Aldon Smith Reflects on NFL Career and Personal Struggles in Interview Released Before His Death

Former NFL All-Pro Aldon Smith passed away over the weekend at the age of 36 . Smith, who had a star-crossed career, entered the league in 2011 after the San Francisco 49ers made him the seventh overall pick in the NFL Draft .

During his first two years in the NFL, Smith was a superstar. He racked up 33.5 sacks, which still stands as the league record for most sacks by a player in his first two seasons. He also helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl during the 2012 season and earned first-team All-Pro honors.

Smith spent four seasons with the 49ers, but his time in San Francisco got cut short due to legal issues that plagued him throughout his career.

Smith actually did an interview just weeks before his death, and he touched on some of the trouble he faced during his career.

Smith opens up about his struggles

The former NFL star joined Tee Maultsby for a barbershop conversation that was released in three parts. The first installment came out on June 8 , and during that conversation, Smith admitted that he wasn't doing well.

Here's a full rundown of their conversation:

Maultsby: "How you feeling today?"

Smith:  "I've definitely had better days."

Maultsby:  "You know this is a safe space. You want to elaborate? You want to talk about it?"

Smith:  "Yea, but I kind of don't. It's along the lines of, it's something I think I've been dealing with my whole life and I'm just struggling with accepting how it's playing out right now. That sounds like a bunch of gibberish."

Maultsby:  "That ain't gibberish. We all go through stuff."

Smith:  "I'm grateful. I'm in a place of gratitude right now. It's been a tough week. It's been rewarding, and it's starting to pay. Things are starting to happen."

Maultsby: "What does it feel like to be back in the Bay?"

Smith: "Man, it's honestly kind of bittersweet. I've gotten such a warm reception from people and places I've gone, but I don't feel as if I'm ready to be back here right now. This is like home and the people are like family and there are some things I kind of wanted to, I wanted to have some things with me when I came back. It's obviously good to be back."

Although Smith started his career in San Francisco, he had been living in Texas, but he had unexpectedly returned to the Bay Area at some point recently.

"It's wild because I wasn't expecting to be back in the Bay," Smith said. "It hasn't really sunk in yet that my situation has changed and that I'm back here. I don't know if I've really gotten a chance to enjoy it or let my guard down, to be in a space to enjoy it."

How Smith tried to rebuild his life after football

Smith dealt with multiple arrests during his NFL career , including an incident in October 2013 when he was hit with three felony charges for possessing illegal assault weapons. Following that incident, Smith received a nine-game suspension to start the 2014 season , and his downward spiral in the NFL began shortly after that. The 49ers eventually cut Smith following the 2014 season, and he would play only 25 more games in his career, including nine with the Raiders in 2015.

After missing four seasons due to multiple suspensions from 2016 through 2019, Smith returned to the NFL in 2020 and had an impressive season with the Cowboys , but he never played another down after that.

In 2021, he tried to latch on with the Seahawks , but the team cut him in training camp after he was accused of second-degree battery in Louisiana. Smith admitted that his life started to fall apart after that.

"When I finished up ball, I was with the Seahawks, didn't finish camp," Smith said. "I signed with them and ended up getting in an incident in Louisiana and then ended up going to jail for a little bit for that. My career, it didn't have the ending I think it maybe should have. I wasn't proud of how things ended. I ended up getting another DUI and I was broke. I was broken. I was in a relationship and I got my heart broken in that. I was just dealing with a lot of adversity."

Once Smith realized his NFL career was over, he settled down in Texas.

"I moved to Texas after I was done playing and I was pretty unsure of what I wanted to do after I got done playing ball," Smith said. "I ended up finishing up, or starting the process of finishing up, some of my schooling. They had some workouts for guys who were finishing up their career. If they wanted to go work out at one of the sports facilities, and I did that for a little bit, but I found myself being just negative. People were trying to get back in the league, and here I was, done with it and pretty unsure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life."

According to Smith, being in Texas wasn't exactly easy.

"Moving back to Texas, I didn't have anything," Smith said. "I moved back there with some plastic bins full of clothes that I wasn't going to be able to use. I was just like, 'Damn, let me put my life back together.' I was staying at the Extended Stay in Frisco and trying to figure out, 'What am I going to do?'"

Smith didn't know what he was going to do, but he knew what he didn't want to do.

"I didn't want to coach," Smith said. "I didn't want to be an announcer. I wanted to try something else because I knew I had some other things I had interest in, but I also knew I'm so used to being around other people that doing something by myself is a little scary and I'm not sure if I can do it."

With his NFL career behind him, Smith knew he had to get a job, so that's what he did.

"I ended up going and working for a roofing company where I was knocking door to door and selling roof packages and things to different people, which didn't last long, but it was a humbling experience indeed," Smith said.

Getting a job in the real world ended up being quite the reality check for Smith.

"It was a shock going from being in the locker room for most of my life up to this point to being by myself in a city where I don't really know nobody because I was just there for one season," Smith said. "It was a lot that I was trying to deal with. Out of a relationship I wanted to be in, and it was just a lot of uncomfortable things I was having to deal with. And on top of that, the thing that I used to do to kind of medicate, drinking, I wasn't able to do anymore because I was on an ankle monitor."

Smith was arrested for multiple DUIs over the course of his life, but he said he gave up alcohol after being sentenced to a year in jail in April 2023 .

"Once I got into that last situation and once I got that last DUI, I was just sitting in the cell and I was done then," Smith said. "I was so disappointed in myself and where I was at mentally and physically. I was ready to be done with it."

Throughout the three-part conversation, Smith spent far more time discussing his personal struggles than his football accomplishments. One comment, however, seemed to capture the self-doubt he carried with him throughout his life.

"I never thought I was good enough," Smith said.

What happened before Smith's death

The third and final part of Maultsby's conversation with Smith was released on Friday , just one day before Smith passed away. The cause of death has not yet been released, but the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner told the San Jose Mercury News that Smith suffered a medical emergency.

Smith's friend, Amir Shirazi, offered some details about what happened on the day of Smith's death.

Just hours before he passed away on Saturday, Smith was with Shirazi, and the two had been delivering pizzas to a local charity,  according to the San Francisco Chronicle . According to Shirazi, the two stopped at a gas station after delivering the pizzas and then made a pit stop at Shirazi's house in Los Gatos, California. Shirazi ran inside his house, and when he came back out, Smith was slumped over in the car.

"He was perfectly fine an hour before," Shirazi told the Chronicle. "I came out and he was basically dead in my front seat. I'm just in shock."

Smith had been trying to turn his life around, and his final act before his death clearly showed that.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aldon-smith-death-interview-personal-struggles/)._