EDITORIAL: Trey Smith represents Jackson well, deserves recognition

Trey Smith deserves the recognition he received this past week from Jackson for his athletic ability.

Trey was blessed with enough size to be an effective lineman in high school football.

His footwork gave him the opportunity to be noticed by college scouts and coaches to get the chance to play at the next level.

He continued to work at the game while going through more off-field adversity than most college football players deal with during their four years including nearly dying because of blood clots in his lungs.

While those blood clots were the main reason Trey dropped so far in the 2021 NFL Draft, it was a blessing to be chosen by the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the top franchises in the league for the past few years.

He’s playing for one of the best coaches in the league in Andy Reid over the past two decades – and probably one of the best to ever do it. He’s blocking for arguably the best quarterback in the game right now in Patrick Mahomes.

And Trey is an integral part of the supporting cast that allows Mahomes and Reid to look as good as they do while doing their respective jobs.

But even more so, Trey deserves recognition for the person he continues to be off the field.

Just look at what he did while he was in Jackson this past weekend.

He got into town late Thursday night and was up and going on an ambitious tour of schools in and around Madison County reading to elementary kids, high-fiving young students in hallways and catching up with past teachers and coaches in new roles.

After he was honored with “Trey Day” by Jackson Mayor Scott Conger and the City of Jackson at the Carl Perkins Civic Center, Trey took time away from precious time with his family to pose for photos while out at restaurants and other establishments in the Hub City Friday night that showed up on social media.

Then after all that, he woke up on Saturday morning and joined some of his former teammates and some Tennessee football legends at Jackson Christian for the UT Legends Football Camp.

Can you imagine being a lineman in middle school or elementary school and suddenly you’re lining up opposite of a Super Bowl champion who’s probably eaten meals that are bigger than you?

That’s an intimidating thought, but while Trey was showing young players how to line up, he was also giving them valuable instruction in how to approach the game and conduct themselves off the field.

In addition to that, he talked about the value of working hard.

Trey was born with all the God-given talents a young man needs to be successful on the football field – size, speed, strength, footwork.

But everyone from former University School of Jackson coach Mickey Marley to USJ strength and conditioning coach Nick Stamper to former NFL lineman Artis Hicks who’s a mentor for Trey all say he’s always consistently put in the work to use those God-given talents to the best of his abilities.

Trey isn’t the only guy to grow up in Jackson in the past 20 years that was well over six feet tall and could push a heavy load around on a practice field. But he’s the only one to push himself to be better every day, week, month and year consistently until every goal he ever put in front of himself was achieved – make the high school football team, receive a college football scholarship offer, play in the Southeastern Conference, make it to the NFL, win the Super Bowl.

Let Trey be an example for all of us – whether or not we’re athletes.

What goals have we set for ourselves? What tools do we have to achieve those goals? Let’s work toward those goals every day until we see them come to fruition.

The Jackson Post’s opinion/editorial page is meant to help launch public discussion of local issues or allow local people to discuss national or statewide issues. To join the discussion, send a guest column or letter to the editor to brandon@jacksonpost.news. Submissions for a specific week’s print edition need to be sent by Monday night. Sending does not guarantee publication that week as that is based on space availability.