati quarterback Jon Kitna to the Heinz Stadium grass. That was a treasure.
"If you ask me how I did it, I don't know," Smith said. "I just got a good grip on him, you know?"
Maybe it was his lucky hat or the Samson-like strength in his hair. It's hard to catch Smith without his navy blue Northern Colorado baseball cap he has had since his freshman year. This is its seventh season on top of Smith's head, usually turned backward even when he does television interviews.
He says he's not a superstitious man, but he doesn't cut his hair during the season, Kevin Greene-like. He lets it grow for good luck, too.
Something must be working. He reported to Division II Northern Colorado because no big schools wanted a 200-pound defensive end. There, he learned how to eat and lift weights, neither of which he did very well as a kid growing up poor. He set the school record with 44 sacks playing on a defense that required only two things of him -- get the quarterback or anyone else with the ball.
He came out of nowhere last year to start, a fourth-round pick in 1999 who had zero requests for any kind of media interviews as a rookie, not surprising since he sneaked briefly into just six games.
Today, Smith weighs 300 pounds and is 6 feet 5, quick and athletic.
"He's fast for a lineman," said guard Rich Tylski, who often blocks him in training camp. "He can run, move; he plays with good leverage and speed. He has a lot of good push."
Smith, easygoing in the locker room, can be an animal on the field. As Porter said, "He's playing like a beast right now."
He ripped the helmet off quarterback Rob Johnson's head when the Steelers played Buffalo in the final exhibition game. Johnson vowed the Bills would remember that, but the quarterback said nothing to him even as Smith bantered with Johnson in their rematch Sept. 30. Smith chased Johnson out of bounds for his sack that day in Buffalo. He said things, he just doesn't remember what.
"I said a few choice words to him. I say things, whatever comes to mind. Stuff just comes out."
Smith likes to hit the quarterbacks, not just chase them out of bounds. He feels it's a way to make the NFL rules work for him and his fellow pass-rushers.
"They give quarterbacks so much protection and pass rules to protect them," he said. "They take care of those quarterbacks. They treat them pretty good. They don't give us any protection. It's like reversing the rules -- get them as many times as you can."
No matter how many quarterbacks he hits, you won't find the Colorado native with the lucky cap and the long hair and the thirst for quarterbacks to develop a sack dance.
"Not me," he quickly declared. "You can count on no sack dances out of me. That's just not me. I'm more of a hard-hat, lunch-bucket guy."
A real treasure for a guy who can talk trash and take it out at the same time.
Steelers' Smith doesn't mind sacks full of garbage 
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