In a game of competitors, Redskins quarterback Alex Smith transcends

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KANSAS CITY, MO – AUGUST 31: Quarterbacks Alex Smith #11, Patrick Mahomes #15, and Joel Stave #8 watch from the sidelines during the game against the Tennessee Titans at Arrowhead Stadium on August 31, 2017 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

A different kind of competition

In his rookie season, Smith threw 11 interceptions to one lone touchdown. In his first five seasons, he worked with five different offensive coordinators. In 2008, he missed a full sixteen game slate with a shoulder injury, and there was talk that the 49ers would release Smith, leaving him to an uncertain fate. He would instead remain the starter for three and a half more years, only to be unseated by Colin Kaepernick in 2012.

Competition with team mates was something Smith had experienced before. At one point, he had been tasked with winning a quarterback battle against Shaun Hill. But it had been a long time since Smith lost. He lost in 2013, when the disillusioned 49ers traded Smith to the Chiefs, and he lost again in 2018, after a career season, when Kansas City traded him to the Washington Redskins. The writing had been on the wall for the entire season prior, as the Kansas City Chiefs traded up in the 2017 NFL Draft to draft Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes would win the MVP award in 2018.

The acquisition of Mahomes could have cultivated a different kind of competition. It could have fostered a toxic locker room environment, one where the starter saw the backup as a direct threat to his occupation, defensive of his alpha title. It could have been integration into team culture that would begin to unravel the bonds of external competition, at the hands of its sly internal cousin.

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If it was anyone other than Alex Smith, that is.

Smith had to have seen the writing on the wall; his contract would be up the next year, and the Chiefs passed up other needs to make a sound investment in the most important position in football. Smith could have protested and asked to be traded then and there. He could have been insulted by the move. He could have dug his heels in, and made life miserable for this rookie from Texas Tech.

But he didn’t. Instead, Smith did the thing that seemed simple, even though it couldn’t have been anything of the sort. Smith stuck around Kansas City, won the starting job for 2017, and mentored the man guaranteed to take his job the next season. He set aside human emotions and ulterior motives, and left the competition on the field.

In the words of Mahomes’ godfather, per Terez Paylor, “Alex Smith was heaven-sent.”

Smith threw for over 4,000 yards, 26 touchdowns, and five interceptions in 2017. But behind the scenes, his best work for Kansas City went unseen. Some, including Andy Reid, would say Smith played a primary role in readying Patrick Mahomes for his MVP season. To quote Paylor again, Mahomes was a sponge. He watched Smith, not only how he played, but how he conducted himself. And it’s clear, after a year, that Smith was the best example Mahomes could have followed.

But while Mahomes exploded onto the national stage in Kansas City, Alex Smith’s career restarted for the third time, in the nation’s capital.

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