Alex Smith doesn’t sound like he left Washington on great terms.
Smith, who recently retired from the Washington Football Team (WFT), led Washington to the playoffs this past season after initially coming off of the bench and it was his first football since a gruesome leg injury in 2018. Yet, he thinks not everyone on the team supported him. In fact, he thinks some people wanted to see if he would break. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
GRAPHIC WARNING! Oh, maaan. That’s a shocking injury for Alex Smith. Never like to see that???? #NFL #HOUvsWAS pic.twitter.com/0JWCFxlGNV
— Michael Randall (@MickRandallHS) November 18, 2018
Sports Illustrated wrote the following in the awesome profile of the former Washington quarterback:
Still, he did not understand the tactics his coaches used to keep him sidelined. First, they placed him on the Physically Unable to Perform list, even though world-renowned doctors had pronounced him physically able to perform. At camp, players wore GPS trackers, and none traversed 4,000 yards a day on average like Smith, whose coaches asked him to carry extra weight, push sleds and hurdle bags for drills—tasks he had never done in 15 pro seasons, let alone before his leg had to be rebuilt. Smith believed the team wanted to see if it could break him, and if that sounds paranoid, the team physician agreed with him. They seemed to be asking, Dr. Robin West says, “What can he withstand?”
It’s also worth noting that Rivera denied the claim the team was trying to break him and told SI in part, “I was scared to death about putting [Alex] back out there and that is something I struggled with every day. It’s unfortunate that he feels we patronized him because I can tell you that was not our intention. At the end of the day, I commend Alex because he proved everyone wrong and exceeded any reasonable expectations that anyone had set for him.”
For what it’s worth, we’ve heard stuff like this before. Smith had previously said that the organization didn’t really want him prior to him getting back his starting job.
So, you can’t be surprised by that fact that he’s doubling down.
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I honestly also understand why the team would want to push his limits. I mean, the man’s leg nearly snapped off. You can’t just throw him back into the fire without making sure he’s ready to go.
I’d way rather take things super hard than too easy. At least that way, there’s no real excuse for not knowing what could have gone wrong if things head south.
If you don’t push Smith and he gets hurt again, then people will lose their jobs.
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Still, it’s unfortunate the relationship seems to have gone sour, but that’s life. Hopefully, Smith enjoys his time in retirement doing whatever it is he chooses to do!