Tackling fatherhood Former Chargers linebacker extols role of Mr. Mom by LORI ARNOLD Editor’s note: In our May issue, we celebrated motherhood with a profile on KGTV news anchor Kimberly Hunt and her thoughts on being a busy Mom. Her story is unique in that her schedule and that of her husband Billy Ray Smith Jr. were staggered so that she was Mrs. Mom in the morning and he was Mr. Mom in the afternoon. This month, we celebrate fatherhood by looking through the eyes of Smith.
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REFRESHED | June 2015
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illy Ray Smith Jr. was a secondgrader playing Pee Wee football when his dad—already a successful NFL defensive lineman for the Baltimore Colts—taught him a transformational lesson from the bleachers. “A guy knocks me down and as I was trying to get back up, he pushed me down again,” said the junior Smith, who went on to make his own name as a linebacker and defensive captain with the San Diego
Chargers. “I could hear my dad, over everybody else in the crowd, laughing. He’s not laughing at me, He’s just laughing because he thinks its funny that I think I’m a real (tough) football player and yet they’re knocking me down. They’re pushing me around. I could hear him laughing and, boy, I tell you it just flipped a switch. It was something else.” The memory unleashes within Smith a deep laugh, one with a ringing quality