Lamar Hunter Smith (born November 29, 1970) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

from 1994 to 2003. On December 30, 2000, Smith carried the ball a then NFL record 40 times for the Dolphins in a

wildcard Wild card most commonly refers to: * Wild card (cards), a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games * Wild card (sports), a tournament or playoff place awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal pla ...

playoff game against the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

. He finished with 209 yards rushing, including a 17-yard touchdown run in overtime to give the Dolphins a 23–17 victory, Miami's most recent playoff victory as of the 2022 season.

Education

Smith attended

South Side High School Southside High School or South Side High School may refer to: *Southside High School (Gadsden, Alabama) *Southside High School (Dallas County, Alabama), a school in the Dallas County Schools system * Southside High School (Batesville, Arkansas) * ...

in Fort Wayne. After high school, he attended

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

and then the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

for his final two years.

Professional career

Smith was selected in the third round with the 73rd overall pick by the

in the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1994, at the Marriott Mar ...

Drunk driving

Smith was charged with

vehicular A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...

assault in 1994. He was

drinking and driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

prior to a car wreck that left teammate

Mike Frier Michael Anthony Frier (March 20, 1969 – December 31, 2015) was a former American football defensive end/ defensive tackle in the National Football League. He played collegiately at Appalachian State University and professionally with the Ci ...

paralyzed Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

from the neck down. The

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

noted that Smith had drank at least five

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

s and six-and-a-half

ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman units of measurement, Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The #International avoirdupois ounce, avoirdupois ounce ...

s of Scotch shortly before his car struck a

utility pole A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, optical fiber, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as Distribution transfor ...

. Smith pleaded guilty to vehicular assault in 1996, and served 60 days in a work-release program. He was also ordered to give 35 to 50 percent of his NFL earnings to Frier over a seven-year period. He was arrested on a second

DUI Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

charge in 2002 while playing for the Panthers.

NFL Europe

In 2007, he participated in a coaching internship program with

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Postseason

References

External links

Lamar Smith statistics
1970 births Living people Players of American football from Fort Wayne, Indiana African-American players of American football American football running backs Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen football players Houston Cougars football players Seattle Seahawks players Miami Dolphins players New Orleans Saints players Carolina Panthers players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{runningback-1970s-stub