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Geno Smith’s causes: Helping less-fortunate kids, shocking all with a Seahawks playoff run

Seahawks fans know Geno Smith has gone from mothballed for most of the last decade to the favorite for NFL comeback player of the year this season.

They know his play has at times been wondrous replacing Russell Wilson as Seattle’s quarterback. He’s been the surprise of the league.

But there’s more to Smith’s story.

Lisa knows.

Since for his first NFL game with the New York Jets nine years ago, Smith has hosted underprivileged children from challenging backgrounds at his home games. He’s done it through his 7Sunday Heroes foundation. He, his mother and his grandmother who helped raise him in Miami run it.

Smith has hosted kids even though he wasn’t playing. That was for seven years, while he was a backup for the Jets, Giants, Chargers and Seahawks. He was Wilson’s No. 2 from 2019 until late August. That’s when coach Pete Carroll chose Smith over Drew Lock to replace Wilson as Seattle’s starter for 2022.

In 2017, Smith was on the Giants’ bench for 15 of 16 games. But for a student Smith hosted at one of those home games in the New Jersey Meadowlands five years ago, yet another game Smith wasn’t playing meant the world.

“There is a young girl by the name of Lisa. When I was on the Giants we invited her to a game,” Smith said Thursday. “Randomly, I get calls and texts from people that we brought to the games. ...calls, FaceTimes, and they’d be giving me good news about where they are in life, or just having the chance to chat.”

Lisa called Smith soon after he signed with the Seahawks in 2019, to update him on what she was doing.

“Lisa told me that she went to Harvard,” Smith said, smiling.

“I mean, I thought that was huge. She just called and texted me and was saying thank you. I congratulated her on her success, and she really just continues to reach out.

“Now I think she is doing something in tech, and she is doing a phenomenal job at continuing to grow and grow.

“That one that is specific, but they all mean the world to me. I look at them all like family members or a part of the community I was in back home.”

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) points to the sky as he jogs off the field after passing the ball to Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) and scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter of an NFL game at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on Oct. 30, 2022. The Seahawks defeated the Giants 27-13.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) points to the sky as he jogs off the field after passing the ball to Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) and scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter of an NFL game at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash. on Oct. 30, 2022. The Seahawks defeated the Giants 27-13.

Home-grown giving in Miami

Smith’s mother, Tracey Sellers, and his grandmother, Joann Smith, instilled the virtue and value of philanthropy in him as he grew up in Miami. When Smith was at Miramar High School, his grandmother founded the Parenting with a Purpose Life Center in Miami Lakes. The nonprofit organization offers free pregnancy tests, lifestyle counseling, educational training, community referral services and other resources to predominantly single, younger parents.

His mother is also active with Extended Hands, a second Miami Lakes social-services organization. It began in 2010 for low-resourced communities in Dade County.

“I was raised by people who were giving back, and I feel like it’s something that I enjoy doing,” Geno Smith said.

“It really started with my grandmother. She didn’t make the most money, and worked at a cafeteria.”

That was inside Bunche Park Elementary School in Opa-locka.

“We grew up in Miami, Florida, where it wasn’t always the best place as far as financial status,” Smith said. “But my grandmother would come back home from school and tell me stories about how some of the kids might have come to school hungry or were going home and didn’t have food at home. She would either take food from our house and bring it to them or she would give food from the cafeteria for them to take home. She would give them extra lunch and things like that.”

Those stories stayed with Smith. Stayed with him from youth football quarterbacking the Miami Gardens Chargers Optimist team. To Miramar High. To starring at West Virginia University. Through becoming a second-round NFL draft choice in 2013 and now a 10-year veteran in the league.

“I just remember her coming back with those stories and just telling me how it really helped those kids out and how the parents would come to the school to thank her,” he said.

“I was raised by my mother and my grandmother. My mother continued to do that. She does that back home right now with Extended Hands,” Smith, 32, said. “She also does Parents Without Partners, which is her way of giving back to the community, to the single fathers and mothers. She gives out clothes and diapers. She helps them with their job applications to get jobs, and is continuing to give food.”

