AUTOBIOGRAPHY Robert Smith wants priorities

The ex-Viking would like to see less importance placed on athletes.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Robert Smith was the NFC's top rusher in 2000 with more than 1,500 yards. The Minnesota Vikings came within a game of the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. He was 28, a free agent-to-be at the height of his earning power.
And just like that, Smith walked away from professional football.
He caught the Vikings and their fans by surprise, but maybe it wasn't such a shock.
Hardly a typical NFL star, Smith sat out his sophomore season at Ohio State in 1991 to focus on schoolwork. Now he'd rather read about astronomy or head to the orchestra hall than sit down and watch a game.
Autobiography
Smith was rarely seen or heard from since he quit, but he has resurfaced this summer to talk about his soon-to-be-available autobiography, "The Rest of the Iceberg: An Insider's View on the World of Sport and Celebrity."
Though the book sheds some light on his sudden retirement, Smith uses it as a soap box -- pleading for a lessened importance placed by Americans on sports and athletes.
"There's no way to escape it," Smith said in an interview this week from his home in Columbus. "Just the level of attention you get really can be embarrassing, and it's frustrating, too, when you realize there are so many other people who have more important jobs.
"Our society needs to stop focusing on athletes as role models or as being heroes."
Agreement with publisher
Smith began working on the book while on vacation in Australia in December 2002, and his girlfriend has helped him edit it under 100,000 words. He has an agreement with a publisher, Inkwater Press, to print the book on demand possibly as soon as late next week. Plans are to promote it at Vikings training camp on Aug. 10.
Smith's interests and intellect certainly stood out in the macho world of pro sports. Fascinating to some, condescending to others, Smith was undeniably unique.
"Meetings, films, chalkboards, practice -- it all became very tedious for me," he writes in excerpts of the book provided to The Associated Press. "I had never been a big fan of football, and to have to spend all that time preparing to play a game really started to wear on me. It was like being caught in a remedial math class each week."
Variety of subjects
He broaches a variety of subjects in the book, including race, education, media and of course his football career:
UA pallbearer at Korey Stringer's funeral, Smith writes about the grief upon learning his former college and pro teammate had died of heatstroke. "I sat there on the stairs crying for 20 minutes. I didn't know what to do next."
USmith acknowledges conflict with teammates Cris Carter and Randy Moss.
"It sounds funny for a man of 32 to say, but Randy's just part of a different generation. He walks around with a chip on his shoulder and often times doesn't respect authority. It's one of the unfortunate possible side effects of the hip-hop culture."