SAN FRANCISCO — The family of former NFL star Aldon Smith is donating his brain to the Boston University CTE Center to research the long-term effects of repetitive brain injuries after his sudden death at age 36.
Smith died Saturday hours after delivering pizzas to a homeless charity in the San Francisco Bay area.
No cause of death was given and Smith’s family has hired attorneys Harry Daniels, Bakari Sellers and Wayne Kendall to investigate Smith’s death.
“As with anyone who dies so suddenly at such a young age, we understand that there is a great deal of interest in and speculation about Aldon Smith’s passing and we intend to get to the bottom of it,” the attorneys said in a statement released Tuesday. “To that end, we have taken a number of steps including sending his brain to Boston where medical experts will examine it for CTE as well as other damage caused by years of concussions and additional trauma.
“In the meantime we simply ask you to keep Aldon’s family in our prayers and respect their privacy as they struggle to come to grips with this terrible loss.”
Smith’s friend, Amir Shirazi, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he found Smith slumped over in the front passenger seat of his car after delivering the pizzas Saturday. Smith was taken to a hospital and was declared dead.
“He was a creative mind, so smart, so fierce, so real, so powerful, his presence, his passion and his aura meant a lot to me as a brother and I wish I could’ve did more to help him and pray to God he doesn’t have to hurt anymore,” his former teammate, Anthony Dixon, wrote on social media.
The 49ers drafted Smith with the No. 7 pick out of Missouri in 2011, and he made an immediate impact, helping them snap a playoff drought and reach the NFC title game in his first three seasons with one trip to the Super Bowl.
He had 14 sacks as a rookie, when he finished second to Von Miller in voting for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, and had a franchise-record 19½ sacks in 2012, when he was named a first-team All-Pro.
His 33½ sacks in his first two seasons are the most in NFL history. He kept up that pace with 4½ sacks in the first three games in 2013 before the off-field issues started with an arrest for DUI and a stint in rehab for substance abuse that sidelined him for five games.
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The 49ers released him in August 2015 after another drunken driving charge — his fifth arrest in three years. He signed with the Oakland Raiders just before the 2015 season and had 3½ sacks in nine games before being suspended again.
Smith applied for reinstatement to the NFL in 2016 but was not allowed back initially. The Raiders released him in 2018 after a domestic violence arrest. A plea agreement was reached in that case.
He eventually was reinstated in 2020 and played 16 games for the Dallas Cowboys that season and had five sacks.
He signed with the Seattle Seahawks the next season but was arrested again for battery and was released in training camp. He served a six-month jail sentence for DUI in 2023 and never played again in the NFL.
Smith finished his career with 52½ sacks in 75 games.