Justin Smith (born September 30, 1979), nicknamed "the Cowboy", is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Missouri Tigers The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the "Fighting Tigers of Columbia" who, in 1864, protected Columbia ...

, earning

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors. He played for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

for seven seasons after being chosen with the fourth overall pick in the

2001 NFL draft The 2001 NFL draft was the 66th draft annual of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible professional football players. The draft, which is officially referred to as the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at the Th ...

. Smith also played seven seasons for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

Early life

Smith was born in

Jefferson City, Missouri Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the List of cities in Missouri, 16th most popu ...

. He attended

Jefferson City High School Jefferson City High School (JCHS) is a public secondary school in Jefferson City, Missouri. It is one of the five public high schools in Cole County and is one of two in Jefferson City. History The Jefferson City Public School District was e ...

, where he played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

for the Jefferson City Jays.

College career

Smith played for the

Missouri Tigers football The Missouri Tigers football program represents the University of Missouri (often referred to as Mizzou) in college football and competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). History Mis ...

team while majoring in general studies at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

. In 1998, he became the first

true freshman The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see '' Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 ...

start Start can refer to multiple topics: * Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air * Starting lineup in sports * Track and field#Starts use in race, Starts use in sport race * S ...

every game for Missouri since 1986 and was named Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore, Smith set a new school sack record with eight and was named to first-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

. In his junior season, Smith logged 11 sacks, 24

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

-for-loss, and 97 total tackles. He broke his own sacks record that he set the previous year and set a new school record for tackles-for-loss. He earned first-team

honors from the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

and garnered first-team All-Big 12 honors for the second year in a row. He entered the

following his junior year.

Professional career

Cincinnati Bengals

Justin was selected by the

in first round (fourth overall) of the

. He signed with the team on September 8, following protracted contract negotiations, and had roster exemption for the September 9 season opener vs.

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. He signed a six-year, $10 million contract that included a $1.25 million signing bonus. Despite missing all of the preseason as well as the first regular-season game, Smith logged a Bengals rookie-record 8.5 sacks, breaking the mark of 8.0 set by James Francis in 1990. He finished second on the line in total tackles (53) and first in solos (41) and had the second-most sacks by an NFL

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

in 2001, topped only by the 9.0 of Pittsburgh's Kendrell Bell. In his second season with the Bengals, he started every game at right defensive end and led the team in both sacks (6.5) and sack yardage (56) while also leading the defensive line in tackles (59). He played 95.5 percent of the defensive snaps (934 of 978), second on the team. His 6.5 sacks, gave him a total of 15 over his first two seasons, the most by a Cincinnati Bengal in his first two seasons since 1976–77. In his third season with the Bengals, he recorded 60 tackles, 41 of which were solo. He also added another 5.0 sacks while also playing outside linebacker. His fourth season saw him lead the team in sacks (8.0) and sack yardage (70.5). He also led the defense in snaps played (94.4 percent), and he recorded 70 tackles. In 2005, Smith led the team once again in sacks (6.0), making it his third time to lead the team in his five seasons. In his other two seasons, he finished one sack or less behind the team leader. By the end of his fifth year, he had moved into fifth place on Bengals all-time sacks list with a total of 34. On February 15, 2007, the Bengals designated the

franchise tag In the National Football League (NFL), the franchise tag is a designation a team may apply to a player scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. The tag binds the player to the team for one year if certain conditions are met. Each team has on ...

on him. He signed the one-year franchise contract that earned him $8.64 million in 2007. He led the league in assisted tackles in 2007 with 29.

San Francisco 49ers

On March 1, 2008, he signed a six-year, $45 million deal with the

. The deal included an $11 million signing bonus. In his first season with San Francisco, Smith registered 7 sacks, 73 tackles and one interception. Smith was selected for five consecutive

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players. The format has changed ...

s from 2009 to 2013. In 2011 and 2012, he was named to the Associated Press All-Pro team both as a Defensive End and as a Defensive Tackle. He was eligible for the honor at both positions because the 49ers used him as a defensive end in their 3–4 base defense, while frequently moving him inside to DT for their 4–2

nickel defense American football, a nickel defense (also known as a 4–2–5 or 3–3–5) is any defensive alignment that uses five defensive backs, of whom the fifth is known as a nickelback. The original and most common form of the nickel defense features ...

. He had been mentioned by many pundits as a candidate to win the 2011

NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award Several organizations give out NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards. The Associated Press (AP) has been giving the award since 1972; Pro Football Writers of America/''Pro Football Weekly'' since 1970; and ''Sporting News'' has announced winners ...

, and finished third with 6 out of 50 votes. At the end of the 2012 season, Smith and the 49ers appeared in

Super Bowl XLVII Super Bowl XLVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Ravens and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

. In the game, he had three combined tackles as the 49ers fell to the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

by a score of 34–31. Smith appeared on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2012, and was projected by his peers to be the 17th best player coming into the 2012 season. On May 18, 2015, Smith announced that he had decided to retire after 14 seasons in the NFL.

NFL statistics

Personal life

Smith is originally from the town of

Holts Summit, Missouri Holts Summit is a small city in Callaway County, Missouri. The population was 4,458 at the time of the 2020 census. Holts Summit is located northeast of Jefferson City, Missouri's state capital. It is part of the Jefferson City Metropolitan A ...

, which is near Jefferson City, the

state capital Below is an index of pages containing lists of capital city, capital cities. National capitals *List of national capitals *List of national capitals by latitude *List of national capitals by population *List of national capitals by area *List of ...

. He earned All-State honors and was two-time all-district football choice at

. While at JCHS, he was selected to SuperPrep's All-American and Top 50 teams as a senior. He is the owner of Railwood Golf Club in central Missouri.

Notes and references

External links

San Francisco 49ers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Justin 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Jefferson City, Missouri Players of American football from Missouri American football defensive ends American football linebackers Missouri Tigers football players Cincinnati Bengals players San Francisco 49ers players Unconferenced Pro Bowl players National Conference Pro Bowl players