Connecticut Post (Sunday)

Smith says he’s better man, seeks revival with Cowboys

-

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Aldon Smith had already been suspended from the NFL several years when his ailing grandmothe­r implored him to change his life before she died of complicati­ons from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

That conversati­on, and her death last year, were catalysts for Smith trying to get a handle on issues with alcohol, working his way into shape and earning reinstatem­ent nearly five years after he was banished for substance- abuse violations.

“The way I look at where I am now to who I was in the past, I was a young

12- year- old or young teenage boy in a man’s body,” said Smith, who signed a one- year contract with the Cowboys in April and was reinstated by NFL Commission­er Roger Goodell last week.

“The way I handled those issues, life, was in that immature manner. With the time I’ve had to work on myself, it’s allowed and given me the chance to grow into the man I am now. So the man on the inside fits how the man on the outside looks.”

Smith’s grandmothe­r couldn’t speak the last time he saw her because of the effects of amyotrophi­c lateral sclerosis. But before ALS had taken her ability to speak, she told the grandson who had always looked up to her “just to do better,” as Smith recalled it.

“That stuck with me,” he said. “That, her passing, with me being totally defeated and surrenderi­ng to the problem that I had with my drinking, I was ready to turn my life around.”

The 30- year- old Smith last played in the NFL with Oakland in November 2015, when he was suspended for violating the NFL’s substance- abuse policy. Before that, Smith was a rising star in San Francisco when his legal troubles began in 2013.

The Raiders still had his contractua­l rights two years ago before releasing Smith after San Francisco police issued an arrest warrant over allegation­s of domestic violence. A plea agreement was reached in that case.

In all, Smith has been arrested at least six times, with multiple drunkendri­ving charges. He avoided jail time in the domestic case by serving a 90- day sentence as part of his alcohol and drug rehab.

The Cowboys took a chance on a pass rusher with a history of domestic issues by signing Greg Hardy five years ago. That tumultuous 2015 season — Hardy’s last in the NFL — was difficult for Dallas.

Smith sees a difference.

“If anybody is going to look deep, I never was physical with that woman,” Smith said. “And I just want everybody to know that I don’t stand for being physical with women. I’d like to make that clear.

“As far as what I can do is I can just continue to keep being the person who I’ve become, and that’s somebody who I’m proud of, somebody that the Cowboys thought it was good taking a chance on and somebody that the NFL thought was good taking a chance on.”

Before the Cowboys hired him, first- year coach Mike McCarthy happened to meet Smith in a Los Angeles gym in December when Smith was getting back in shape.

The momentum for Smith’s NFL return with Dallas grew when McCarthy hired Jim Tomsula as defensive line coach. Tomsula was Smith’s position coach with the 49ers.

“His path to Dallas is special and unique,” said McCarthy, who faced Smith and San Francisco four times in a span of two seasons as Green Bay’s coach.

“I obviously have great respect for him and what he’s done on the field. And then obviously had a chance to witness what he’s done recently to put himself in this position. Very impressive young man.”

Evander Holyfield in a gym is not much of a news flash. Even if going to a gym these days does hold perils beyond that guy on the next elliptical machine who wants to fill you in on the past 10 years of his life. You should floss as regularly as Holyfield works out. So, no biggie there.

Evander Holyfield in a gym with the vague hint in the air of some kind of forcharity exhibition against Mike Tyson that might require the resurrecti­on of either Barnum or Bailey to promote — now that seems to prompt at least an arched eyebrow.

Floating is this notion of an Ear Bite Reunion Tour that due to no popular demand is still gaining a life of its own. Holyfield, 57, and Tyson, 53, both have posted various messages on social media showing them punching at air and pads and bags while declaring their intentions to fight for a good cause. Both look far more fit than most guys you see in a Flomax commercial. Imaginatio­ns have taken over from there.

Down in South Florida, where the Atlanta- reared Holyfield has made a home for several years now, he is doing nothing to quell the gossip.

“I’m waiting, it has created a big buzz, everybody has been talking about it,” he said in an interviewt­his week.

Then, in a little tweak of his old rival, Holyfield said it wouldn’t really be his place to set up the fight because, “it’s like you’re a bully, you’d ask somebody ( to fight) that you’ve beaten twice.”

“I asked Riddick Bowe, he’s beaten me twice. And he said ‘ Nobody wants to see you with me, they want to see you with Tyson.’ ”

Holyfield and Tyson, of course, are forever linked by their two fights in the late 1990s. In the first, as a 25- 1 underdog at one point, Holyfield won on an 11th- round TKO. The rematch achieved infamy when a frustrated Tyson resorted to biting both of Holyfield’s ears, taking a piece of the right one before referee Mills Lane decided that some acts are too shameful even for boxing and disqualifi­ed Tyson.

Some fighters get cauliflowe­r ears; Holyfield got a chew- toy one. In the decades since, he has worn his everso slight deformity with pride. In fact, he put up a quite clever little video recently proving that he has enough ear remaining upon which to hang a face mask. It was in response to a meme showing a mask dangling from just his “good” ear with the message: “Thanks a lot, Mike Tyson.”

Holyfield fought well past the point of a logical retirement, his last bout a TKO of one Brian Nielsen in Denmark at the age of 48. This comeback nine years later, he said, has no motivation beyond the desire to raise money for his charitable foundation and its work with children. The coronaviru­s pandemic has made that work all more pressing, he said.

For someone with the pre- existing condition of 57 pro fights, many of them bloody sieges, Holyfield pronounces himself tip- top. “I feel wonderful,” he said, although he might want to get a second, medical opinion before entering a ring again.

He’s at his fighting weight of 215 pounds and has expressed great joy at getting back to some strenuous work in the gym — no sparring allowed just yet. The adjustment to living within the ever- shifting rules of engagement with the coronaviru­s has seemed minimal to him, other than the fact he hasn’t been back to a Sunday service in Atlanta in a couple months.

 ?? Ben Margot / Associated Press ?? Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith, right, sits on the bench during a game against the Bengals in 2015. Smith will be able to take part in team activities with the Cowboys after the NFL on May 20 conditiona­lly reinstated the pass rusher from an indefinite suspension for off- field issues.
Ben Margot / Associated Press Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith, right, sits on the bench during a game against the Bengals in 2015. Smith will be able to take part in team activities with the Cowboys after the NFL on May 20 conditiona­lly reinstated the pass rusher from an indefinite suspension for off- field issues.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States