“What are the odds?”
The way he asked it, it was difficult to tell just how Aldon Smith meant the question. On a conference call with reporters last week, the former first-round draft pick had just been asked about the chances of his fully returning to form. After 33.5 sacks in his first two seasons as a 49er- the most ever in a player’s first two years- and a Pro Bowl nod in 2012, Smith’s career took a steep and sudden slide, eventually leading to his indefinite suspension. He last suited up in 2015 and all but vanished from the NFL scene until it was reported in March of this year that Smith was in the process of applying for reinstatement.
Smith was signed by the Cowboys in April to a one-year deal. His official reinstatement came through in May. On Tuesday, he started participating in virtual meetings with his Dallas coaches. On Wednesday, he took a physical at the team facility and was outfitted for a helmet and pads. It’s been quite a journey back to this point, but it’s still a long way from being mentioned in the same breath as the sport’s most dominant pass rushers.
When Smith was asked about “beating the odds” and returning to prominence after a 54-month absence from the game, that’s when he came back with a question of his own.
“What are the odds?”
At first, it seemed like Smith was asking for clarification, maybe even actual numbers on the statistical chances of not just returning to the NFL but once again being a legitimate game-wrecker.
But based on how settled the 30-year-old Smith seems with himself, how quietly confident and truly humbled he sounds with where he is now in his life’s journey, one gets the impression that Smith wasn’t really asking for the odds.
He was saying the odds don’t matter.
During the nearly twenty-minute conversation, Smith was open and forthright about the choices that led to his exile from football. He spoke freely of his battle with alcohol addiction as well as the domestic violence charges brought against him while he was a member of the Raiders.
“It has been a journey indeed, and a journey I am grateful for. I’ve had time to really work on myself and take advantage of all the support and things that have been offered to me. The way I look at where I am now [compared] to who I was? In the past, I was a 12-year-old or a young teenage boy in a man’s body. I was a man on the outside, but a boy inside. And the way that I handled those issues, life, and everything was in that immature manner. That was fear-based, not handling things the way that I should have. With the time that I’ve had to work on myself, it’s allowed me and given the chance to grow into the man that I am now. So the man on the inside fits how the man on the outside looks. It’s just given me a new perspective and outlook on life, and it’s allowed me to do things like be able to return to this sport and feel like I am ready to give it all.”
Opposing linemen and quarterbacks have reason to worry about how the man on Smith’s outside looks. Smith always did cut a monstrous figure: the same 6-foot-4-inch height as DeMarcus Ware, but with an even longer wingspan. Recent training has helped the former Missouri Tiger bulk up to a staggering 285 pounds. That’s 15 to 20 pounds heavier than his previous playing weight, reportedly all muscle.
“It’s a very fit 285,” Smith joked.
According to his Plano-based trainer, Smith is fit enough that he could take “15 or 20” snaps if a game were to be played today. Brandon Tucker believes the Cowboys should ease Smith back as if he were returning from injury, but also believes that he’ll accelerate to the upper echelon of pass rushers in short order.
“Double-digit sacks” is Tucker’s prediction for Smith’s 2020 campaign, according to Michael Gehlken of The Dallas Morning News.
That’s a lofty goal for anyone, considering that just fifteen players in the entire league hit double digit sacks in 2019. An even loftier goal for a player who hasn’t seen real football contact in over four years.
“He does everything that I ask of him,” Tucker told Gehlken. “He’s on time. He’s never missed. He’s been receptive to instruction. We’re just systematically trying to get his football feet back underneath him. The first time we met and visited, I basically told him, ‘You’re like an old battleship that’s been in dry dock.’ When you get ready to send that battleship back out to sea, you’ve got to systematically start the systems. You can’t just fire it up and go. You’ve got to make sure everything still works. You’ve got to run it through a bunch of tests. That’s what we’re doing with the big fella.”
Those tests have apparently been quite encouraging. Tucker, who is himself 6-foot-4 and 365 pounds, shared stories of Smith lifting him off his feet during a drill while going at just three-quarter-speed, of leaving him grasping at air while executing an inside move, of even resurrecting a seldom-seen “hump move” that was once a mainstay in the repertoire of Hall of Famer Reggie White.
