Alex Smith Activated Off PUP List, Celebrates With Champagne Spraying From Family

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Washington Football Team QB Alex Smith has been cleared for football activity and activated off the physically unable to perform list, the team announced Sunday. 

Smith broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg in a November 2018 game against Houston. Because of an infection, Smith required 17 surgeries, and doctors worried not only about the possibility of his leg being amputated but also feared for his life. The injury occurred 33 years to the day of Joe Theismann’s broken leg for Washington.

Smith’s wife Elizabeth, posted a video on Instagram Saturday of her family spraying the veteran QB with a champagne shower. 

“Hard work pays off! Lots to celebrate in the Smith house tonight,” she wrote on Instagram.

Smith was traded to Washington in March of 2018 after five seasons in Kansas City. The former No. 1 overall pick signed a four-year, $94 million contract extension upon being traded.

He went 6–4 as Washington’s starter before the leg injury and threw for 2,180 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

The Washington NFL Team drafted former Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. Haskins started seven games in 2019 as the franchise struggled, throwing for 1,365 yards and seven touchdowns and interceptions. 

Washington also had a new head coach since the last time Smith played. Head coach Ron Rivera, who was hired this past January, has said several times in the lead-up to Sunday that if the 36-year-old were to be activated off the PUP list, that he would then be included in a QB competition. 

The franchise begins full-pads practices at training camp on Tuesday.