Quarterbacks are, more often than not, the face of a team. And when you’re talking about Akili Smith—who helped launch Oregon into the stratosphere of the college football elite—it’s quite a legacy … one that established a quarterback-producing powerhouse. But legacies are complicated, and to know Smith’s is to understand the tough love he got from a father who didn’t want his son to make the same mistakes that sent him to prison. The multi-sport star took advantage of those lessons, turning them into a brief baseball career and a football scholarship to Oregon. You could argue that his decision to play football was the precursor to the new era of high-octane offenses. He threw 30 touchdowns in only 11 starts for the Ducks, and was named the 1998 Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year. That led to being picked third overall by Cincinnati in the 1999 NFL Draft and an NFL career that lasted only four years, one many to be one of the NFL’s biggest busts. And though there was plenty of blame to go around for his lack of success, Smith has accepted it and come to grips with his legacy.
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