Have we seen Alex Smith play the last game of his NFL career?
It's been a wild couple of months for the Washington Football Team quarterback. He made his official return to the gridiron in Oct. 2020 after nearly two years of rehabilitating a life-threatening leg injury he sustained in Nov. 2018.
A calf injury kept Smith from playing in Washington's wild card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday, but it's not just his season that might have come to an end.
Now, Smith is taking the next few weeks before making a decision about his future in the league.
"I had so much fun this year, to be back in the locker room and on the field to play a game I love and to lose yourself in it is one of the great feelings in the world," Smith told reporters Sunday, via ESPN's John Keim. "My wife has been through a lot, my family has been through a lot, but that's for another time and place."
Smith said missing Saturday's game was "really difficult" considering how far he'd come. But he seems to be somewhat at peace with the idea that his career could be over.
"It's not the way you want to finish a season," Smith said. "To even be in this situation is something that if presented to me a year ago, two years ago, I would have jumped at it.
"... It was more about the attempt and the journey than the outcome," he added. "If I had come up short trying to come back, I would have slept just fine at night knowing I tried. I'm grateful I'm here right now."
Ultimately, the one thing that matters is Smith does what he feels is best for his situation. We'll find out what exactly that is soon enough.
