John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Thirty three years after to the day after Joe Theismann’s infamously broke his leg for the Redskins, Alex Smith suffered one of the gnarliest leg injuries the NFL has ever seen.
Monday marked the one-year anniversary of Smith suffering a compound and spiral fracture to his tibia and fibula in his right leg when he was sacked by Kareem Jackson and J. J. Watt, requiring 17 surgeries and hospitalizing the quarterback for nearly a month no thanks to post-surgery complications including a staph infection.
The 35-year-old three-time Pro Bowl quarterback also had to wear an external fixation device on his leg for eight months, which looked like it was constructed with a bunch of random shit in your grandfather’s attic.
Smith still has a long road to recovery and his football career is still hanging in the balance, but one year after the injury, his wife posted a video detailing her husband’s trials and tribulations over the past year. It is amazing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Bc0cwJ7eu/
The human body is an incredible thing.
Alex still has $31 million guaranteed over the next two years of his contract with the Redskins, and has gone on record saying he plans to make a return.
“I’m still determined [to play], still marching down the road, still optimistic,” he told Yahoo Sports in July. “I want to push it, for the challenge’s sake. I want to see what I’ve got.”
As great of a story it would be to see Smith take the field again, I’m not sure I could watch him play without suffering a panic attack. That injury scarred me.