Washington QB Alex Smith cleared to practice for the first time since suffering horrific leg injury
It’s been nearly two full calendar years since Washington Football Team veteran quarterback Alex Smith suffered his horrific leg injury in a regular-season interconference matchup with the Houston Texans that not only nearly cost him his career and leg but at one point his actual life hung in the balance due to an infection that was eating away at his flesh and poisoning his blood.
His arduous recovery in the almost 21 months since he suffered a spiral and compound fracture to his tibia and fibula in his right leg along and then necrotizing fasciitis and sepsis during his recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.
It’s a testament to both his love for the game and his desire to return to a physical condition where he can safely do so and also the kind of mental and physical fortitude that he possesses that kept driving him to go through the grueling daily grind that started with relearning how to do the simple tasks of getting out of bed and walking under his own power and without assistance again.
In late July, his representatives and doctors said that he’d been cleared to resume football activities but the team still placed him on the Physically Unable to Perform list to start training camp as a precaution just to make sure that the team medical officials got a chance to evaluate him and make their own determination.
First-year Head Coach Ron Rivera went on record saying that if Smith passed his physical, he would become “part of the equation” in the competition to be the starting quarterback for the upcoming season.
“If Alex is healthy and continues to get healthy and we do activate him, he’s going to be in the throes of this competition,” Rivera told reporters. “It’s going to unfold very nicely as a football team for us because competition is only going to make you better. It’s going to push the young guys as well.”
Well, that day has finally arrived and he was able to take his first snaps and participate in actual practice with his teammates both old and new on Sunday after being activated from the PUP list following a passed physical according to the official team website.
He will now be able to compete for the starting job with 2019 first-round pick Dwayne Haskins who is entering his second season and viewed as the early front runner as well former undrafted free agent Kyle Allen who Washington acquired via trade from the Carolina Panthers where he started 13 games for Rivera’s former employer over the last two seasons.
