San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Alex Smith’s County Connection

Pam Smith and Alex in Washington D.C. last year after a meeting with the Speaker of the House to talk about the needs of foster youth.

If you’re a football fan who’s been dedicated to a particular team year in, year out, you know about the heady highs and the depressing lows.

Now, imagine the intensity of being wrapped up in every season, every game, every play, not just for fun and from habit, but because the starting quarterback is your son.

Some of you may know, Pam Smith, our County’s HHSA East and North Central Regions head and Aging and Independence Services director, is mother of Alex Smith, the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback who helped take his team within a game of the Super Bowl this year.

Alex Smith’s  fraught career—from number one draft pick in 2005, to six straight disappointing seasons with numerous injuries with the 49ers, to his career redefining season this year—and his likability and persistence have drawn a lot of media attention lately. He was featured in the Sports Illustrated cover story earlier this month.

“They see it as a story of perseverance,” said Pam Smith. “...that patience and hard work can pay off.”

Smith said the 49ers loss to the New York Giants Sunday after their wildly exciting victory over the favored New Orleans Saints the weekend before—with Alex playing a central role—was the kind of heart-rending drama she’s learned to handle as she’s supported her son through his career's struggles.

Working under three coaches, a different offensive coordinator every year, and sitting out the entire 2008 season due to a shoulder injury, until this year, Alex Smith’s talents, persistence and opportunity had never quite jelled.

“It’s been a long, hard road, I tell you,” Pam Smith said.

Smith and her husband Doug have attended every one of Alex’s NFL games, and Alex’s three siblings and large extended family go to as many as they can.

“We’ve been the first faces he’s seen after some of the worst games,” Smith said. “Sometimes you search for words, but it’s always about helping him get through it in a positive way.”

Despite its disappointing end Sunday, Smith said 2011 was a, “very, very exciting season.”

It almost didn’t happen.  Alex was a free agent after the end of the 2010 season, and his family had urged him to leave San Francisco. But a new coach, Jim Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback himself, liked what he saw in Alex.  Encouraged by the new leader and guided by loyalty to the 49ers and his longstanding aim to play his best in San Francisco, Alex signed a one-year contract with the team.

At Candlestick Park Sunday, the national anthem was interrupted by the wild cheering when the camera turned on Alex Smith. It was a marked contrast to 2010, when during one low point in a game, home fans had booed Smith and called for the backup quarterback to take the field.

“When they like you, it’s out of proportion, and when they don’t like you, it’s out of proportion,” said Pam Smith.

That’s why it’s been important to keep fan reaction and everything about an NFL career in perspective, Pam Smith said. Alex has a knack for this.

“He’s down to earth, he’s humble, he’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet; he’s not any different now than he was when he started playing,” Smith said. “He feels he’s lucky to do something he loves; lucky for the opportunity.”

In the past couple years, getting married and having his first child, a boy, have also been sources of joy for Alex, 27.

Also helping Alex keep a healthy perspective has been his work with the Alex Smith Foundation, whose mission is to support transitional age foster youth. Alex founded the organization at the outset of his NFL career, and the work has been a  positive constant throughout football’s ups and downs.

“Through all these bad years, his foundation has done a tremendous amount of work and good,” Smith said.

In one of the foundation’s programs,  foster teens get to take a special course at SDSU, so they can experience college and envision themselves there. And the foundation’s Guardian Scholars Program at SDSU supports former foster youth to help them earn a degree. Fewer than 2 percent of former foster youth who enter college graduate, Pam Smith said. Alex’s scholars so far have achieved a 75 percent graduation rate.

Alex first became interested in supporting foster youth after attending a San Pasqual Academy football game shortly after being drafted into the NFL. San Pasqual Academy is the County’s unique residential high school for foster youth near Escondido.

“He just linked with those kids,” Pam Smith said. “Here he was 20, and he was facing the daunting task of going into the NFL number  one, and he had a lot of family and support to help him.”

“These people were 17, 18, and frankly, he couldn’t imagine it...starting life at that age with no family support.”

Alex Smith’s connection to the County means it’s not just his mother who’s invested in his career. HHSA employees have also been rooting for him, and they’ve been happy for Alex and Pam Smith this year, said Denise Nelesen, Communications Manager for Aging and Independence Services.

“It’s like he finally gets some just deserts for all his work and his effort...you can hear people talking about it up and down the hall.”

It’s not just their vicarious proximity to an NFL celebrity that keeps employees interested, according to Nelesen.

“Because everyone cares about Pam, and she’s always so  good with everyone, it’s exciting to see something good happening with her and her family.”

Nelesen said she has worked with Pam Smith for 12 years and followed Alex’s progress since he was a champion quarterback and top scholar at Helix High School.

Interestingly,  many of  the successful traits Pam Smith ascribes to her son, Nelesen also sees in Pam.

“One of her strengths is positivity. She’s always looking at what can be learned from a tough situation,” Nelesen says.  “She espouses the futility of pointing a finger of blame for any failure, but rather aims all eyes toward what we can do better.”  

  Left to right, Alex's brother Josh Smith and Josh's wife Patty, father Doug Smith, Jay Leno, Alex, Pam, and Abbey, Alex's sister