Rick Smith (born September 3, 1969) is an American 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 ...

executive. He served as the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

of 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) from 2006 to 2017. Smith also served as the team's executive vice president of football operations from 2012 to 2017. Smith began his executive career with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

in 2000 and served as their director of pro personnel for six seasons.

Early life

Smith played for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname ...

as a strong safety from 1988 to 1991. He graduated from that institution, where he served as a coach. After this stint, he coached for a month at

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

before going to the NFL.

Executive career

Denver Broncos

In 1996, Smith was hired by the

as their assistant defensive backs coach. In 2000, Smith transitioned to the Broncos' personnel department and became their director of pro personnel.

Houston Texans

On June 5, 2006, Smith was named the

of the

, replacing Charley Casserly. Named by Texans' owner,

Bob McNair Robert C. McNair (January 1, 1937 – November 23, 2018) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and the founding owner of the National Football League's Houston Texans. Early life and education McNair grew up in Forest City, North ...

, Smith's appointment made him the youngest general manager in the NFL at the time at age 36. According to the Texans website, Smith was responsible for all aspects of football operations, salary cap management and budgeting. In 2012, Smith was given an additional role as the Texans' executive vice president of football operations and Smith oversaw all football-related operations and the player acquisition process as their executive vice president of football operations and general manager. In 2016, he was given a contract extension through 2020. On December 31, 2017, Smith announced that he was taking a leave of absence to be with his wife, who was dealing with

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

. On January 1, 2018, it was also reported that he would be gone for a year and that the Texans would hire a new general manager to take his place, which ultimately happened when the Texans' hired

Brian Gaine Brian Gaine is an American football executive who works as the assistant general manager for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He served as the general manager of the Houston Texans from 2018 to 2019. Gaine began his execu ...

to replace Smith as their general manager on January 13, 2018. Smith retained his position as the Texans' executive vice president of football operations. However, Smith was not listed on the

front office roster in 2018 or 2019 and through longtime Texans' beat writer John McClain the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'' reported multiple times that Smith would not be returning to the Texans in any capacity in 2019.

Personal life

Smith and his wife, Tiffany, were married in 2002 and have three children together. On January 31, 2019, Tiffany died due to

. Smith is an executive board member of

Pro-Vision Academy Pro-Vision Academy, is a state-authorized charter school in the Sunnyside, Houston, Sunnyside area of Houston, Texas. A co-educational facility, it serves grades 3 through 12. It is one of the components of Pro-Vision, Inc., which also operates a ...

, a charter school and non-profit organization in Houston that provides educational services to children.

References

External links

"Rick Smith"
at www.houstontexans.com. Retrieved December 16, 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Rick 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Petersburg, Virginia NFL general managers Houston Texans executives Denver Broncos coaches Denver Broncos executives Purdue Boilermakers football players Purdue Boilermakers football coaches TCU Horned Frogs football coaches Place of birth missing (living people)