PITTSBURGH — Danny Smith saunters out of the Steelers practice facility and wants everyone waiting for him to know something.

"I'm just doing this stuff because they make me," Smith says with a sigh.

Another week, another interview, another spotlight on Smith, the Steelers' 70-year-old special teams coordinator. Thursday he turns 71, but he's not slowing down. If October was any indication, he's only getting better.

It was the month of Danny Smith, with the Steelers blocking a kick or punt in three consecutive games, then having a return touchdown to punctuate that streak. His unit is making more headlines in a four-week span than some do in an entire season. Smith's incessant gum-chewing, all-gas-no-brakes demeanor and sideline celebrations with players keep getting screen time.

But he's not pinching himself.

Smith is just a football lifer and lover who'd probably still be doing this whether he was going viral for his coaching success or toiling away at a local high school with a couple hundred fans in the stands. He loves to say he doesn't have any hobbies, but he also doesn't have a spare minute for much of anything.

Too busy coaching. No time for you to show him a humorous clip, no time to do commercials for a gum factory that requested him and no time to soak in the 15 minutes of fame that come around every so often.

"That's fun," Smith said, "but I'm just not that guy."

Yes, according to Smith, he really has been approached about being in an ad for chewing gum, but he declined.

"You don't need to keep calling me," Smith told them. "I'm not a person to kiss my butt. If I tell you no, it's no."

It's not exactly a surprising outlook given Smith's road to these moments of glory. You see him now pacing up and down the field, barking out orders and giving officials an earful when a call doesn't go his way.

But can you picture Smith running for two touchdowns as a senior quarterback and team captain for Central Catholic in 1972? Known back then as "Dan Smith," he actually helped the Vikings to the 1972 Catholic league championship game at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

He was deemed not good enough to play quarterback at the college level and was switched over to defensive back when he got to Edinboro University. Listed at 5-foot-11, 175 pounds on the roster, No. 41 became a standout cornerback. One of his interceptions came as a junior in 1974 when he picked off quarterback Jim Tressel.

Yes, that Jim Tressel. Smith intercepted him in the end zone in a 21-13 win against Baldwin Wallace University.

"Not afraid to stick his nose on the numbers," reads Smith's bio in the 1975 media guide. "Missed only one game due to injury and piled up 46 tackles. Great attitude and extremely coachable."

The next year, Smith got into coaching as a graduate assistant at Edinboro. Then he went back to his high school alma mater and eventually into the college ranks again.

As a young coach, Smith wanted to learn as much as he could about both sides of the ball. It made sense for a quarterback-turned-cornerback who then began flip-flopping back and forth on what he thought might be the road to a head coaching position someday.

"That's definitely my ambition," Smith was quoted in a 1991 article. "My time will come. I'm very happy with where I'm at, happy doing what I'm doing. If the right situation arose, I'd definitely look into it. I can afford to be selective."

Smith was 37 then and the running backs coach at Georgia Tech for a dream season. The Yellow Jackets went 11-0-1 and claimed the Coaches Poll national championship.

He climbed to the NFL in 1995, landing with the Eagles to coach special teams and defensive backs.

Smith has been in the big leagues ever since, though obviously that head coach opportunity never came. However, working for a franchise that's a model of stability in the NFL — and also his hometown team — isn't a bad detour.

"I want this rookie to want to be the starting running back. I want this rookie to want to be the starting linebacker. I want to be the head coach. But that ain't happening, OK?" Smith joked a few years ago to explain his philosophy dealing with young players. "So if I do my job and they do their job on 'teams,' we've got a nice life."

Life is good lately for Smith, whose players mobbed him after a blocked field goal by backup defensive lineman Dean Lowry two weeks ago in the win against the Jets. He's had to remind them — particularly 6-5, 315-pound starting left tackle Dan Moore Jr. — they're far too large to be smacking him around like he's a pro athlete in pads.

He doesn't need any more health problems, either. There was a tibial plateau fracture when he was coaching in college that required a plate and six screws to be put into his knee. He broke a rib, vertebra and finger in a training camp collision with Antonio Brown. Then, last year, he tore a rotator cuff when he got throttled on the sideline.

Smith also claimed last week he chewed his Dubble Bubble so vociferously throughout a game that last season, he wound up losing three teeth that broke off and stuck in the gum, so he put them in his pocket and kept coaching. According to Smith's dentist, that one's not actually true, but he'd believe it if it were. He also can't wait to see Smith again and laugh about it. These are the types of stories that have made Smith a folk hero inside the organization and now on the outside.

"I am aware, but honestly, I don't see it. I get it sent to me, I click it off," Smith said of the attention. "It's not that I don't appreciate it. It's not that I'm not proud of it. It's not that I don't like it. It's not that I'm anti-all that crap. I just don't have time to fool with it. I just don't. I work my butt off."

He's also well aware of his unusual southern drawl. You could call it Pittsburgh-ese with a twang, even though Smith was born and raised in Point Breeze.

Smith's accent is so thick that he used to make up stories that he was from Louisiana, Texas or Georgia — even though at the time he'd never even been there. But he's not just a character. Bring him up to anyone around the locker room, and you'll find out why he's been at it this long.

"He is a guy who brings a lot of energy to the group, and he doesn't settle for anything," said defensive lineman Cam Heyward, the only Steeler who was already here when Smith was hired by Mike Tomlin in 2013. "Year in and year out, every meeting he's a part of, everybody knows he's part of that meeting. He is locked in. And I can't speak enough to his film work. He's always looking at film of other teams weeks into the season — or years behind. He's always looking for that edge."

Perhaps that's part of the reason Lowry was in position to reach up and block that kick, or why Jeremiah Moon blocked that punt in Las Vegas, or how Isaiahh Loudermilk got his block the week before against the Cowboys. And as hard as he coaches, maybe it's no coincidence that Calvin Austin III's touchdown on the punt return stood up because of no illegal blocks or holding penalties.

Reserve tight end Rodney Williams nearly did, but his preparation overtook his instincts. That and knowing that Smith would've been all over him if his mistake wiped out a score.

"Most definitely. That probably would've been the last time y'all saw me out there," said Williams, the seldom-used pass-catcher who happened to pull Smith out of the sideline scrum when he hurt his shoulder last year. "Make sure you tell him that, that this would not be possible if that didn't happen. We don't know where Danny might be."

Steelers players don't want to disappoint Smith, and he wants to do his part to help them build their careers. As Austin reached the end zone, Smith was pumping his fist like a proud father.

And when Austin sat back on the bench following his exhausting run-back, Smith made his way over. He gripped the nape of Austin's neck and buried his head on Austin's right shoulder. Austin hugged back, and the two swayed for a beat as the crowd roared. A few days earlier, Smith had been asked how he keeps enjoying this so much year after year, and he didn't hesitate — until he did.

"I'm gonna tell you what, it's these guys. It really is," Smith said, then paused to fight back emotions. "They work their ass off for me. They do. They really do. And that ain't easy. That don't happen everywhere.

"I've been at different places, different setups, different cultures. These guys are special. All of them. You go into training camp, you don't really know where they're gonna fit, what they're gonna do, how much they're gonna help or what it might be. I just love being around these guys, man. I love it. I truly love it."

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