10/2/2023 0 Comments Alex smith fractureMind you, it was a whole new regime, they came in, I'm like the leftovers and I'm hurt and I'm this liability. They didn't see it, didn't want me there, didn't want me to be a part of it, didn't want me to be on the team, the roster, didn't want to give me a chance. "Yeah, that's really nice that you're trying." When I decided to come back, I definitely threw a wrench in the team's plan. I think the rest of the world either doubted me, or they patronized me. So there was a very small group of people that actually thought that I could do this. But walking in with what I had, it's like you got three eyes. I did all my rehab outside of the building. I assume you were talking to the Washington Football Team throughout that process? Were they surprised to hear that you were ready to go? They were like, "If you want to play football again, you can do it." I got this big round of imaging done, and all the doctors-all the military doctors, all my doctors here in DC-were like, "You're good to go." I never thought I'd hear those words. It was really scary when I finally got the clearance right before camp from all the doctors. Really, a big part of me was skeptical, like, that's not going to happen anyway, I'm going to hit the wall before I get there. I put this crazy thing out there and was like, let's see if I can go get it. In the back of my head, I never thought it was actually going to happen. And I love to golf, so I don't mean that in any bad way. I knew, even if I don't get there, I'll be better for it and I won't have any regret that I just settled, that I was happy with just golfing. There's all these things I want to go do that I've dreamed about doing outside of football." I knew football as a vehicle to go try to do this crazy, ambitious thing. I know I'm ancient and old in football terms, being 36, but I was like, "Man, I got the rest of my life. I was going to take my rehab further than I would if I had just settled on being able to stand or golf. I knew if I never achieved it, my life would be better. It started to become this thing, to put this crazy thing out there. (He says the team didn’t expect or want him back.) By the end of the season, he’d become the starter, won five of six starts, and led the team to the playoffs. Neither option was good, and neither left Smith, a former number one overall pick, much chance of playing football again.īut with the help of rehab specialists at the Center for the Intrepid, where veterans who have suffered blast wounds are treated for similar injuries, Smith improbably made his way all the way back onto Washington’s roster, as the third-string QB. Smith then developed sepsis, a complication of an infection that occurs when a body’s immune response damages its own tissues, which left him with two options: amputate his leg, or have a series of surgeries to try to save it. At one point, his leg was infected with flesh-eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis. Though the leg had been repaired successfully-with 28 screws and three plates-the journey had been long, complex, and pretty terrifying. Watt left him with a compound spiral fracture in his right leg, and one of the most gruesome injuries in NFL history, he returned to play-and was promptly sacked by Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald. If Alex Smith, the quarterback of the Washington Football Team, needed any reassurance that his right leg would hold up after two years and 17 surgeries out of the game, he got it fairly quickly.
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