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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Alex Smith is congratulated by teammate Anthony Adams on his first NFL victory in a game against the Rams on Sept. 27.

Football Hero

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith is a hero on and off the field

By Shannon Burkey

On the field, football fans look to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith to be the hero who will bring their team back to its glory days. But off the field, Smith is turning out to be a different kind of hero for the kids in California's foster care system.

Since being drafted as the No. 1 pick by the 49ers in 2005, the 22-year-old Los Gatos resident says he knew he did not want football to be the only focus in his life. He wanted to leave his mark in the world, and not just by how many touchdown passes he could throw. So he began to think about using his newfound celebrity and some of the money from his six-year, $49.5 million deal with the 49ers to give something to those less fortunate than himself.

"I put so much time in on the field and I do so much around football that I need another part that can kind of keep me grounded and balanced," Smith says. "I live in a very surreal word, and it it's nice to be balanced and give back to some things that are real."

On June 13, Smith launched the Alex Smith Foundation, aimed at working with adolescent foster youths as they near the age of 18 and are about to be emancipated from the foster care system.

In California, there are nearly 75,000 children in foster care. Within two years of becoming emancipated, 50 percent will become unemployed, one-third will become homeless, one-third will be on public assistance and 25 percent will become incarcerated. Smith's foundation works with these most at-risk foster youths to find them housing, jobs, internships or mentoring programs that will help give them a chance of succeeding on their own.

"This is something that can change and can change quickly," Smith says. "It is something that, if you shed some light on it and bring some resources to it, you could have a big impact."

Just having his name on the foundation is not enough for him. He is actively involved in getting to know the faces behind the statistics.

At each 49ers home game, Smith hosts five to six special VIPs--foster kids from the area. Wanting them to have the best seats in the house, Smith buys premium tickets for the youths himself and gives them food vouchers and 49er gear to wear to the game.

"These are adolescent kids in the city of San Francisco who have never been to a game. I want them to come and have a normal time, just like anyone else," Smith says. "After the game they come up to my box and hang out with my family, then when I am done I come up and hang out with them for a while and sign autographs and take pictures with them."

This may sound like a dream day for any 49ers fan, but Smith says he was a little worried that, being teenagers, the foster kids might not enjoy hanging out with him and his family. But his worry disappeared after the first preseason game when he saw how great a time that day's group of kids was having.

For 19-year-old Daniel Bell, who has bounced around from foster home to foster home since he was 2 years old, what Smith and his family are doing means the world.

"I think it's so nice; a lot of people don't recognize foster kids out there or do nice things for us. So when Alex gave us free tickets and came up to see us, and I shook his hand, I almost cried," Bell says of meeting Smith after the 49ers' home opener against St. Louis.

Bell says he feels the work the foundation is doing is so important. When he turned 18 he says he was scared and not even close to being ready to be out on his own.

"The foundation can brighten up our days and our years just by saying that 'We understand you and know you are out there so we are going to help you,' " Bell says.

Like Bell, 20-year-old Ronald High also went from foster home to foster home before moving into a transitional home for foster youth when he was 17.

"I was scared. When I turned 18, I didn't know what I was going to do. It's hard to make up your mind that quick. You are basically a kid in high school just getting ready to graduate," High says. "It's scary; you don't know what's next, but you know you have to move on all on your own."

High says he is grateful to the foundation and the work it is doing to help kids such as himself.

"It gives people like me and the other kids the chance to do things that we have never done before. I'm a grown man, and I've never been to a football game," High says. "They're giving us the chance to do something positive and to have a different outlook on life."

Growing up, Smith says his mother Pam, a social worker, and his father Doug, a high school principal, always preached to him and his three siblings about giving back to their communities. That stuck with him into adulthood and now, as a professional athlete, he says it's the best time to continue that spirit of giving back.

"Right now I can make a difference. Maybe my name will draw some attention to this issue and I will be able to help out," Smith explains. "A lot of people start foundations late in their careers, like after they retire. I always thought that was funny because why wait? When you retire people kind of forget about you."

He was determined that whatever he chose to put his name on would be something he was passionate about and that could make a real difference in at a local level.

"A lot of athletes have foundations,and I started going to a lot of their different events," Smith says. "But come to find out, a lot of athletes don't really go about it the right way. A lot of them have foundations just to say they do, and a lot of their foundations have really vague, broad goals."

Smith says he went through his first year in the NFL thinking about a cause where he could have an impact.

"It was hard. I went through all of last year and I didn't really have anything. Whatever I chose, I wanted it to be something I was really interested in. I wanted it to be something that meant something to me," he says.

Pam Smith, who works for Health and Human Services in San Diego County, helped start a residential high school for foster children in that county. The goal of the school is to try and create normalcy for the foster children who live at the school. One way of doing that was by creating an athletic program and an eight-man football team.

"These are good kids on the low end of the priority list," she says.

At the request of his mother, Smith visited the school and the team, bringing his Reebok sponsor with him and donating shoes to the entire school and cleats to the team just before its championship game.

"These are extreme foster kids who have bounced around 20 to 30 to 50 different homes. These are kids who are not ever going to get reunited with their families. They are not ever going to get adopted," Smith says. "These are kids that are 17 and 18 years old, and some of them might be homeless in a year."

