So, Bubba Smith died this week. Many of you out there may know him for different reasons, but the former defensive end was certainly always recognized. He died at the age of 66, apparently by natural causes.
First of all, you older fans out there probably remember him for his days playing defensive end for Michigan State and then later in the 1970s for the Colts, Raiders and Oilers. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Spartans retired his number (95) in 2006. As a pro, he made the Pro Bowl in both 1970 and 1971.
In his day, he was certainly a feared player on the football field as he stood 6-7 and weighed 265 pounds in his prime.
Not long after he retired, he rose to fame thanks to a series of successful beer commercials for Miller Lite. As Wikipedia puts it, the commercials came at a time after the inception of the product in the early 70s and it "was heavily marketed using masculine pro sports players and other macho figures of the day in an effort to sell to the key beer-drinking male demographic."
That's what I remember him the most for, the Miller Lite ads, though he did translate that fame into a successful character-actor role as Moses Hightower in the movie series Police Academy.
Most of the time, Smith was paired in the Lite Beer from Miller commercials with Chicago's own tough-guy linebacker Dick Butkus, and the two were quite the roar together. However, Smith started with a spot on his own before that took place. In that commercial he bestows the virtues of the way he played the game.
"I had my own way of tackling," Smith said in the spot. "I used to grab the whole backfield. Then I threw guys out until I found the one with the ball."
He then demonstrated the technique by ripping a can of Lite in half and exclaiming he "likes the easy-opening cans".
By the time the mid-1980s rolled around, he and Butkus were making people chuckle by being filmed together. They had three similar commercials together - one in which they take up golf, one in which they play polo and look forward to playing water polo, and another later when they play tennis. It was hysterical at the time since two of the toughest football players of all time were portrayed as fans of sports that are almost (I said almost) sissified comparatively. They both basically end at a bar where they are explaining the virtues of the game they are currently taking up and then Smith has the punch line.
"Those birdies move awfully fast," he said when Butkus said 'you can't get filled up when you're out there trying to get birdies'.
"I sure hope those horses can swim," he said after Butkus said they were going to try water polo the next day.
The punchlines were then met with laughter from the people at the bar because they thought Smith was joking, but he really didn't know any better. With one look, they then shut up quickly.
In the tennis spot, the two "tough guys" are trying to find someone to play them in "a friendly game of doubles" and Smith again rips the ball can in half to demonstrate their toughness.
Go watch them on You Tube again if you haven't seen it recently. It's still worth a grin.
Many spinoffs followed with some other sports greats such as Ray Nitschke, Ben Davidson, Billy Martin, Bob Uecker and John Madden. Comedian Rodney Dangerfield also was admitted into the eclectic group, which also included famed writer Mickey Spillane (and his gorgeous girlfriend).
The "all we need is one pin Rodney" line became iconic for my generation. It came in a Lite Beer from Miller bowling contest in which the whole tournament comes down to Dangerfield hitting one pin. In that one, Smith is handed a ball by Butkus with no holes. After forcibly pushing his fingers into it, thus creating holes Smith says "it does now."
There is also the Miller Lite golf outing in which Smith hits a shot, Butkus exclaims "Bubba you got a birdie!" and then feathers float down from the sky; and a camping trip in which Smith is snapping logs over his knee for the fire. That one made famous by Dangerfield emerging as the beast of the forest.
While his gap-toothed grin later graced the Police Academy series, there was a certain point in time in which sports viewing fans couldn't get enough of him in commercials back in the 1980s. Other than football, it's truly probably what he will forever best be remembered by.