Smith inspires by paying tribute to late girlfriend vs. Jets
— EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Chris Smith thought about retiring from the NFL after his girlfriend, Petara Cordero, died last week.
But the more the Browns defensive end reflected on Cordero’s tragic death, the more he became convinced he must honor her by continuing to play the game he loves.
Smith inspired his teammates by serving as a captain in the Browns’ 23-3 win over the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football” at MetLife Stadium. Playing was his way of paying tribute to Cordero. Last month, the couple had a daughter, Haven Harris Smith.
“When it first happened, I’m not going to lie, I was ready to give up, kind of like throw in the towel, retire,” Smith said. “I had to just think about my daughter.
“[Cordero] would want me to play, and [Coach] Freddie [Kitchens] doesn’t realize this, but he said this in a team meeting: ‘When we go off emotion, we make wrong decisions. We’ve got to go off our passion.’
“So I’ve got to play for her. She’s my why. My daughter’s my why. My other two kids are, too. For my youngest, I’ve got to be Mom and Dad.
“God has stuff happen for a reason. Sometimes we don’t understand God’s plan, but she’s in a better place now. For the rest of my life, I’m going to be fighting for her.”
Cordero was killed at about 2 a.m. Wednesday when a car struck her on I-90 near the West 140th Street exit in Cleveland. Smith told police he had been driving a 2019 Lamborghini westbound on I-90 when a tire blew out. He and Cordero were standing on the north shoulder of I-90 West when she was hit.
Smith said he told Browns owner Jimmy Haslam on Friday he wanted to face the Jets. Then Smith reassured Kitchens on Sunday night he still wanted to play.
“It’s an emotional time for Chris, of course,” Kitchens said. “She would’ve wanted him to play. He talked to me about it, and he wanted to play. Chris is a part of this family and a part of this team, so we wanted him to do whatever he felt comfortable with doing. That’s what we wanted him to do. We wanted to support him in every area dealing with that.”
When Smith returned to practice on Saturday, Kitchens allowed members of the Smith and Cordero family to tag along. Several of them, including Smith, recently got tattoos in memory of Cordero. The tattoos read “stay strong,” a message Smith said Cordero had inked on her.
After Smith traveled with the Browns to the New York area on Sunday afternoon, he met with his fellow defensive linemen on Sunday night and delivered a powerful message.
“He looked at us, and he said, ‘I know it’s a cliche, and you hear it all the time — play like it’s the last time you’ll ever play, the last time you’ll ever see the field, the last time you’ll ever do anything,’” defensive end Myles Garrett said. “He said, ‘I never really thought about it until now, until what happened a couple days ago, and I want y’all to really go out there and play with that mindset because you never know.’ That spoke to all of us. It really kind of stuck with me through the game.”
Smith is a popular player whose friends on the team aren’t limited to the defense.
“Absolutely we’re going to play for that guy,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “Chris is a great guy. He always has a smile ear to ear. That’s what he’s known for. He says, ‘Love what you do. Do what you love.’ He’s our brother, so we’re going to play for him.”
Smith said the support of his teammates has been “an amazing help” as he grieves.
Although Smith didn’t record a tackle on Monday night, he registered a pass defensed as the Browns bounced back from their season-opening 43-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans and improved to 1-1.