Do we like Kevin Smith?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Everything on file is decent, but it's mostly 2015 football coverage, so there's too little known to score higher.
This Kevin Smith is the former Washington Huskies receiver, not the film director or the other footballers of the same name. He went undrafted in 2014 and was signed and then released by the Cardinals, Jaguars and Seahawks. That's a rough start for anyone chasing an NFL spot.
After Seattle cut him he went home to Compton and worked overnight FedEx shifts in Los Angeles, unloading trucks. He said he got up at 3 a.m. and worked until about 8 a.m., and that he treated the heavy lifting as part of his training. He also tried the Arena Football League and the CFL before Seattle called again.
Seattle re-signed him, he stood out in the 2015 preseason, and he spent ten weeks on the practice squad. In November 2015 he was promoted to the 53-man roster. His first NFL catch was a 21-yard reception against Pittsburgh, and coach Pete Carroll called him tough and very competitive.
On the harm check, we found nothing. No comments about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate turned up in what we read, and no sign of him working with people who push that sort of thing. Absence of evidence isn't a clean bill of health, though, and this is a low-profile career with little interview coverage.
No lawsuits, convictions or allegations turned up for this player. Other men called Kevin Smith have made headlines for legal trouble, so check the details if you see a scary story. Nothing we found ties any of that to him.
The good stuff is small but real. In December 2015 he visited a Ballard primary school that was running a food drive for the University District Food Bank, spoke to students about sticking with their goals, and helped load the donations onto a truck. Teammate Doug Baldwin said of his promotion: “He's definitely earned it.”