The Superhuman Comeback Story of Alex Smith

sometimes it can be easy to forget that life is bigger than just football there's a certain disconnect between these larger-than-life gladiators we see on sundays and the way we think of ourselves or our friends but every once in a while a moment come along that reminds us that at the end of the day we're all just people in a game where you try to take a ball into a painted square is nothing compared to a person's actual life take eric berry's triumphant return from cancer brett favre's emotional and dominant performance just a day after the passing of his father or the saints returning to the superdome after hurricane katrina had devastated new orleans these are all sobering moments and without a doubt the years-long comeback of alex smith also belongs near the top of that list and any other involving incredible adversity as an example for not just athletes but for human beings in general smith's returned to the field on october 11 2020 after a grueling 693 day recovery from an injury that came inches from costing him his life marked another achievement in a journey that even everyone close to the initial injury saw as an impossible pipe dream so today let's get a little dose of positivity in and discuss what is the best story out of the nfl so far in 2020 but before we detail that journey the graphic nature of the subjects and images we're going to go over will very likely get this video demonetized even with sensors so i'd like to take a quick second and thank nordvpn for helping me to make this video happen if you haven't heard of them before their service helps to further encrypt your activity online and hide your ip address from anyone who might be trying to access either of those for instance if you're on a public connection at an airport or coffee shop that might leave you vulnerable to attacks or if you're a depressed jets fan and you want to block your internet service provider from seeing that you are once again watching mark sanchez highlights at 3 in the morning but whatever the case is in these days of living in a post-privacy world nordvpn's 5400 servers and access to 59 countries offer another line of defense and i've personally been using their services for over a year now so if you're interested head down to nordvpn.com set the edge and use code set the edge at checkout for a free month with a two-year plan and a little surprise gift not to mention they also have a 30-day money-back guarantee if you do end up changing your mind again that's nordvpn.com set the edge to go ahead and get started so once again a huge thank you to nordvpn and without further ado let's get back to the video alex smith began his career on the nfl stage with sky high expectations as he was the number one draft selection for san francisco in 2005 but his profile coming out of utah was sterling enough to justify that billing sound decision making and intelligence an accurate arm paired with great mobility and the leadership and drive to lead a locker room unfortunately his career would get off to an earthquake level shaky start with the niners recording just 19 touchdowns to 31 interceptions in his first three years with the team an abysmal carousel of offensive systems and multiple injuries plagued his early career bouncing between six offensive coordinators in his first seven seasons and also missing a full year in 2008 with a broken shoulder he was able to finally find success in 2011 with jim harbaugh and greg roman at the helm of san francisco helping the team to a 13-3 record and their first nfc championship appearance since 1997. however smith's combination of a league low five interceptions and the team's 25th ranked passing offense helped spur his popular reputation as a game manager always said with a snarky tone like that but what mattered was that the 49ers now had a roster with super bowl potential and smith was the quarterback to lead them there that is until he wasn't see despite playing the best football of his career through nine games and leading the league in completion percentage a concussion would force him out of action and after returning to colin kaepernick in replacement alex smith would later be relegated to a mentorship role after returning after that the 49ers never looked back shipping smith to the kansas city chiefs the following off-season for a couple of draft picks where he'd team up with andy reid for what would eventually be the peak of his career he passed for over 3 200 yards in each of the five seasons he spent with the team a mark he had never hit even once through his first eight seasons smith led the chiefs to four playoff appearances in four out of five years and boasted a 50 and 26 win loss record smith was never the flashiest player but he did put his team in a position to win consistently and arguably his best season was his last with the team in 2017 where he threw for over 4 000 yards and 26 touchdowns to just five interceptions totaling a league-leading 104.7 passer rating not to mention all of this was done while under the pressure and scrutiny of kansas city having traded up to draft a quarterback with a top 10 pick in the nfl draft as smith's very obvious successor that player was patrick mahomes and he came into the league with the physical traits of a superstar in the making but with an extra emphasis on in the making part despite mahomes high ceiling he was viewed as one of the classes project quarterbacks that might struggle in adjusting to the nfl level but with the willing mentorship of alex smith who accepted that his days in kansas city were numbered mahomes transition to the next level has gone more incredibly than any scout would have anticipated as andy reid once put it what he did for patrick can't be paid back in money but i wouldn't have expected anything different from alex that's who he is patrick mahomes would head into the 2018 offseason as the clear starter and with smith once again overshadowed by a younger player while still playing his best football with that team he was traded again this time to washington at that moment the franchise currently known as the football team was coming off of a disappointing 7-9 season with kirk cousins no longer liking that and instead heading up to minnesota to sign with the vikings signing a contract in his stead alex smith would rally washington to a 6-3 start the team's best since 2008 and good enough for tops in the nfc east but despite all of the challenges and doubts he'd already overcome to that point in his career every single one of them combined wouldn't amount to what would