Washington Football Team veteran quarterback Alex Smith took home NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors, nearly sweeping the vote by landing 49 out of 50 votes, during Saturday’s NFL Honors show.
Smith, who suffered a broken fibula and tibia that led to 17 surgeries due to infections that nearly cost him his right leg, went 5-1 as a starter this season to help Washington make the playoffs.
“Two years ago, I was sitting in a wheelchair wondering, ‘Had the life I had known changed forever?'” Smith said in his acceptance speech. “Anger, pity, self-doubt, why me? These were feelings I had at certain points throughout my career, but this time, it wasn’t about football. It was bigger. It was about me being a father to play with my children, a husband to go on walks with my wife and, despite my new limitations, me getting my life back.
“My goal was football, not because I actually thought it was a reality, but because I knew my life would be better because of it. … It took 728 days, 728 days of small victories and major setbacks, of countless hours of physical therapy and just as many sleepless nights.”
