ASHBURN, Va. -- Quarterback Alex Smith's decision to retire from football on Monday ends an NFL career that was never about the stats or flash, but rather about impact.
That was never more evident than last season when, in only six starts, he helped transform a franchise that many had come to dislike into one fans could root for again. Just as it was never more evident than two years earlier, in 2018, when the Washington Football Team fell apart after he was injured.
In 2020, Smith's comeback from that gruesome 2018 leg injury captured the imagination of the sporting public and, for maybe the first time in his career, turned him into a national figure whose story could, as they say, move the needle.