Smith’s newfound strength isn’t just from hitting the weights, according to NFL insider Jay Glazer. Glazer also famously trains MMA fighters, and he’s been instrumental in Smith’s recent development, even helping introduce Smith to new Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy. It was at Glazer’s gym that the two met; both got involved in Glazer’s military outreach program, Merging Veterans and Players (MVP), before either joined the Cowboys.
Glazer was asked in a mailbag piece for The Athletic about Smith’s improved strength and conditioning.
“He’s so incredibly strong, and the best part is he’s a lot stronger behind his rib cage. We helped him build himself up from the inside out. We didn’t just want to make him physically stronger and faster. We really wanted to build up his emotional and inner strength. He’s vulnerable now. Vulnerability is real strength. Not muscles, but vulnerability. He has a new purpose in life. He wants to use his experiences to help others, so he has a different motivation. He came to two different MVPs in the last week to tell all of our combat veterans he was reinstated. He wanted to share it with them and thank them and tell everyone how grateful he is.
“Gratitude is a big thing, folks. Do not take it lightly. For Smith to come on and continue to tell everyone how grateful he is empowered a bunch of combat vets who really needed it going into Memorial Day. I think Smith is a lot happier on the inside, which allows him to do his job better. On the outside, I’ve trained over 1,200 pro athletes in my MMA program. Smith is probably in the top five as far as guys who have put their hands on me. He’s had four years off so you can look at that as he’ll be rusty or you can look at that and say his body has been saved from four years of impact. I am really excited to see what he can do with the Cowboys.”
Glazer mentioned gratitude. It’s a word Smith used several times during his conference call chat with reporters. The second chance Smith says he is so grateful for wouldn’t have come without the low moments, like famously sleeping underneath his car at one point, because he didn’t feel worthy of anything better.
“For me, like with most people, I think if anybody really wants to change, it comes from within,” he said. “And so I got to a point where I was fed up with how I was living my life, and I knew I needed to change if I wanted to be something and get back ahold of my life.”
Smith has reportedly been sober for close to a year. Asked if there was one specific moment that helped him finally flip the switch, Smith talked about the loss last year of his grandmother.
“She was somebody that I was very close to,” Smith said. “Around the time when she passed, my life wasn’t where I wanted it to be, and she was somebody who meant a lot to me. I remember the last time we spoke. She had ALS, so she passed at an earlier age than she should have. ALS takes away a lot of your body functions, so she couldn’t speak. But before the last time I saw her, she was able to get some words, get a message to me.”
The message Julia Edwards imparted to her grandson?
“‘Do better.’ Basically, ‘Go out here and get what you deserve.’ That stuck with me. Her passing, along with me being totally defeated and surrendering to the problem that I had with my drinking, I was ready to turn my life around. I was happy that I had a place to go and people around me who were willing to help out.”
Now having gotten that help and continuing to gratefully receive it, Smith looks to make the most of his second chance… at more than football.
“I feel so great,” Smith beamed. “I still feel young. I still can move well. I still have a great knowledge of the game, if not a better knowledge of the game. I learned a lot from the guys I played with in California, and they taught me a lot of good things. And I know how to be a leader. I know how to win. And everything that I’ve just gone through and learned through in life, I feel like I can be a source. People can talk to me about whatever they need. I’m just looking to be a help, on the field and off the field.”
Glazer shared one touching story that shows Smith’s desire to be a positive example to those around him.
“Smith is a beautiful soul. When he got his contract with the Cowboys, he called me and asked me if he could sign it at my house, asking if my son was there. He wanted to sign it in front of my son so my son could understand what his dad helped make happen. That’s pretty damn special and beautiful for a guy to do that and to think about my son. That’s gratitude back. That’s beauty. If I’m an offensive lineman, I wouldn’t want Smith putting his hands on me this year, nope. But regardless of what he does on a football field, he’s already had an amazing journey back.”
Don’t tell Aldon Smith the odds. Besides, he’s already beaten most of them.
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