Alex Smith takes incredible step in return from gruesome injury

Alex Smith is defying all the odds to make it back on the field.

When Alex Smith, the Washington Football Team’s then-quarterback, broke his leg on Nov. 18 , 2018 against the Houston Texans, it was universally expected to be a career-ending injury. Videos of the leg looking like it was made of rubber went viral and Smith revealed that he underwent 17 surgeries during the recovery process. However, Smith has made a practically miraculous recovery and was activated off of PUP by Washington today.

Smith’s wife told ESPN earlier this year that after the injury, doctors told her, “Our first priority is we’re going to save his life. And then we’re going to do our best to save his leg. And anything beyond that is a miracle.” That’s an incredibly dark prognosis, which makes his potential return to the football field even more unreal. No one would have judged him if he never played again, but clearly Smith an unimaginable level of mental and physical strength to get himself to this point.

Alex Smith’s comeback story is already an inspiration, regardless of how he performs

It doesn’t matter whether Smith plays a single minute of the upcoming NFL season or how he performs if he does. He deserves to be awarded Comeback Player of the Year purely because he is medically capable of playing football. Smith quite literally could have died because of the injury, and it can’t be overstated how insane his recovery is. While it would be beyond cool to see him play well, the actual football is pretty much irrelevant to his story.

While every football fan is impressed and excited for Smith, many are questioning whether it is worth the risk for the quarterback to actually play football again. It’s certainly hard to imagine him taking big hits from defenders again with those images of the broken leg in the back of your mind. It must be scary for Smith to return to the game that nearly killed him, but that just speaks even more to how badly he wants this and how hard he worked in recovery to get himself to this point.

Whether or not Smith will actually play this season is still up in the air. He’ll be competing for the starting spot against last year’s starter, Dwayne Haskins, and Kyle Allen, who Washington just acquired in a trade with the Carolina Panthers. Washington has been pretty terrible for the past couple of seasons, so maybe a miracle quarterback is just what they need to get back on track.