Washington QB Smith preps to face his old team
Washington Football Team quarterback prepares to face his old team in Week 14
Alex Smith’s fondness for the Bay Area eventually will lead him back to where his NFL career began 15 years ago.
It won’t be Sunday when the 49ers host him and the Washington Football Team at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., because of Santa Clara County’s COVID-19 guidelines banning contact sports.
Once Smith’s career ends — it’s still playing out in Hollywoodlike fashion amid this season’s comeback from a lifethreatening leg injury — he intends to return to where the first eight years of his pro career began and where he learned so many lessons, good and bad.
“My wife is from the Bay Area. All three of my kids were born at Stanford. It’s still the plan for that to be home for us,” Smith said Thursday on a media conference call. “The Bay Area is a place really special to us. We’ve spent a lot of time there in the offseason and it is amazing to be out and about and have that kind of response.”
Smith is a 49ers fan favorite, but it was a hard road to take, which he did with dignity and perseverance from 2005 to 2012. From fans chanting for his benching to annual turnover among his coordinators, Smith hung in with the franchise until it regained playoff footing in his final two years.
“It was hard, really hard. I don’t wish that on anybody,” Smith said. “It’s part of why I want to help young QBs. It was very difficult and a hard road to go down.
“I learned a lot from it. I don’t think it’s totally necessary and it doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of that was my fault as well. It can get handled differently, and I’ve witnessed it.”
Just when Smith found success in 2011 and ’12 under coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman ( his seventh in as many years), the 49ers kept him on the bench in favor of Colin Kaepernick for their 2012 team’s Super Bowl run. Smith was dealt to Kansas City, made the playoffs there 4 of 5 seasons, then got traded in 2018 to Washington, where that fall he sustained a compound fracture to his right leg. A life-threatening infection ensued, as did 17 surgeries, and then, with his wife’s blessing, he came back this year as a third-stringer and is now on a three-game win streak.
“It does seem like a lifetime ago,” Smith said of his 49ers days. “Football years, I guess, it ages you. I learned so much that it helped me not just in football but my life. Since then, I’ve talked about the early years and dealing with expectations, anxiety and weight. I learned a lot from that.
“The last couple years (in 2011-12), when we got it going and turned around, the confidence that started there, I took it with me to the next part of my career and the trade. If not for those couple years of digging ourselves out of it, it led me to that next kind of phase.”
What advice does he give to young quarterbacks in dealing with criticism?
“Nobody has it easy. You’re never going to make everybody happy. Don’t try,” Smith said. “Be confident in who you are, be comfortable in your own skin. My biggest problem my first years was trying to get everybody to like me. That’s just not realistic and practical.
“So often we get compared to others, especially quarterbacks. Be comfortable how you do it. A lot of guys are doing it differently and having a lot of success. Have your own game and own that.”