Your “Daily Dose of Uplift” for January 13th:
In 2018, Washington quarterback Alex Smith suffered a gruesome leg injury that nearly resulted in amputation. The injury itself required 17 surgeries. Against all odds, he returned to the football field for the Washington Football Team this year and galvanized his team to a playoff berth — the team’s first in years.
For much of the first year of his recovery, he wore a metal external fixator to assist in stabilizing his leg.
By his side the entire time has been his wife, Elizabeth Smith, and their children. Elizabeth saw her husband at his highest and his lowest, and decided to commemorate his impossible return by turning the external fixator into a trophy that resembles the Lombardi Trophy — what the recipient of the Super Bowl receives.
“Waiting for this game and I’m a nervous wreck,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I look up at our bookshelves as a reminder of where we have been and the hard work to get to this moment. No matter the outcome, Alex has already won. He has beat the largest challenge life has thrown our way. I am incredibly proud and will be cheering loud. Let’s go Washington!”
Alex was impressed and humbled by his wife’s Christmas gift:
“I had no idea. I was not in on that,” Alex said in an interview after the game last Sunday. “We had talked a lot about doing something with the fixator. We tried to donate it, but apparently it’s only a one-time-use thing because they’re crazy expensive. It was really cool to open that on Christmas. Definitely the best Christmas gift I’ve ever had, so I thought it turned out awesome.”
Check out the full article on Sunny Skyz!
