Matt Nagy: Alex Smith’s grisly leg injury ‘absolutely crushed me’

Matt Nagy was sitting in his hotel room Sunday afternoon, working on his play call sheet, when he heard about his friend Alex Smith.

The Redskins quarterback broke both major bones in his right leg Sunday, ending his season, perhaps threatening his career and eerily echoing another horrific leg injury by a Redskins quarterback.

“It crushed me — it absolutely crushed me … ” the Bears coach said Monday. “To see it, to see him getting carted off with the injury… and there aren’t a lot of people in this profession that work like Alex, that treat the game like Alex, that do things the right way. He’ll bounce back and he’ll come back better and stronger, but right now it’s tough. I sent him a text and I’m sure he was going through surgery at that time.”

Joe Theismann broke his leg on Nov. 18 1985, 33 years ago Sunday, to the day. That game that featured the same final score as Sunday’s Redskins loss to the Texans.

Nagy coached Smith in Kansas City from 2013 through the end of last year, when he was hired to coach the Bears and Smith was traded to the NFC East.

“To me it’s just so weird, the fact the day it happened to Joe Theismann and the team and the position and the score … ” Nagy said. “It’s just weird. But he has a strong family to support him and I know he’ll be back stronger than ever.”