Alex Smith

Early life

Alex Smith was born in Bremerton, Washington, but grew up in La Mesa, California. His father, Douglas D. Smith, served as an executive director at Helix High School, where Alex played football. Starting for the Helix Highlanders in his junior and senior years, he guided the team to a 25-1 record and two San Diego CIF section championships. He once threw six touchdown passes in a single game, a school record, and posted the second-highest completion percentage in San Diego CIF history. Smith was teammates with future NFL star Reggie Bush, and the two became the first pair from the same high school to be Heisman Trophy finalists in the same year. Off the field, Smith was senior class president, earned college credits through San Diego State University, and completed a dozen Advanced Placement tests.

College career

Alex Smith played college football for the Utah Utes, wearing jersey number 11. He guided Urban Meyer's high-powered spread offense to a 21–1 starting record, winning the 2003 Liberty Bowl and the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. In 2004, Smith placed fourth in Heisman Trophy voting and earned Mountain West Conference Player of the Year honors. He completed a bachelor’s degree in economics in just two years and had started a master’s program before entering the NFL draft.

Professional career

At the NFL Combine, Smith ran a 4.7-second 40-yard dash, had a 32-inch vertical leap, and scored 40 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test. The San Francisco 49ers selected him first overall in the 2005 draft, and he signed a six-year, $49.5 million contract with $24 million guaranteed. As a rookie, he played nine games, throwing for 875 yards, one touchdown, and 11 interceptions. In 2006, with a new offensive coordinator and improved weapons, Smith showed early promise but continued to struggle with consistency.

He met Joe Montana for the first time during a November 2006 game. After a breakout 2011 season, a concussion cost Smith his starting job, and he was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs. With the Chiefs, he earned three Pro Bowl selections, led the league in passer rating in 2017, and guided the team to four playoff runs and consecutive division titles. He was traded to the Washington Redskins in 2018.

During his first season in Washington, Smith suffered a life-threatening right leg injury that nearly required amputation. Despite expectations that he would never play again, he returned in 2020, became the starter, led the team to a division title, and won NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He retired during the 2021 offseason after being released.

Personal life

Smith married Elizabeth Barry, a former Oakland Raiders cheerleader, in 2009, and the couple has two sons and a daughter. He grew up with a brother and two sisters. To honor a great-grandfather who came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire at age 12 as an Austrian immigrant of Serbian descent, Smith, his brother, and his father all have tattoos of four firesteels, the traditional Serbian cross. His uncle, John L. Smith, coached college football until 2018, and his cousin, Chris Shelton, played in Major League Baseball.

In 2007, Smith launched the Alex Smith Foundation and the Alex Smith Guardian Scholars Program, putting in $500,000 of his own money and continuing to cover most of its costs to help foster teens attend college. The University of Utah gave him an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 2014. In 2021, he partnered with the clothing brand Just Live on a collection, with all profits going to the Center for the Intrepid, where he did most of his rehabilitation.