Bordow: Cards’ Smith hopes to see mom’s dream come true

A few minutes before Sunday’s NFC championship game begins, Cardinals fullback Terrelle Smith will kneel near a pylon in the end zone and say a prayer.

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He’ll ask God to protect him from injury. He’ll pray for good health for his teammates and the Philadelphia Eagles. He’ll recite a “very personal” prayer that his mother, Sheryll, taught him.

When he’s done, he’ll think back to a day in April, when his mother told him about a dream she had.

“She said, 'I had a dream you played in one of the biggest games in Arizona Cardinals history,’ ” Smith recalled. “You’ll either go to the Pro Bowl or the Super Bowl. I don’t know which one.”

Smith, an Arizona State product, hasn’t played in a Pro Bowl during his nine-year career. The Cardinals never sniffed the Super Bowl in their previous 20 seasons in the Valley.

But Smith wasn’t about to throw cold water on his mom’s premonition.

“I was like, 'That’s a beautiful thing, mom. I really pray and hope and wish that it happens that way.’ ”

Only one thing could be better: If Sheryll was around to celebrate with her son.

• • •

Sheryll Smith died of cancer on Dec. 10, four years and eight days after her husband, Otis, passed away from the disease. She was 56. He was 63.

“It’s a very bittersweet time for me,” Terrelle said. “But I feel her presence. She is within me. So is my father.

“It’s not something to be angry about. All I can do is thank God my father and mother are in a better place and try to continue their legacy.”

Smith will admit that he hasn’t always done that. After being drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2000, he let the fame and riches of an NFL life go to his head.

“You come in as a rookie, and they give you all this money, you think the light is red for everybody else but green for you,” he said.

As cancer began to ravage his father’s body, however, Smith slowly began to adopt the Christian values his parents had taught him.

“It’s about understanding life has a purpose and a meaning,” he said.

His parents embodied those principals. The Smiths had nine children of their own (eight boys, one girl), ran a group home on a ranch in southern California and, by Terrelle’s estimation, took care of 112 kids over a 26-year span.

Some of the kids were runaways. Some were blind. Some were physically disabled. The Smiths didn’t care. What’s family for?

“It was crazy,” Smith said with a smile. “When we went to the grocery store, it was like a $1,000 bill.”

Every kid who came into the Smiths’ home was given an animal to take care of. Sheryll believed the children would learn how to love by taking care of their pet.

“We had horses, chickens, goats, sheep, everything,” Smith said. “It was like Noah’s Ark at our house.”

Otis, a mechanic who ran his own shop, supported the family. And in their spare time — is that possible with 112 kids? — the Smiths ran Parents Against Crime, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping kids stay on the right side of the law.

“It was incredible, everything they did,” Smith said.

Four years ago, however, Sheryll was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Her doctors battled the disease into remission but it came back and eventually spread to her brain and cerebellum.

In the last few months of her life, Smith said, his mom lost her sight and was confined to her bed.

“She would just smile and laugh, but sometimes she would scream out, 'Jesus!,’ ” Smith said. “She was in so much pain.”

On Dec. 10, as he did every morning, Smith’s 9-year-old nephew fed Sheryll breakfast before he went to school. But as he was leaving her side, Sheryll grabbed him by the arm and said, “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

She closed her eyes and died two minutes later.

• • •

The deaths of his parents have changed Smith. He still can be the life of the party, the loudest voice in the locker room. And, like most NFL players, he speaks almost reverently about the violence of the game.

But he’s no longer the child who kept everything inside or the young man who strayed down the wrong path. At the age of 30, he’s finally embracing adulthood.

“A lot of things she taught me and my father taught me are really coming to life,” he said. “They always used to tell me that one day I would be known as a person who shows his emotions. When I was a child, I never did that.

“But now that my parents are gone, I always show my emotions. It’s OK for a man to cry sometimes. It’s OK for a man to hug. It’s OK for a man to show love to his children (Smith has three kids). That’s what is happening in my personal life. I’m growing up.”

It’s not easy for Smith to talk about his mom. She’s only been gone for five weeks. But if the Cardinals get to the Super Bowl, he’ll welcome the questions and the intrusion. He figures it’s the least he can do for her.

“I just wish the world would have known more about her,” he said. “But since they can’t, I have to tell her story.”