Chris Smith (born June 3, 1985) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a safety for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Early years

Smith attended Gainesville High School, where he earned all-state honors as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in football and also lettered in baseball and basketball. Smith played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for Florida International University from 2003 to 2006, where he studied criminal justice. He finished college with 178 tackles and 12 tackles for a loss, a sack and one interception. Smith was one of two players who were dismissed from the Golden Panthers for their involvement in the Miami-FIU brawl that occurred on October 14, 2006 in a game against

Miami Hurricanes football The Miami Hurricanes football team represents the University of Miami in college football. The Hurricanes compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Coastal Division of the Atlanti ...

in what had been intended as the first of annual cross-town series between the Miami teams.

Professional career

Smith went undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft but was signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles on April 30, 2007, and played in the pre-season but was ultimately released on August 27. In June 2008, the Montreal Alouettes signed Smith to the practice roster. On July 31, 2008, he played in his first regular season game and started at safety the following week. He ultimately played in nine games of the

2008 CFL season The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern-day Canadian football, the 51st season for the Canadian Football League. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup ...

before returning to the practice roster at the end of the year.

References

Living people 1985 births American players of Canadian football Gainesville High School (Florida) alumni FIU Panthers football players Montreal Alouettes players Players of American football from Gainesville, Florida Players of Canadian football from Florida {{Defensiveback-1980s-stub