How Chiefs Pro Bowler Trey Smith Aims To Use His Historic Contract

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📝 usncan Note: How Chiefs Pro Bowler Trey Smith Aims To Use His Historic Contract

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Trey Smith received a momentous call from his agent on July 15, notifying him that the Kansas City Chiefs would sign him to a historic contract extension.

The catch was that Smith was at Purple Label Barbershop getting his hair both cut and twisted at the time, and the NFL deadline for players on the franchise tag to be able to agree to long-term extensions was 3 p.m. CST that afternoon.

“Hey guys,” Smith told his barbers, “we got to speed this up.”

Smith anxiously raced to the Chiefs facility and made it there about an hour before the deadline.

“I was on edge a little bit driving there,” Smith exclusively shared. “Once I got there, everybody was pretty much like, ‘Calm down. You’re good.’”

Smith then signed his four-year, $94 million contract, which leads all NFL guards in average annual value ($23.5 million) and total guaranteed money ($70 million).

It culminates an amazing journey for Smith who lost his mom when he was 15 and overcame blood clots to become a Pro Bowler, two-time Super Bowl champion and now the NFL’s highest-paid guard.

“How great is that?” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said.

How Smith Is Spending (Or Saving) His Money

To celebrate his lucrative contract, Smith initially did not want a lavish, calorie-laden dinner — especially with training camp a week away — but his father, Henry, insisted on picking up the takeout tab from Eddie V’s, an upscale seafood restaurant.

And the 26-year-old Smith has made few notable purchases since signing his extension.

“I’m pretty frugal, man. I’m a simple guy,” Smith said. “My teammates actually get on my case about it.”

Smith learned the simple life at an early age, lifting hay and feeding the cows every Saturday on the farm of Henry Henderson Sanders Jr., his maternal grandfather, in Tennessee.

He not only wants to develop Sanders’ farm, which was bequeathed to Smith, his sister and his aunt, but his ultimate goal is also to buy another farm in middle Tennessee, following his playing days.

“It’s definitely my dream to go back to the state of Tennessee,” Smith said. “I always saw real estate as being a real unique avenue. You look at some of the ultra-wealthy and how they’re able to amass wealth and keep building wealth and keep passing it down.”

For now, his financial commitment in Tennessee is limited to his role as a passive investor in a Moxy Hotel in the Old City neighborhood of Knoxville, Tenn.

That hotel chain is known for having small, studio-like rooms but elaborate lobbies/lounges with a full-service bar, microwave ovens and 24/7 on-the-go snacks and beverages.

“The Moxy brand is sort of a refreshing brand,” Smith said. “It’s more catered to the younger audience, more of a fun feel.”

The hotel Smith invested in is located in the same city as the University of Tennessee, his alma mater.

That is the setting of where his football career flourished — but was nearly derailed.

Life-Threatening Blood Clots

After earning second-team All-SEC honors as a true freshman at Tennessee in 2017, Smith passed out during conditioning drills the following year due to blood clots on both sides of his lungs.

He traversed the country, including to the Cleveland Clinic and University of North Carolina Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, looking for answers to help him continue his football career.

With his mom (Dorsetta Smith) having passed away at 51 as a result of congestive heart failure, Trey leaned on Henry and his sister, Ashley, who is now an NFL player engagement manager but worked in Tennessee’s athletic office at the time.

“When I was having up days, bad days,” Trey said, “I could always go visit her.”

Trey Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs gets emotional during the national anthem prior to a 2023 game against the Philadelphia Eagles at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

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Doctors put him on anticoagulants (blood thinners), but absorbing contact — particularly the repeated blows along the offensive line — while on blood-thinning medication could have proven fatal.

Using a regimen of intermittent dosing — where he’d take the blood-thinning medication every day of the week before skipping Friday morning, allowing it to leave his body by Saturday kickoff — enabled him to start 12 games in 2019, even though he couldn’t practice with the team because a collision could cause internal bleeding.

Now in the NFL, Smith no longer has to take the medication — except before long flights like the one he will travel on to Brazil to play the Chiefs’ regular-season opener.

On that 11-hour, international flight, he’ll wear compression sleeves on his arms and legs and also get up every few hours to walk or wiggle his legs to reduce the risk of clotting.

“If I’ve been in that same position too long,” he said, “I’ll just get up and move just to make sure the blood’s flowing in the body.”

The blood clots suffered at Tennessee caused him to slide to the sixth round (226th overall) in the 2021 NFL Draft, but his durability has been an asset — not a liability — in the NFL.

The 6-6, 321-pound lineman has started every regular-season game but one during his four years with the Chiefs, and that’s part of the reason Kansas City rewarded him with that lucrative deal.

“He deserves every penny of it,” Chiefs center Creed Humphrey said. “He’s a great player.”

When reflecting on his journey in his first press conference after signing his contract, Smith teared up.

“I made two promises to (my mom),” Smith said. “I would get my degree and play in the NFL. I didn’t promise her I’d be the highest paid, but I made a promise, man, and my parents sacrificed so much for me to be here — so much. And to have that moment with them, it’s special, bro. It’s special. And it’s something I won’t take for granted.”