Former Chiefs QB Alex Smith’s remarkable comeback reflects admirable character
For all its entertainment value, the overriding story of the NFL right now is much the same bleak story we all share: reckoning with the COVID-19 coronavirus. Its last weekend also was tinged by the hideous compound ankle fracture and dislocation suffered by Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
But nothing should resonate more from these last few days, around the NFL and as much here as anywhere, than the stirring testament to the human spirit demonstrated in Washington.
For the first time since he suffered a catastrophic leg injury two years ago that led to 17 surgeries and potential amputation and even concerns about his survival, former Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith returned to game action — something that reverberated among the Chiefs even amid their downcast postgame aftermath.
“It’s really just amazing for him to be able to go through what he’s been through and then get back on the field,” Patrick Mahomes, forever indebted to Smith’s tutelage, said.
He also called Smith “truly a special human.”
Tremendous that anyone could do what Smith’s done, to be sure. And I echo the sentiments of my colleague Pete Grathoff from the other day: Can we just go ahead and give the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award to Smith?
But to riff off of Mahomes’ words, it’s all the more heartening to see it carried out by a special human: a superb teammate and a gracious, empathetic and philanthropic family man who left his imprint in Kansas City in many ways.
So even for those of us who can’t help but worry about him getting hurt again, there’s something to celebrate in how he has prevailed.
Even when he wondered if he could at times.
After the 30-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Smith was asked if he had always thought this day was possible. He smiled, then paused as he bought time for the sort of candid and substantial answer we came to know him for here in any situation.
“I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a lot of days when I didn’t think it was going to happen,” said Smith, who was active for the first time and entered when starter Kyle Allen suffered an arm injury.
Then he added something maybe we could all stand to remember:
“But, you know, you just kind of keep pushing through,” he said. “And I always felt like when I had my darkest moments, there was always something around the corner that (would happen). And I just kept kind of plugging along and, then all of a sudden, I made a big gain. Or a big step or something clicked.
“And then I’d kind of keep marching, and I felt like it would repeat itself. And then all of a sudden I’d make another jump. …”
Adding a certain tender touch to the proceedings, Smith’s wife, Elizabeth, and their three children could be seen in the stands reveling in his return through a harrowing journey with which, of course, they were intimately acquainted. It also was graphically documented in ESPN’s hour-long “Project 11” documentary in April.
Last month, when he took the monumental intermediate step of making the 53-man roster, she tweeted part of a well-known quote from Maya Angelou: “WHEN PEOPLE SHOW YOU WHO THEY ARE BELIEVE THEM …”
Smith has been showing people the stratospheric-character person he is for a long while.
Including his time with the Chiefs and his role in a bridge to the future from a 2-14 season in 2012 to defending Super Bowl champions.
In fact, you could see a case for Smith to have received a Super Bowl ring himself. And it sure seems there’s a place for him in the Chiefs Hall of Fame one day.
Smith was a pillar in the turnaround of a franchise that had been 25-55 in the previous five seasons before coach Andy Reid took over. In his time, the Chiefs went 53-27 and won their first playoff game in nearly a generation. With the exception of the 2016/2017 postseason loss to the Steelers, he played well enough to win other playoff games — particularly at Indianapolis in that absurd 45-44 loss.
Some might debate his merits, particularly in contrast to the transcendent Mahomes.
But Mahomes seems to be about a once-in-a-generation, if not once-in-a-lifetime, kind of talent. And part of the reason he was able to seize the NFL in 2018 was because of the mentorship of Smith.
His unselfishness in grooming his replacement enabled the Chiefs to redshirt Mahomes, giving him time to be ready and providing a blueprint for so much.
No wonder that approaching the anniversary of the gruesome injury last season, Mahomes said he personally had felt “very hurt” by it.
“I know that he is the type of person that has the mindset he will be back and better than ever,” Mahomes said then.
The “better than ever” is iffy. Smith is 36 now as he resumes one of the most challenging jobs in sports after a two-year layoff. He finished 9 of 17 for 37 yards, and Allen is expected to start if he’s healthy.
So despite what he called an initially surreal sensation and knowing he had some cobwebs to work through and a first hit to absorb, Smith spoke of having “a pretty bitter taste” in his mouth.
“You never want to go out there and play like that,” he added, though cutting himself some slack over a downpour he called “the quarterback’s worst nightmare.”
That was relative, of course, since no quarterback could have anticipated the living nightmare he stared down.
“That feeling of being back there with the ball in your hands” drove him, he said at one point.
“The range of emotions (of the game), the good and bad,” he cited at another.
Including, it turns out, a return that can move us all.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.