Just watched this. Totally moving and absolutely amazed that he is walking and cutting with any degree of complexity. The state of the art rehab as helped significantly. The part where he's having a group therapy session with the soldiers was my favorite part. I am glad they put that in there
As to anything resembling an athletic career, what in the world does Alex Smith have left to prove? He's 36. He's been a successful QB in the NFL. He's had a long playing career.
No team would or should sign him. Maybe what they do for him, as a touching moment, is that he checks into a game for a play and the defense decides to redshirt him for that play. Outside of that, I cannot imagine a future where Alex Smith touches a football again in an NFL game. Even in the best of circumstances, the leg will never be what it was. His reactivity, ability to handle stress/force. It just will not be there. Sending him into a huddle would be a gross example of negligence. In some cases, you have to protect ultra competitors from themselves. In some scenarios, it may be warranted to let them try, but in Alex's case there is no reason to put that man's life in danger again. Imagine if something happened and you were the one that let him take the snap? How could you live with that after knowing what he just been through.
There's life after football. There are new challenges for Alex Smith to conquer. Perhaps Alex works in coaching. Maybe he tries to find football success on that side. He's been a leader of men before so coaching is not necessarily a bad avenue for him. But, he's an extremely intelligent individual and he has the means to do many viable things with the next 40 years of his life.
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