After spending the day with the kids and hearing about their plight, Smith knew he had found his cause and spent his first off-season learning more about the foster care system.

"Once these kids turn 18, all government assistance ends. They are basically kicked to the curb," Smith says. "When I was 18, I had everyone helping me."

Smith made a second visit to the school several months later to congratulate the football team on its victory in the championship game. The school is used to receiving high-profile visitors, but the students were stunned to see Smith back for a second time without cameras or his sponsors.

"The school got a lot of publicity in San Diego and got a lot of visitors, but no one ever came back. They would all just come with the cameras," Smith says. "I thought it was ironic; here are these kids who have been abandoned all their lives and given up on, and these people just come once and make promises and don't ever come back. My being there was a big deal for them."

Although he knows he is the antithesis of a foster child, Smith says it was because his life was so different that he really felt a connection to the kids.

"Learning about what these kids were going through really started to hit home with me--not that I had ever been through that, but it was the fact that I was the opposite of that," Smith explains. "These kids don't have anyone to turn to or any kind of support system."

Offering foster kids the kind of support system he and his siblings had is what the foundation is striving for.

"These kids need to know that somebody cares about them. That is what the foundation is about," Pam Smith says.

Coming from a very tight-knit family, Smith says he knows the value of a strong support system. He is extremely close to his parents, two sisters and brother. The entire clan, along with cousins, aunts, uncles and friends, make the trip to San Francisco for every home game, and his parents travel to each away game to offer their support.

His family is also actively involved in helping him run the foundation, with older sister Abbey acting as executive director.

"Although I have my name on it, it is very much something that my family is doing with me and helping me with. This is something that they are very much a part of," Smith says.

It is because of his family that he has made it as far as he has, Smith says.

"I have a great family and had a great upbringing. If I ever needed anything, there were people I could call. I have seen the value of what that has done for me. I know I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have those people around me, helping me to succeed."

And succeed he has. Smith graduated from the University of Utah after only two years with a 3.71 GPA and a degree in economics. Before being drafted at age 20, he had already begun to work on his master's degree in the same field of study.

On the football field, he led his team to a 12-0 season in 2004, and it became the first school from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to play in a BCS bowl game. The Utes defeated the University of Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl that year, turning the spotlight onto Smith. It was his performance during that season that piqued the interest of scouts, and the NFL began to look like a reality for him.

Smith's uncle, John L. Smith, is the head coach at Michigan State University, and his father played football at Weber State and was a high school football coach, so football has always been in the Smith family blood.

"I never even dared dream I would end up in the NFL. I grew up in a football family, but I was too practical to ever dream about an NFL career. Playing college football was the dream for me," he says.

But as he came off the winning 2004 season, people started to talk. After being told over and over he would most likely be drafted, he decided to petition the NFL to find out what round he was predicted to go in.

"I thought when we heard back it would be sixth or seventh round," Smith says. "I was at our facility in Utah, and my brother called and told me that every single report came back first round. I thought he was just playing around with me. I didn't think it was true."

Although technically a junior, he had already graduated, and with his team coming off an undefeated season and most of his coaches leaving the Utah football program, Smith decided it was time for him to leave as well.

"It all happened really fast. In a matter of two months I went from being a normal college student to flying to Florida to train for the combine with Michael Johnson as my trainer. It was a whirlwind," Smith says.

As a kid, Smith says he always watched the draft on television, and like most kids always imagined the football commissioner coming out and announcing his name as the first round pick.

"The whole experience was dreamlike; it was very surreal," Smith says of being at the draft and watching NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue announce his name as the first pick. "To be sitting in the green room with my whole family and to have him say my name was a little crazy."

Being drafted into the NFL at such a young age and becoming an instant millionaire could go to a lot of people's heads, but with his upbringing, the support of his family and his work with the foundation, Smith has managed to remain a very grounded person.

"I work extremely hard, and I plan on doing great things and playing football for a very long time. But I also plan to work just as hard in the off season with the foundation," Smith says. "When I first got into the NFL, I met a lot of people who didn't have a lot of depth. It is a very materialistic world, and people are very shallow and skin-deep. So I think that having my work with the foundation is something that is just as good for me as it is for the kids. As much good as I might get to do for other people, I think what they do for me is great, too."

Although his work with the foundation is extremely important, Smith knows that he also has another job to do and says he is enjoying being a 49er.

"It's been frustrating at times, like last year, but as much as you are excited about being a top pick, you do go to a team that isn't very good," Smith says. "But I'm really excited to be a part of something that's truly changing and to be a part of what coach [Mike] Nolan is doing. I am thankful to be able to see that change; it makes you appreciate it more."

The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce will host "The Big Deal--A Night of Charity and Chance" on Oct. 6 with a western twist. The evening will include casino gaming, live music and live and silent auctions. For the third annual Big Deal, the Chamber will team up with San Francisco 49ers quarterback and Los Gatos resident Alex Smith, and a portion of the evening's proceeds will be donated to the Alex Smith Foundation. The event will take place from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Opera House in Los Gatos. Contact the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce at 408.354.9300 or www.losgatoschamber.com