Back to the Pittsburgh Steelers Newsfeed

Aaron Smith Recalls Unlikely Path To NFL: ‘I Don’t Wanna Play Football No More’

Related Topics: Aaron Smith

Sometimes you find your career, but other times your career finds you. The latter is exactly what happened to former Steelers DE Aaron Smith. Growing up, he was much more interested in playing basketball, and even went to extreme lengths at one point to stay on the hardwood and off the gridiron.

“Really, my first love was basketball,” Smith said in an interview with Rob King on the Steelers’ website. “I played basketball all the way up until ninth grade and in ninth grade, all my buddies went to play football and so I was stuck with nobody to play with…so they’re like, Aaron, why don’t you play football?