The Kansas City Chiefs players and the rest of the NFL participated in the annual “My Cause My Cleats” campaign. Players can pick an important cause and represent the chosen organization on custom-designed cleats during this time.
A cause that has been important for Trey Smith has affected the trajectory of his football career. The Chiefs’ right guard played on behalf of the National Blood Clot Alliance with the organization decorated on his cleats last Sunday. Smith had a well-documented battle with blood clots during his time in college. Back in 2018, he was diagnosed with a condition in his lungs. Smith spoke with reporters on Wednesday about his cause and his battles with blood clots.
“Yeah, it means the world. I put up a tweet and an Instagram post about it, talking about (how) I had blood clots and stuff in 2018,” said Smith. “For me, it was a life-changing event. Obviously, anytime you have something that threatens your health and overall well-being, it’s different, and to experience that at a young age, it changed me a lot. Being able to represent that (and) bring more awareness to the cause and really potentially save lives and bring more awareness to it. I’m ecstatic; I’m stoked that I can have the opportunity to give it a platform.”
I chose @StopTheClot for the @nfl #MyCauseMyCleats initiative. In early 2018, I was diagnosed with pulmonary embolisms, better known as blood clots in my lungs. At the time it completely changed my life and nearly derailed my football career.
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— Trey Smith (@treysmith) December 7, 2022
Smith worked hard over his next few years at Tennessee, losing 40 pounds and earning 2019 first-team All-SEC honors starting 12 of 13 games played. He followed with first-team all-conference honors again in 2020, starting all 11 games at left guard. Smith was drafted in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft and has since been completely healthy.
“You’ve got to really give a major shoutout to the University of Tennessee (and) their medical staff for doing their due diligence to making sure I was safe to play and just safe in my overall life as well,” said Smith. “Then the Kansas City Chiefs medical staff as well. Just making sure that they were comfortable with the plan and like I said, we’ve had zero instances (and) zero issues whatsoever and it’s been clean. I thank God for it and I’m just thankful for my overall well-being.”
The National Blood Clot Alliance is a non-profit, voluntary health organization dedicated to advancing the prevention, early diagnosis, and successful treatment of life-threatening blood clots. Smith’s cleats are designed to support any suffering from deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and clot-provoked stroke.