His left knee had imploded, for all practical football purposes.
Amongst the damage, the ligament on the outside of his knee had separated, paralyzing the nerves below it that stretched to his left foot.
One minute Jaylon Smith was an All-America linebacker and Butkus Award winner, playing for Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl — and in the next blink, he was damaged goods.
The Cowboys have taken dozens, nay a hundred, risks during Jerry Jones’ time as owner. But unlike others, this one didn’t have a battered girlfriend, a strip club rainfall of dollar bills or a failed drug test attached.
Smith passed the proverbial character test, the background test and the Combine interview test. He just couldn’t guarantee the I’ll-definitely-play-football-again test.
Once roundly predicted to be among the first five or six players selected in the 2016 draft, if not the very first, Smith plummeted down NFL teams’ draft boards. Except for wildcatter Jones’, whose Cowboys doubted Smith no longer than the third pick of the second round.
Character doesn’t fail drug tests. Character doesn’t need a high-dollar lawyer to talk its way out of jail.
Linebacker Smith didn’t need a lawyer when he woke from the surgeon’s table on the morning of Jan. 7, 2016. He just needed time, a long time.
In early 2017, as he still struggled to move laterally and freely move his left foot, Smith posted a quotation from Ben Franklin on his Twitter feed:
He that can have patience can have what he will.
If those days were dark, Smith won’t admit it.
When I asked him after the game Saturday night if he was scared after his injury that his career may be over, Smith shook his head.
“No, no,” he said. “Can’t afford to think like that.”
I have watched the replay a dozen or more times of the play that damaged Jaylon Smith’s left knee. Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett had run and fumbled. Behind the play, Smith had just popped to his feet after being pushed down, when Buckeyes lineman Taylor Decker gave him a blind-sided, two-handed shove. Smith, trying to keep his balance, lurched awkwardly onto his left side.
Dirty? Irish fans will forever think so. But definitely extraneous to the play.
As Smith rode off the field in the back of a medical cart, the TV cameras zoomed in and saw tears welling in his eyes.
At the NFL Draft Combine weeks later, Smith was asked about the play.
“Just the game of football,” he answered. “No, no hard feelings. Me and Taylor talked. All is well.”
Smith’s first season with the Cowboys was over before it even started.
Jones was chided for making Smith his second round pick.
But he that can have patience . . . .
Before he was an All-American linebacker in South Bend, Smith was an All-American everything at Bishop Luers High in Fort Wayne (Ind.). He averaged 7.1 yards a carry and scored 18 touchdowns as a running back. He also threw the shot put and ran the anchor legs on the Knights’ 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams.
Just as he won the Butkus award as the best college linebacker in the country in 2015, Smith won the Butkus award in 2012 as the nation’s best high school linebacker.
His high school is 90 miles from Notre Dame.
Smith’s present-day company – and his mantra – is named Clear Eye View. Maybe it was inspired by the coach Eric Taylor character in the TV series Friday Night Lights, maybe not:
Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
Smith has taken the clarity message to heart. Yes, he sells signature eyewear products (among them, CEV Classic sunglasses, available in — cue the leprechaun — “Irish Gold”).
But as his website explains, “Clear Eye View is about the focused vision of accomplishing anything life has planned for you.
“We believe you can do anything you want to do and be anyone you want to be.
“Wearing the CEV signature eye wear collection is not a fashion statement, but a visible belief in the world you believe, where anything is possible.”
It’s a marketing pitch, of course, but the mantra motivated him through a difficult, but necessary 2017 season. Smith played, though it became apparent that his leg was still recovering.
“We probably threw him in there too soon last year,” defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. “We had injuries, and we probably played him too much. But he never stopped working hard.”
The hard work continued in the off-season. Smith’s surgeon had offered the prognosis that the stubborn nerve could take as long as 18 months to regrow, and his timetable proved accurate.
Cautiously, Smith played in two preseason games last summer.
He was asked after the Bengals game Saturday to compare the way he felt 12 months ago and now.
“Last year I felt blessed to be able to play the game again,” he said. “People thought I would never play again. So I accomplished that.
“I remember feeling excited, anxious.”
And this year?
“This year confident . . . fluid . . . accountable.”
Mindful of the shallow laurels of NFL preseason football, let it be recorded nonetheless that there were times, many times, Saturday night when Jaylon Smith appeared to be the most dynamic defensive player on the field.
He rushed the quarterback, blitzing from all directions. He shadowed backs coming out of the backfield. He chased down running plays.
The Cowboys, you probably know, do not retire jersey numbers. True, only legend Bob Lilly has worn No. 74. And it’s likely no one will ever again be issued Roger Staubach’s No. 12.
But for some reason, the franchise has long been indulgent about handing out Hall of Famer Randy White’s 54.
Since White retired after the 1988 season, 11 defenders have worn jersey No. 54, among them Jesse Solomon, Darryl Hardy, Darren Hambrick, Keith O’Neil, Bobby Carpenter and Bruce Carter.
Now along comes Jaylon Smith. And Randy White, I think, is finally going to be proud.
On a warm afternoon in Oxnard a few weeks ago, Smith talked about his journey.
“Everything has been a part of the plan, part of the process,” he said, “just growing and continuing to get better each and every day.
“That clear eye view has gotten me here . . . and faith. These guys believe in me, and we’re seeing great things.”
Character doesn’t fall drunken off a bicycle at 4:30 a.m. or make his team wait while he serves a suspension.
The only waiting or worrying the Cowboys have had to do for Jaylon Smith of Notre Dame has been his leg.
Inspired by the examples set by two of his heroes, LeBron James and Magic Johnson, Smith announced last month that he had partnered with fellow investors to form the Jaylon Smith Minority Entrepreneurship Institute.
“Being able to provide this opportunity for minority entrepreneurs to develop a strategic execution plan, mentorship and financial funding is something that’s needed in this world,” Smith explained.
“Minorities need that opportunity. Being in this position, I’m blessed to be able to help.”
As the notepads and TV cameras gathered around him after Saturday’s game, Smith excused himself for a minute to knot his necktie.
Gone is the cumbersome brace he had to wear most of last season, when he still couldn’t completely bend his left foot.
Gone, too, it seems, are the doubts.
“I’m back and I’m better,” Smith said. “And I’m getting the opportunity to play the game I love again and play it at a high level.”
For Jaylon Smith, the road ahead is clear again. See No. 54 run.