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Edited Date/Time
5/3/2020 3:23pm
Did anyone watch the ESPN special on Alex Smith yet? I watched it last night. It was very interesting.
It was hard for my wife and I to watch as in 2006 I had an engine lock up on a face of a triple. I broke my tib and fib very bad. I did not suffer infection like him but because of how many pieces they where in things where bad. At the time I didn’t understand what the doctor was telling me, he just said he couldn’t fix me. Yet I woke up with a fixator on some hours later. Twenty days later an ankle specialist removed it and installed internal hardware. Before the surgery we where told I may loose my lower leg.
Many of the feelings he discussed I also had during that time. Like dreaming I could run again and how once physical therapy started I had a purpose again and a goal. Things worked out for me in the end, and appear to be for him also.
It was hard for my wife and I to watch as in 2006 I had an engine lock up on a face of a triple. I broke my tib and fib very bad. I did not suffer infection like him but because of how many pieces they where in things where bad. At the time I didn’t understand what the doctor was telling me, he just said he couldn’t fix me. Yet I woke up with a fixator on some hours later. Twenty days later an ankle specialist removed it and installed internal hardware. Before the surgery we where told I may loose my lower leg.
Many of the feelings he discussed I also had during that time. Like dreaming I could run again and how once physical therapy started I had a purpose again and a goal. Things worked out for me in the end, and appear to be for him also.
I can see how that would hit home for you, how is your leg now? Does the hardware ever bother you?
The Shop
Crazy to think about with all of our modern medical advancements and technology, were all still subject to primitive infections.
He finally had his leg amputated. It’s a hard decision to have to make but I do believe he has his life back now and he’s been much more active and his mood has been much better.
As long as he is trying to rehab, though, he gets to continue to collect his massive salary. Not that the money is his entire motivation, but it's over $90M that he would have to give up if he retired or stopped trying to rehab. That's a huge amount of money to leave on the table, not to mention that as a currently contracted player instead of a retiree, he likely gets a lot better access to rehabilitation services than he otherwise would.
Guy is definitely a stud, though......
After 2020 they could cut him due to injury if he fails his physical, insurance would pay his salary, and they would have a smaller cap hit and would also get some cap relief because of his situation.
But all of the income to Smith relies on him not retiring, and continuing to try to recover.
If he didn’t want to go through the hell of rehab that he is doing, he could always negotiate an injury buyout like a lot of players do. He would probably be able to get 1/3 to 1/2 of the total remaining on his contract, but that’s still $45-$60M to give up.
It looks like Smith is doing a lot more than the minimum rehab required, though. He’s definitely driven by more than just the money, even though the money is absolutely huge.
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