‘TRULY AMAZING’
Many marvel at Washington quarterback Smith’s comeback from life-threatening injury
Alex Smith’s comeback is the NFL’s ultimate awe-inspiring tale in a season craving one. He’s remarkably resumed a 15-year career that began with, in his words, “hard, really hard” years as the 49ers’ No. 1 overall draft pick.
His incredibly tough road the past two years, however, merits more praise and admiration than anything.
Smith is not only quarterbacking for Washington, he’s winning, and doing so on a right leg that, after a 2018 gruesome fracture, required 17 surgeries to stave off amputation and life-threatening infection.
“It’s truly amazing what he’s been able to do,” linebacker Fred Warner said among a chorus of inspired 49ers.
“I mean, his story is incredible and his resiliency is incredible,” quarterback Nick Mullens added.
“I’m incredibly excited for his comeback,” cornerback Richard Sherman said.
“For him to come back after going through that, it shows there’s a lot of special things inside that guy,” coach Kyle Shanahan said.
Elevated from third string last month, Smith has inspired Washington, along with its stout defense, to three consecutive wins. Now comes a Sunday “reunion” with the
49ers, who have no remaining players from his 2005-12 tenure, and just a few staff members.
“It’s so far removed,” Smith said of any vengeful feelings toward the 49ers. “I’m looking forward to seeing the handful of guys still around. You throw in the fact we’re in Arizona, it makes it more different.”
Indeed, the setting will be State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where the 49ers remain exiled under Santa Clara County’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Smith, once his Hollywood-type journey ends, eventually will make his way back to the Bay Area, where his wife, Liz, grew up and where their three children were born. Until then, “I’m loving each and every week, lacing my cleats up, putting the helmet on and trying to really live that right now.”
Smith’s physical and mental fortitude is unparalleled. The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award will be a mere memento for one of sports’ all-time conquests. Never has a win streak like Washington’s current one seemed so trivial, considering who is leading it and how much he’s overcome to do so.
“Not only did he want to come back just to show people, but it’s because he really, truly loved the game,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said.
How has Smith, 36, dealt with the deluge of adulation? “I’ve had so much gratitude through my recovery process,” Smith said, “because the list of people that I owe a debt of gratitude to get where I’m at is very, very long.”
Atop that list is his wife, who went from being his hourly caretaker at home to a nervous fan in the FedEx Field stands upon his October return to the field. That came with her blessing, after what he called “very, very real” conversations.
Physically, Smith is completing a career-high 68.7 percent of his passes. Warner, the 49ers’ top defender, saw why that is through film study, saying: “I see a lot off decisiveness of where he wants to get the ball. He’s got that veteran presence.”
He just doesn’t have that same Smith mobility, which is forever stamped in 49ers lore with a fourthquarter touchdown run in the 2011 team’s playoff win over New Orleans.
“He’s not going to run like he used to,” Rivera said. “He scrambles and moves around, but back in the day, he was prone to take off. That part of his game is not there.
“But everything else is: his arm strength, his decision making, his accuracy, his ability to move in the pocket. He has the ability to escape the pocket but he’s not looking to run down field.”
Smith arrived as a dual threat out of Utah in 2005, and while he was adamant about proving himself as a pocket passer, he reflects now on how he should have been more sure about his abilities. “Find your own game and own that,” Smith said in advising quarterbacks.
Self- discovery proved a challenge early as a 49er. He lost 31 of 50 games his first six years, including the 2008 season he missed with a shoulder injury. He had seven different offensive coordinators his first seven years before things stabilized in 2011 and ’12 under Jim Harbaugh, Smith’s final 49ers coach after Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary.
“I don’t wish that on anybody. It’s part of why I want to help young QBs,” Smith said. “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.”
Even after Smith and the 2011 49ers snapped a playoff drought with a thrilling win over New Orleans, coaches went to court Peyton Manning. Midway through 2012, as Smith was playing his finest football, a concussion sent him to the bench and Colin Kaepernick seized his job.
Smith is 97- 67-1 as a starter, and that tie came in his final 49ers start, on Nov. 11, 2012 against the St. Louis Rams.
“My biggest problem, certainly my first few years, was really trying to have everybody like me and prove to everybody,” Smith said. “That’s just so unrealistic and not practical. It’s never going to happen. It’s not a great way to live life or play football.”
A fanbase that once railed against him now embraces the dignified 49ers alumnus, cheering him on at celebrity golf tournaments in Pebble Beach and Lake Tahoe.
“Those last couple years, when we finally got it going and turned around, the confidence that started there is what I took it with me to the next part of my career, certainly after the trade,” Smith said. “If not for those couple years of digging ourselves out of it, myself included, it helped lead me to that next kind of phase.”
Traded to Kansas City in 2013 – the 49ers parlayed the Chiefs’ draft picks into Carlos Hyde, Tank Carradine, Corey Lemonier and Chris Borland — Smith produced four playoff berths in five seasons. He also expertly groomed his successor, Patrick Mahomes, who beat the 49ers in last season’s Super Bowl.
Now it’s Smith’s Washington teammates who “draw strength from what Alex has gone through,” Rivera said.
Added Sherman: “So many people say, ‘He didn’t need to come back.’ Sometimes it’s about proving something to yourself more than anybody else, that you can do it. That’s what’s really special to this. He’s proven it can happen.”
Sherman sees the same quarterback traits from their old Seahawks49ers battles in 2011 and 2012, specifically that Smith is still makes smart, accurate and quick passes.
Shanahan does not profess to know Smith other than what he’s seen on film. But he’s impressed by more than the game video, speaking about an ESPN E:60 documentary called “Project 11” that showed all-access footage of Smith’s recovery.
“It shows why he’s successful in everything he’s done,” Shanahan said. “Showed why he had a great college career. Showed why he was a top pick in the draft. Showed why he’s helped out three different teams now.”
Shanahan’s counterpart, Rivera, has inspired with his own comeback this season, having been treated August through October for squamous cell carcinoma.
Rivera, who was raised in Seaside, said he still deals with occasional fatigue and “brain fog.” Wins like Monday’s at Pittsburgh surely come with a deeper appreciation, by him and Smith.
“It goes unsaid. We just kind of know and look at each other, ‘ Man, congrats, I know you’ve gone through a lot,’ ” RIvera said. “That’s the cool thing about it. We do have a bond.”
Added Smith: “Hopefully this never happens to anybody else, but if it does, I appreciated those people before me who pushed progress in medicine, and if I can do that, then great.”