Washington QB Alex Smith Reflects On Thinking ‘Why Me?’ During Hospital Stay Following 2018 Injury

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former Utah and current Washington quarterback Alex Smith spoke to the media for the first time during training camp. He reflected on the time he spent in the hospital following his leg injury in November 2018.

“Yeah, definitely. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a lot of the ‘Why me?’ especially early in the hospital,” Smith recalled thinking. “To wake up and you fall asleep, you kinda forget what happened; and you wake up, and it kind of hits you again every single day like, nah, this is really real. And it’s not coming back. There’s no going back. This what I’ve got moving forward for the rest of my life. That was early though. Those emotions were those first few months and it took a while to get over. I think that was part of obviously being comfortable with what my life, my new normal is, and then from there moving forward.”

Smith said after practice that he is feeling better everyday and Wednesday was the best he has felt on the field.

“Today was the best I felt out there for sure,” Smith said.

A common thing that can occur when dealing with such a horrible injury is the fear that comes with returning to competition.

“I’m not going to be ruled by fear,” Smith said. “It’s easy to talk about, but for me to be about it and go about it the right way.”

As far as his play on the practice field, Smith is getting back into a groove now that he is throwing to receivers.

“I feel really good working through progressions,” Smith said. “My foot quickness, as far as getting back, working through passing progressions, ball handling, a lot of things like that. I think obviously the next progression is certainly the unchoreographed things, the time the pocket breaks down, you get pushed back, there’s a thousand and one different scenarios that come up. It’s hard to drill all those things.”

Smith still has the mindset of the things quarterbacks need to do when a play breaks down.

“When those things happen and it does break down, really, do you have what it takes there to save the play, find success, whatever that outcome is, escape the pocket, things like that?” Smith said.