Under the terms of his suspension, Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith can’t play until November and his reinstatement to active status is hardly a sure thing.
This week saw the release of a video on a social media account that’s featured Smith in the past that shows a man smoking a hand-rolled cigarette while saying that no one would know that it is “Aldon Smith” to someone who questioned if he should be posting it. Smith denied that he’s in the video but popped back into the news Friday with a report that he’s checked himself into a treatment facility.
The Raiders re-signed Smith in April and General Manager Reggie McKenzie said Saturday that their support of Smith hasn’t wavered.
“Our deal is to support Aldon from a standpoint of the person,” McKenzie said, via the Sacramento Bee. “Whether he comes back to us or not ... we told him from Day 1, ‘We care more about you than the player.’ Whatever he does to ensure his health, we’re going to stand by him. We know his situation. It’s not like we had blinders. We knew going into last year a suspension was probable and it’s going to be an uphill battle for him. He’s going to have to fight the good fight. We’re not going to bail on him. But he has to do his part.”
The Raiders weren’t going to have him for a few months under the best of circumstances and there’s not much of a future for Smith if he doesn’t do his part, so there’s not much reason for the team to make any big decisions about Smith at this point.