come next during a week 11 matchup with the houston texans alex smith was sacked by jj watt and kareem jackson twisting his right leg and causing a spiral fracture from his ankle up to his knee which is exactly as terrible as it sounds because the force of the trauma caused the bone to break the skin smith needed to be carted off and transported to an operating table immediately that initial surgery was successful in repairing his leg with three plates and 20 plus screws and despite considerable pain after alex felt ready to head home fortunately though his wife and doctors convinced him to stay because after two days in the hospital his condition took an alarming turn with a fever spiking and his blood pressure dropping down rapidly his blood tested positive for a bacterial infection and smith rapidly became septic after that a severe condition that can be fatal if not treated properly by the morning his leg had deteriorated into a black and purple mess of infected tissue which is censored here to protect your eyes though the images are available on google for the brave this infection was the result of necrotizing fasciitis or as they're more commonly known in your nightmares flesh-eating bacteria with this severe development the position the doctors and staff were in was no longer limited to repairing alex's leg it had instantly now shifted to just saving his life amputation was the safest option at the time to ensure his safety considering the rapid spread of the infection but instead he elected to make every decision he could to save his leg though it would cost him nearly everything because so much of the tissue was dead entirely and had no way to regenerate itself the only way forward was to remove it a process known as debridement following eight debridement procedures his tibia was left completely exposed missing all tissue from his knee to his ankle and on both sides within a 9-month span smith would undergo a total of 17 surgeries and four hospital stays to try and reconstruct his leg they set out to replace the lost muscle and a decision was made to transfer part of his left quadricep and right calf to the now deconstructed right leg those procedures were a success but despite the miracle of keeping his right leg intact smith's mobility would forever be altered as he would no longer be able to lift his right foot in a position like that no one would be faulted for calling it quits and making an effort to just live a normal life again and at the time smith's football career was widely accepted by everyone around him and the media as just over nonetheless smith began rehab and visited in february 2019 with the center for the intrepid a medical facility for wounded veterans obtaining advice and inspiration from wounded military members on how to deal with and bounce back from an injury that was more comparable to sustaining an explosive blast than any other football injury that experience stayed with alex as an incredibly humbling one seeing combat warriors attempting to return to action in the face of incredible odds and uncertainty lit a fire in him and before he left he asked his physician hey when am i cleared to play football and from that point on he was on a mission constant rehab at five to six days a week to bring his leg back to strength frequent additional training at washington's facilities to keep the rest of his body in football shape and every step of the way even on his worst days not once hanging his head to give up smith later talked about taking things one small step at a time and appreciating the incremental progress he made knowing full well that if he didn't give it everything he had he wouldn't be able to look on this incredible challenge with significant pride ultimately he felt he owed it to himself the people who came before him and those with similar challenges in the future to go all in regardless of whether or not that meant he ever stepped on a football field again but just a year and a couple of months later he would on august 16 2020 alex smith would be cleared for football activity by washington meaning he had passed the necessary examinations and could once again compete with the rest of the team from there he just continued to move up a ladder of increasingly strenuous activity and after clearing another massive hurdle in making the team's final 53-man roster in september smith was back on the depth chart at quarterback from that moment he was two positions away from taking the field again and after all of the doubt pain and struggles he'd already conquered smith was more than ready when his name was called in just week five 693 days later here he is coming back on an nfl football field alex smith would come into the game in relief for an injured kyle allen in a downpour against the los angeles rams smith hadn't taken a hit since his injury on november 18th and of all the players to receive his first from he probably wouldn't have picked aaron donald but that's exactly who arrived to welcome him back to the nfl smith ended up struggling in the reign behind a poor offensive line posting a less than average stat line but the numbers have absolutely no bearing on the impact of his comeback story on the league and the entire sports world at large it's not like anyone wanted to count alex smith out but his career seemed like a tragedy that didn't have the possibility of a perfect ending with nobody at fault for the way the cards fell in fact knowing the reality of how severe the situation was makes many people me included feel insanely nervous about seeing him with 300 pound pass rushers flying in every direction around him regardless of the fact that he may have made a full recovery at this point but an important thing to keep in mind is that this is something that alex smith always viewed as a challenge to be conquered not something he wanted to live in fear of or have self-pity over instead his focus was always on being appreciative of every day and pushing as far as you can while you can and i can't really think of a more admirable outlook to aspire to in life in general than one exactly like that so at the end of the day regardless of if alex smith plays even one more snap of football in his life he is without a doubt my pick for comeback player of the year and with a journey like his i think it's safe to say we can slot him in for every year after that too [Music] you

Channel: Set the Edge

Views: 223,306

Keywords: alex smith injury, alex smith return, alex smith leg injury, alex smith washington

Id: kNq_D20eDa8

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 31 2020