The quarterback’s 7Sunday Heroes foundation is an extension of his mother’s and grandmother’s efforts back home. On Nov. 21, Smith’s first day back to work off the Seahawks’ bye week, the quarterback handed out turkeys, gift cards and meals to those who needed them in Seattle’s Central District.

“We do back-to school drives. We do Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all of the holidays,” Smith said. “My mother has done a phenomenal job back home, that’s what she’s really known for down there in Miami and South Florida. She’s known for her philanthropy and giving back. ...

“I just want to make her proud by doing the same.”

He says he knows being a professional athlete provides him a platform from which to raise awareness and help others.

“Yes, sir, I really think it is important. I think it is something that we all have to be mindful of,” Smith said. “The platform that we have, the words we say, and the things we do, they all reflect not only on ourselves but on our community. We have to be extremely mindful of it and use it to be beneficial, so the platform is great to have.

“If you don’t use it in the right way, I think it goes to waste. I’m always trying to be that pillar in the community and a person that people can look up to for the right things.”

Before his platform raised by becoming the Seahawks’ starter this summer, Smith was cited in early January by the Washington State Patrol for allegedly driving 96 mph in a 60-mph zone in Bellevue. WSP arrested Smith early on Jan. 10 for suspicion of driving under the influence, hours after he and the Seahawks returned from their win at Arizona that ended last season. He was briefly jailed, then released seven hours after his arrest, on $1,000 bail.

Throughout this year the King County prosecutor’s office has been awaiting blood-test results from the night in question to come back from the State Patrol Crime Lab before making a charging decision. The lab reportedly has been working through a long backlog of cases.

Before this season began Smith said of the case: “Those things will be worked out, but I’m extremely confident in all of those things. Those things, they have a timeline, and they have to be worked out.

“But I don’t see anything, any problems.”

Geno Smith’s season

Smith explained his foundation and his cause Thursday while showing off the customized shoes he is going to wear Sunday. That’s when his Seahawks (6-5) try to end their two-game losing streak playing the Los Angeles Rams (3-8) in Inglewood, California.

His alarmingly red shoes represent his foundation.

His game has been fire, too.

Smith continues to lead the league with a completion rate of 72.8%. He had the fourth-highest rate in a team’s first 11 games of a season in NFL history. Only Drew Brees (three times) has been more precise passing through 11 games.

Smith’s passer rating of 107.9 entering this weekend was second in the league to Tua Tagovailoa of Smith’s hometown Dolphins. Starting reguarly for the first time in eight years, Smith has eight games with a passer rating of over 100. That’s the most in the NFL.

Smith’s 19 touchdown passes are fifth-most in the league. That’s against five interceptions; he’s also in the NFL’s top 10 there, and in completions and yards.

Smith’s gone from the bench to the top of the league this Seahawks season.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith reacts after his 8-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith reacts after his 8-yard touchdown run during the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

This week, Smith is leading Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, all NFC quarterbacks in fan voting for the Pro Bowl.

“That’s a testament on how he has carried himself up to this point and throughout this whole season, but also the players around him, and how he’s upheld his standard on his side of the bargain,” said Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf, who trained with Smith this past offseason. “He was going to come in here and play his ass off, and that’s something that he has done week in and week out.

“So, it’s nothing but hard work and dedication. And it’s starting to pay off for him.”

Seahawks’ sense of urgency

The work’s not done, of course.

The Seahawks have six games remaining to earn a playoff berth no one saw coming. They are one game plus a head-to-head tiebreaker behind San Francisco for the NFC West lead. They play the 49ers at home Dec. 15.

Seattle is the conference’s eighth and last team with a winning record. It’s a half game behind Washington (7-5) for the NFC’s seventh and final playoff spot.

“Obviously, there is a big sense of urgency,” Smith said. “We have to get things going in the right direction, get some wins...because we are right in the thick of it now.

“Everyone is pretty much the same. No one has really changed, or no panic, or any frenzy, or anything like that. But there is definitely a sense of urgency.”