Chris Smith and his late fiancee Petara Cordero. (98chrissmith/Instagram)
You must have an active subscription to read this story.
Click Here to subscribe Now!
Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
The Browns’ release of defensive end Chris Smith on Tuesday seemed cold at best and heartless at worst.
Smith had suffered an unspeakable tragedy on Sept. 11 when his fiancee, Petara Cordero, died when struck by a car as Smith was attending to a problem with his vehicle off the side of a Cleveland highway. They had a newborn daughter just four weeks earlier.
Smith already was a popular player on the team, always coming to work with a smile and bringing positive energy. The accident brought an outpouring of grief from his football family inside the locker room.
“I still remember the morning that it all happened,” coach Freddie Kitchens said Wednesday. “I was at his house, and we talked, and some of those conversations that you have with a person builds your identity as a relationship.”
Smith elected to play in the Jets game five days later. He deflected a pass.
The next week, Smith was inactive. Still grieving his personal loss, Smith was active the next three games and was credited with no tackles. Another inactive came after that, followed by four more games active with no discernible plays. In the Pittsburgh game in Cleveland on Nov. 14, he was credited with one assist.
The most important event in that game, of course, was the Myles Garrett meltdown on Mason Rudolph that resulted in Garrett’s indefinite suspension.
Garrett’s loss tested one of the NFL’s enduring axioms: next man up. The next man in this case was Smith.
Prior to the next game against Miami, Smith seemed in good spirits.
In an interview with the Athletic, Smith said, “What I’ve told myself since it happened is there are better days to come. I’m seeing that now. I’m good, man. I had a tough time, but I think I’m back to normal. Obviously, I’m still honoring her and everything like that. Football is helping me. Winning helps, too.”
And then in the game against the Dolphins, a team decimated by roster excavation, Smith played on 16 of the defense’s 63 snaps. He was credited with zeroes across the board – no tackles, no assists, no nothing.
Meanwhile, a player the Browns had called up from their practice squad that week, Porter Gustin, had a sack. The following week in Pittsburgh, Smith was made inactive and Gustin was credited with a tackle and an assist.
The football reality of Smith’s situation was that the Browns could carry him on their roster primarily for humanitarian reasons as long as Garrett was doing his thing. Without Garrett, the Browns needed somebody to step up. Their lack of pass rush in Pittsburgh made a star of undrafted Steelers quarterback Devlin Hodges.
“When Myles is on the field, it is always easier to keep people because you know Myles is going to play 90 percent of the snaps,” Kitchens said.
It’s a cold business. Essentially, the Browns needed Smith to produce and he was unable to.
“It is very difficult anytime you release a player that is the type of person that Chris is,” Kitchens said. “He is certainly a good person. Our football relationship ended, but that does not mean our personal relationship from my standpoint, his teammates and this organization. We will always be there to support Chris.”
Cornerback T.J. Carrie termed the move sad and shocking but said it didn’t necessarily upset the locker room.
“I think the biggest difference with him is what he’s had to battle with and how all of us have tried to consistently support him through the struggle of what he’s had to go through,” Carrie said.
“It hits a lot closer to home to see him go. We want to continue to keep in contact with him and make sure his head’s OK. It’s a lot to take in and a lot he’s going through.”
Quarterback Baker Mayfield said, “It is tough just because of Chris and who he is. We love Chris. We were all there for him not just because of what happened but because of who he was as a person, so it is tough to see him go. But it was a decision they had to make.”
When life and death intersect football, the sad truth is that sometimes football wins.
You wonder why, with four weeks left in the season, the Browns couldn’t have created a spot for a defensive end from another corner of their roster and Smith could have remained in the company of his football family a little while longer.