Torrey Smith, Super Bowl champion and wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, is as savvy as he is charismatic. If I met him on the street and he wasn't a football player, I would be equally impressed with his award-winning smile, soulful eyes and charming, respectful personality. He is one of those people that you know would be successful even if they weren't a fantastic athlete. He is great role model and one of my more enjoyable interviews.
Gabrielle Reilly: When you are in the fourth quarter and absolutely exhausted, what keeps you determined to keep going?
Torrey Smith: You have to know what is at stake. People are depending on you, your team is depending on you and in our case with the Ravens, the whole city is depending on you. You have to think who you are playing for so you can dig deep. It helps you fight through a lot.
Gabrielle Reilly: Torrey's 19 year old brother was sadly killed in a motorcycle accident during the season. That same night Torrey must have been playing for his brother... he aced 6 interceptions and 2 touchdowns to defeat the New England patriots. He dug deep.
Gabrielle Reilly: How many hours a day do you work out?
Torrey Smith: I would say about three hours a day. All different types of exercise not three hours straight whether it is lifting, running, boxing, stretching, yoga. You know so many different things. So when it all comes down to it I exercise about three hours a day.
Gabrielle Reilly: The Kansas City Chiefs have sometimes done ballet in there off-season. Have you ever tried that?
Torrey Smith: No (chuckle.) I'm a bit stiff for ballet so it would probably help me with that, but I really like the yoga thing.
Gabrielle Reilly: How about your diet? What do you focus on with your diet?
Torrey Smith: I'm horrible. I'm trying to work on that but I have a problem with the little kid food. You now the pizza, the chicken wings, anything you would feed a little kid, I'm all over. I have been controlling it and I've got much better. I understand that food is the fuel for my body so I've grown a lot.
Gabrielle Reilly: For all the young athletes out there with dreams of becoming professional, what advice can you give them?
Torrey Smith: First things first, you have to focus on school. Believe it or not, without school, athletics doesn't happen especially with football or any other sport. You know with basketball you can go to college for one year then blow it off and go to a league and with baseball you can go straight from high school. But NFL you have to go through 3 years of college so it all starts when you are younger getting the books right in middle school, high school and finishing college.
