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According to ESPN’s Jim Trotter, on Friday it was announced that the San Francisco 49ers have released linebacker Aldon Smith. He was arrested Thursday night in Santa Clara, California on charges of a hit and run, driving under the influence, and vandalism.
Per Ian Rapoport on Twitter, the 49ers also released a statement saying, “This organization has tried very hard to help Aldon fight his issues. He is no longer (on) the team, our support for him will continue.”
This isn’t the first time that the former University of Missouri star has been in trouble with the law. In 2012 he was arrested for driving under the influence in Miami Beach, Florida. Then, in 2013, Smith was charged with “three felony accounts of illegal possession of an assault weapon”. Later that year he was arrested yet again, this time on suspicion of driving under the influence and possession of marijuana in San Jose, California.
Additionally, while no criminal charges stemmed from this incident, prior to last season Smith allegedly made a bomb threat at the Los Angeles International Airport.
The departure of Smith from the 49ers caps off a hideous offseason for San Francisco that saw upcoming young linebacker Chris Borland retire, the face of the franchise Patrick Willis retire, multiple other key starters depart from the team, and head coach Jim Harbaugh essentially be forced out of the city despite brining the 49ers back to relevancy.
The outlook for the Niners is bleak. Despite fan frustration with the lack of a Super Bowl ring under Harbaugh, he did have tremendous success with a team that was largely irrelevant from 2002 until his hire in 2011. Now after losing a head coach, a handful of key players, and seeing Colin Kaepernick regress in 2014, this team could go from consistently going deep into the playoffs to perhaps one of the worst teams in the league in 2015. And this is highly probable considering they play in the toughest division in the NFL.
As for the seventh overall selection in the 2011 NFL Draft, it will be difficult for him to move on from an organization that he spent four seasons with and had his back through all of his off-the-field issues. While Smith is only 25 years old, he did manage to dominate when he played, totaling 44 sacks with 19.5 of them coming in the 2012 season. Since that Pro Bowl year, he has only managed to play in 18 games over the past two seasons.
Although Smith’s legal history seems awfully damning and it would certainly appear like his NFL career is over, he is statistically better than Greg Hardy, who was signed by the Cowboys after he was found guilty of assaulting and threatening to kill his former girlfriend.
Some team will definitely give Smith a fifth and sixth chance, so long as he has even the most miniscule value to the team. As long as Smith doesn’t commit any crimes on video, he will always have a spot in the National Football League.
