Aldon Smith, ready for journey with Cowboys, has passed every drug test since August
Dallas Cowboys defensive end Aldon Smith is happy and excited to be back in the NFL again and chatting with teammates — even if it is via virtual team meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith has not played in a game since 2015 due an indefinite NFL suspension for repeated violations of the substance abuse and personal conduct policy.
But he was reinstated by the NFL on May 20 because of a glowing resurgence in recovery and rehab over the last year.
According to a source, Smith has passed every drug test administered to him by the NFL since Aug. 1 and they can test up to 10 times a month. He missed two tests because of plane trips but took them and passed them once he landed, the source said.
Smith has moved to Dallas from Los Angeles, and he took part in his first team meeting this week. He says he is a new man ready for a fresh start.
“It has been a journey, indeed, and a journey I’m grateful for,” Smith said on a conference call with reporters Friday. “I’ve had time to really work on myself and take advantage of all the support and things that have been offered to me. The way I look at where I am now to who I was in the past, I was a young teenage boy in a man’s body, so a man on the outside but a boy on the inside. The way I handled the issues, life, was in that immature manner and that was fear-based and not just handling things the way I should have.
“With the time I’ve had to work on myself, it’s allowed me to grow into the man that I am so the man on the inside fits on how the man on the outside looks.”
Smith, 30, who was signed by the Cowboys April 1, believes he can return to his old form as one of the league’s premier pass rushers despite being idle for the last five years under NFL suspension due to repeated off-the-field issues and battling the demons of alcohol and substance abuse, a low point in 2018 that saw him sleeping under a car.
Smith was an All-Pro in 2012 when he had 19 1/2 sacks when he reached the Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers. He had 44 sacks in 50 games during his first four seasons with the 49ers.
Today, he weighs 285 pounds, about 15 pounds more than his previous NFL stint, but he moves as well as he ever has. And he believes his maturity as a person has only enhanced his knowledge of the game.
“I still feel great,” Smith said. “I still feel young. I still move well. I still have a great knowledge of the game, if not a better knowledge of the game. I know how to be a leader. I know how to win. And also just everything I’ve gone through and been through in life, I feel I can be a source, people can talk to me about whatever they need. I’m just looking to be a help on the field and off the field.”
Smith said there were a couple of moments that sparked his turnaround. But he pointed to the passing of his grandma last year to ALS as having the biggest impact.
“She was somebody who meant a lot to me,” Smith said. “I remember the last time we spoke. ALS takes away a lot of your body’s functions so she couldn’t speak. But before the last time I saw her, she was able to get some words to get a message to me, which was just to do better. Basically, go out here and get what you deserve. That stuck with me.
Smith said that her passing left him “totally defeated” and he was forced to confront his drinking problem. “I was ready to turn my life around and I was happy I had a place to go and people around me that were willing to help out.”
Those people that helped him out were with the Merging Vets and Players program run by FOX sports analyst Jay Glazer.
It was there where he met Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, which helped lay the foundation for his signing in Dallas. And the fact that Jim Tomsula, his former position coach with the 49ers, would also be with the Cowboys as the defensive line coach helped.
He said there were other teams who were interested in his services, but the Cowboys proved to be the right place for him.
“It had a big impact,” Smith said of his meeting with McCarthy. “It just seemed like the best fit. Being with Jim in San Francisco and him being here, the meeting that me and Mike had. The way that that went. It seemed like we clicked the first time we talked. And then just the overall group of guys that we have here in Dallas. It all played its part in me wanting to be here.”
Smith also wants his fresh start to include an addendum about his past.
He faced charges of domestic violence, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, false imprisonment and vandalism stemming from a March 3, 2018, incident involving his then-fiancée. But he pleaded no contest to violating a court order and false imprisonment and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation in November of 2018.
Smith completed a mandated 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling and 25 hours of community service.
“I am a much better version of who I was,” Smith said. “In regards to that case, that was something that was unfortunate. If anybody is going to look deep [at the case], I never was physical ... And I just want everybody to know that I don’t stand for being physical with women. I’d like to make that clear.”
“As far as what I can do is I can just continue to keep being the person who I’ve become, and that’s somebody who I’m proud of. Somebody that the Cowboys thought it was good taking a chance on and somebody that the NFL thought was good taking a chance on. As long as I keep being who I am and growing into the man I am becoming, I think everybody will appreciate the decision of letting me back and having me.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 6:55 PM.
