Geno Smith Rewrites the Script

Last night Geno Smith led the Seahawks to an improbable 17-16 win against the Denver Broncos to open the 2022 NFL regular season on Monday Night Football. The game featured a boisterous Seattle crowd, the return of former franchise cornerstone Russell Wilson and one galvanizing postgame quote.

“They wrote me off… I didn’t write back.”

– Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks QB

As someone who has covered professional and college locker rooms as a game day reporter, I can assure you quotes like Smith’s don’t happen very often. In fact, last night when I heard it I ran to my computer to type up the quote before I forgot it. That was an energizing quote fitting a remarkable moment.

Smith is in year three with the Seahawks and after two long years as a backup to Russell Wilson, entered the season as the starting quarterback (QB1) for the first time since 2014 while with the New York Jets. I did the math and that was a long time ago. Since leaving the Jets he served as a backup for the Giants and Chargers. Last night was just his sixth start in eight years.

This was a feel-good success story nearly a decade in the making – a lifetime in sports. Smith starred at West Virginia and played in the most electrifying college football game I ever watched leading the Mountaineers to a 70-63 win against Baylor. Not a typo. Smith passed for 656 yards on 45-51 with eight (8) touchdowns. 

It’s not easy being the No. 2 option. Being an insurance policy rarely is especially when you never know when your moment is going to come. Last night Smith demonstrated his leadership and talent and emerged from the shadows once again on the MNF stage. Entering week two, Smith is the league’s second rated passer. 

There are lessons here for those of us not currently holding a clipboard on the NFL sidelines. Making a career pivot, getting a new job and preparing for the unknown are rarely easy. It takes courage and conviction and resolve. But, perhaps the most important elements of all are patience, preparedness and faith. Geno Smith demonstrated that rewriting the script is possible and very rewarding.

BONUS
My Personal Top-Three Worst Postgame Quote Candidates: Tony La Russa, Buck Showalter & Barry Lamar Bonds

BONUS OTD – SEPTEMBER 13
It truly was a kinder, gentler time… In 1922 New York City demonstrated the consequences of wearing the wrong hat after Labor Day when the Straw Hat Riots began. What was the last straw? (#dadjoke) According to breathless reporting in the New York Times, Dozens of mini riots spread as “Gangs of young hoodlums ran riot in various parts of the city smashing unseasonable straw hats, and trampling them in the street. In some case, mobs of hundreds of boys and young men terrorized whole blocks.”

Passages: Tupac Shakur (1971-96) was murdered in a drive-by shooting at the age of 25. Watch → California Love

Notable: The Beatles released the single “Yesterday” today in 1965. → LISTEN