ESPN shows Smith’s ordeal in all the gory details
Those with a soft spot in their hearts for former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith also will need to have strong stomachs if they plan to watch “Project 11.” The ESPN documentary, which airs at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, is not for the faint of heart.
There aren’t many sports documentaries that include these words: “The following segment contains graphic images. Viewer discretion is advised.” But this is one, and the disclaimer is needed.
Smith and his wife, Elizabeth, allowed extraordinary access to an ESPN production team and reporter Stephania Bell, a San Francisco native and trained physical therapist who now covers sports medical issues for ESPN. The mission was to chronicle the severity of the horrific right leg injury
Smith suffered on the football field Nov. 18, 2018, and the excruciating, lengthy rehabilitation process.
“It’s not really our style,” Smith said in an interview with The Chronicle last week. “We’re pretty private. But when the doctors spoke to us about doing this, we thought it might be worthwhile. It was such a unique experience.”
Recording everything that happened also provided the Smiths with access to their own story.
“It wasn’t necessary for viewership but for ourselves,” Elizabeth Smith said. “It was all such a blur. But this is something
that hasn’t happened in sports.”
The kind of devastating trauma Smith suffered does happen elsewhere, particularly to members of the military who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The terminology of war often is thrown around inappropriately by those who coach and play the game of football. But in Smith’s case, the comparisons are apt: He suffered an injury similar to what happens in battle, or in a bombing.
Sharing his story — both the physical and psychological trauma — with members of the armed services also motivated Smith.
The documentary begins with one of his visits to the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio, a military rehabilitation hospital dealing with casualties of severe limb injury, amputation and burns. Smith received special clearance to consult with experts at the stateoftheart facility.
“They’ve been a sounding board and helped with a lot of game planning and decision making in the plan of care,” Smith said of the Center for the Intrepid. “The plan I followed was paved by servicemen and women. You feel like you owe it to the people who came before you to add a piece to the process.”
The Smiths had hoped to travel to Bristol, Conn., to receive a preview of the documentary. But the coronavirus has kept them grounded at their home near Kona, Hawaii. So they will be watching Friday along with everyone else.
Even with the knowledge that Smith has recovered and is even hoping to play in the NFL again, the documentary is frightening to watch. Viewing a replay of the initial injury is difficult enough: It occurred 33 years to the day after another Washington quarterback, Joe Theismann, suffered a similar spiral compound fracture that ended his career.
In Smith’s case, salvaging his career was not the top priority. The first goal for doctors quickly became trying to save his life. Smith contracted an infection and went into septic shock while his body tried to fight off flesheating bacteria.
“My husband is laying there and he’s dying,” Elizabeth Smith says at one point, breaking down.
The doctors’ second priority was to try to save Smith’s leg. Once he was conscious and aware of what was happening, he quickly had to make the decision whether to amputate the leg or salvage it. He chose, with no guarantees of success and only the certainty of additional suffering, to try to save his leg.
He underwent several debridement surgeries: the process of cutting damaged muscle and tissue out of the leg. The result was an appendage that looked little like a limb, particularly not the leg of a professional athlete.
Smith underwent, he thinks, 18 surgeries in all, though he lost count. He had an external fixator drilled into his leg, which encased his leg for almost nine months. Ten months after his injury, the documentary shows Smith walking onto the field at FedEx Field, the same place where the trauma happened.
Throughout the ordeal, Smith, not surprisingly to anyone who knows him, kept his plight in perspective. He was grateful for his wife, three children and other family and for his overall health. At one point, he turned to Elizabeth and said, “Do you know how many people would love to trade positions with me?”
Watching the documentary provides insight into why Smith continues to pursue a return to football. When someone has almost lost his life, almost sacrificed a limb, and survived to not only walk, but run — why not keep pushing forward?
“I knew this would be a long road, but I never wanted to limit myself,” Smith told The Chronicle last week. “I never wanted to make a decision about something that was 40 steps away from me. I just wanted to conquer the next step in front of me, and then the next one.
“But there’s no game plan for this. No blueprint. So why limit myself ?”