Cowboys defensive end Aldon Smith should have been the NFC’s defensive player of the week for Week Three. Smith also should have been the NFC’s defensive player of the month for September. He was neither, and he doesn’t mind.
“We have to win games,” Smith tells PFT in response to the double-snub.
Smith has made a stirring and inspiring return to the NFL. Merely a year after being homeless, Smith has four sacks this season. He had three sacks on Sunday against one of the most elusive quarterbacks in football, Russell Wilson.
Regardless of whether Smith’s history is working against him when it comes to getting appropriate credit for his performance, people are taking notice. It’s a great story of overcoming obstacles.
It’s also a reminder of what Smith could have been, if the NFL weren’t so obsessed with what a player does in his private time away from work. Yes, Smith had brushes with the law that cried out for discipline. If, however, the league were as obsessed with off-duty behavior in the ‘80s as it has been in recent years, the NFL likewise may have missed out on the prime years of Lawrence Taylor.
Smith, if he’d been able to play during his own prime, could have been nearly as good.
With or without external recognition or the sheet of paper that goes along with it, Smith is back and he’s playing well and the 1-2 Cowboys are far better off having him on their team than on someone else’s team.