You can’t name a player who’s made a more insane, absurd, and damn near impossible comeback than Alex Smith. The man is a warrior, plain and simple. Going from near-death to starting again in the National Football League is more than deserving of the Comeback Player of the Year award. The voters will lose all credibility if anyone else wins it.
I understand your argument about how some players like Ben Roethlisberger or early in the year Cam Newton were frontrunners, but that’s not the case anymore. No disrespect to those players, but what they’re coming back from doesn’t even come close to comparing to Alex Smith. They didn’t almost die, they never had a discussion about a limb being amputated. They never had to deal with countless infections that ate their flesh, they never faced the possibility of not being able to walk again. Their comebacks pale in comparison to Alex Smith.
Smith’s comeback is even more amazing because it was completed. He waited 728 days to start another game in the NFL. He battled through rehab, surgeries, and training in an attempt to return to the game. Smith could’ve just retired, he could’ve just said “This isn’t worth it,” but no. He didn’t, he fought the fight and was committed to returning to the game and not letting his career end on anything but his own terms. As for statistics, Alex Smith almost losing his life, and doctors saying it would be a miracle if he would walk again are more important than any numbers Smith puts up in the 2020 season. The severity of his injury is more than enough to make him the undoubted winner of the award.
The stats that Smith manages to put up this year are basically irrelevant, but if he plays well then it’s a lock. Hell, he should already be a lock for the award based on how brutal his injury and recovery process was. The man almost lost his life and now he’s a starting NFL quarterback again. If that isn’t the comeback of the year, I don’t know what the hell is.
