The Las Vegas Raiders family and entire NFL are mourning the loss of former running back Steve Smith, who died Saturday after a battle with ALS.
Smith was 57 and had fought the disease for two decades.
The Raiders Family is deeply saddened by the passing of Steve Smith, who valiantly battled Lou Gehrig’s Disease for two decades.
» https://t.co/ChD7Dz785y pic.twitter.com/aNx1xihB0v
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 21, 2021
Smith was drafted in the third round by the Raiders in 1987 after starring at Penn State, where he helped the Nittany Lions win the national championship in the 1986 season.
Smith, primarily a fullback, ran for 1,627 yards and nine TDs in seven seasons for the Raiders and two in Seattle. He blocked for Bo Jackson, among others.
“He laid his body on the line for me hundreds of times,” Jackson told the York Daily Record in December of 2019. “I’m just glad God let him stay around as long as he has so I can go see him. … I want to do my part to make sure he’s not forgotten.”
Though Smith could not walk or talk or even hold his wife’s hand in more than a decade, he could communicate through his glances, expressions and words on a computer screen controlled with his eyes.
He decided to live with machines to help him breathe and eat because he wanted to fight for a cure.
