Place of birth Gatesville, NC Name Thomas Smith College North Carolina Role American football player | 1993-1999 Buffalo Bills Positions Cornerback 2000 Chicago Bears | |
Date of birth (1970-12-05) December 5, 1970 (age 45) NFL draft 1993 / Round: 1 / Pick: 28 Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | ||
Thomas Lee Smith (born December 5, 1970 in Gatesville, North Carolina) is a former American football defensive back in the National Football League who played for the Buffalo Bills, the Chicago Bears, and the Indianapolis Colts. He played college football at the University of North Carolina.
After being drafted 28th overall in the first round of the 1993 NFL Draft, Smith played primarily on special teams during the 1993 season. He played in Super Bowl XXVIII for the Bills against the Dallas Cowboys. He became a starting cornerback for Buffalo in 1994, a position he would hold through the 1999 season. During this time, Smith became known as one of the top coverage cornerbacks in the NFL, but did not receive the Pro Bowl and/or All-Pro recognition his play deserved because he had terrible hands and dropped almost every potential interception he was in position to snare (at the time, advanced coverage statistics which would have benefited superb lockdown players like Smith did not exist, and his lack of interceptions was wrongly cited when he was seen as a good rather than great player). He left Buffalo following 1999 to sign with the Chicago Bears, where he played in 2000. He finished his playing career with the Indianapolis Colts in 2001.