Former Pro Bowl defensive end Aldon Smith gave a chilling interview just days before his shocking death, telling celebrity barber Tee Maultsby that he has “had better days.”
Smith died at age 36 at a San Jose hospital on Saturday, June 13, after a friend found him unresponsive in his car.
“I’ve definitely had better days,” Smith said on the June 8 episode of Maultsby’s “Laced Up” YouTube show. “It’s along the lines of something I think I’ve been dealing with my whole life, and I’m just struggling with accepting how it’s playing out right now. That sounds like a bunch of gibberish.”
Smith added, “It’s been a tough week. It’s been rewarding, and it’s starting to pay. Things are starting to happen.”
The former San Francisco 49ers star didn’t go into detail about what he was struggling with but assured viewers that he was “grateful” and “in a place of gratitude.”
Smith’s cause of death has still not been determined, but the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner told Us Weekly on Monday, June 15, that an autopsy has been completed. He was pronounced dead an hour after his friend, Amir Shirazi, found him in Shirazi’s car.
“He was perfectly fine an hour before,” Shirazi told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I came out and he was basically dead in my front seat. I’m just in shock.”
“We are devastated by the sudden and tragic passing of Aldon Smith,” the 49ers wrote in a social media statement on Saturday. “Aldon’s undeniable talent and sheer dominance on the field were on display from the moment he joined our organization, having recorded one of the best rookie seasons the National Football League has seen.”
Smith played two seasons at the University of Missouri before being taken seventh overall in the 2011 NFL Draft. He played four years for the 49ers before spending time with the Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks. He officially retired in 2023, two years after he played his final game.
Though Smith made the 2012 Pro Bowl, his career was derailed by a series of suspensions and arrests. That includes an arrest for his role in an alleged 2015 hit-and-run, to which he pleaded no contest in 2017, and a domestic violence arrest in 2018.
Despite his legal troubles, Smith was seen donating food to a local charity on the day of his death and just a week earlier had met with 49ers rookies at the team’s practice facility. NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Bonta Hill reported that Smith’s “head was on straight.”
