Seahawks Quarterback Geno Smith: When They Write You Off, Don’t Write Back

Leave it to an English major/quarterback to provide this week’s business lesson from the world of sports. The player of note is Geno Smith, who attended West Virginia University and is now the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. A nine-year veteran of the NFL, Smith spent most of that time in the unheralded position of “lifetime backup,” a moniker he wore with dignity behind such blue chippers as Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers and Russell Wilson.

This year, after a discontented Wilson was traded to the Denver Broncos, the former lifetime backup Smith got the starting call at quarterback. Amidst the downpouring of doubt and doomsaying from armchair quarterbacks and pundits alike, Smith set the tone for how he was going to view his opportunity to be a leader quickly. After leading Seattle to a 17-16 season-opening win over Denver, Smith famously remarked, “They wrote me off, I ain’t write back though!”

He sure didn’t, and since then has been leading the Seahawks in their meteoric rise up the NFL Power Rankings and the top spot in the NFC West.

As Sheldon Cooper and Dick Vitale might have said, “Bazinga, baby!”

In a recent interview on Fox Sports with Clarissa Thompson, the host asked Smith whether he felt he was “written off too quickly,” and Smith went a little deeper on his belief that “experience is the best professor” you can have if you’re willing to learn on the job.

“Sometimes you’re not going to get your way and you have to take the long road, and that’s okay,” he told Thompson. “When you get written off, you might be the only person who believes in you. I am super confident and walk through life with my head up because I know who I am. I know what I bring to the table.”

And then he added another insight that completed the lesson, saying, “The journey is the reward. All the steps we take are necessary and we have to continue to walk and not be stagnant. I’m only a man. I don’t let things get out of perspective.”

That’s the job of writers and we’ll be guilty as charged just a bit by agreeing with Thompson that today Smith is not just a man, he is the man. One of the more impressive things about the interview was that Smith didn’t seem to buy into the fairy tale interpretation of his success. He doesn’t think of himself as an underdog or late bloomer or frog-turned-prince. He has always seen himself as a professional who was “blessed” to be able to play football for a living and to constantly get better at what he did.

All of us experience some moment in our professional lives when things don’t start out according to plan or hit an unexpected snag sooner than we expected. Our reaction in these situations will determine the quality of our journeys. Words matter. We can view the circumstance as a “setback” in our pursuit of our goals, or as an “education” with intrinsic value to be discovered in the opportunity to learn something new.

When Smith referred to experience as best the professor, he wasn’t just throwing cliches around like a football on a Sunday afternoon.

He was reflecting on the fact that he watched how three elite quarterbacks—Manning, Phillips and Wilson—worked. How they prepared for a game, provided leadership on the field and off the field, conducted themselves when the offense was moving and corrected themselves when it wasn’t; how they handled themselves with the media and larger public. In this regard, Smith undoubtedly learned not only what to do but also what not to do. For example, he has let his performance do his talking and resisted engaging with his naysayers.

Smith plays with the wisdom that comes from patience and learning. When one of his passes got picked off and returned for a “pick-six” during Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, he didn’t panic as the Seahawks trailed 14-10. Instead, he spent the next thirteen minutes or so running 26 plays, gaining 156 yards, going seven-for-seven on third down and putting 14 points on the board, leading Seattle to a 31-21 victory.

Observed his tackle Abe Lucas, “He just had this next-play mentality. It’s something every football player preaches, but it’s very hard to practice, especially in a situation like this.”

Note the word practice. The great thing about Smith is that he didn’t develop that “next-play mentality” on the field last Sunday; he’s developed every day of his working life as a professional athlete. And now he’s the professor other aspiring professionals should be watching.