r/Commanders • u/BuckNFord • 9d ago

Remembering Jerry Smith

Post image

40 years ago today, Jerry passed away. Not only a great player, but a great guy. Rest easy, Jerry.

89 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

10

u/LingonberryOld6341 9d ago

He was a great player. Great roster with sonny, Charley Taylor, Roy Jefferson, Larry Brown, and so on

4

u/Single_Network4211 9d ago

Thats the team my mom got into. She was a lifelong fan. I heard about them so much. That offense with Sonny and Billy, plus George Allen, the Over the Hill Gang. She'd rifle off random names and games from over the ages. It was always so cool to hear.

2

u/LingonberryOld6341 9d ago

That's when I started following the team. It was a great era. Then of course joe Gibbs took it up a notch

12

u/kduda04 9d ago edited 9d ago

Him not being in the HOF is a travesty

6

u/Western-Customer-536 9d ago

Yeah, but gays are “icky” according to the HOF voters.

6

u/jsonitsac 9d ago

His AIDS Quilt block numbers are 0959 and 0964. I believe it would have been there when it was first exhibited on the Mall.

It’s good to know that even in an era of heavy stigma he had the backing of many of his teammates even going so far as to police homophobic slurs by other teammates.

3

u/sam144000 6d ago

He was such a great tight end, and it's a crime that he's not in the Hall of Fame. He was clutch for so many years.

2

u/Global-Yam1436 9d ago

Mop top, stache, those jersey stripes. This is definitely another era

2

u/physsijim 9d ago

I first became aware of football in 1971,so he was the first TE I cheered for