Chris Smith, the former NFL player who recently passed away at age 31, was “loved” and had an “infectious personality,” according to his former Cleveland Browns head coach, Freddie Kitchens.
Kitchens did not speak in the wake of Smith’s death this week, but after the former Browns defensive lineman lost his fiancée and mother of his young daughter in a traffic accident four years earlier. Smith and 26-year-old Petara Cordero were pulled over on the side of a highway in Cleveland after suffering a flat tire in 2019 when an oncoming vehicle collided with the new mom. She was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly afterwards.
“I’m thinking about Chris now,” Kitchens said in 2019 after the death of Cordero, who had given birth to Smith’s daughter Haven a month earlier. ‘I think of his family. I think of her family. I think of the four week old baby. It’s a tough time, but we’ll get through it.’
Now Haven is without both parents, while her two siblings – reportedly Smith’s from previous relationships – have lost their father.
Smith had been out of the NFL since 2021, but recently signed with the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL. His death was revealed by his former high school senior and later confirmed by North Carolina’s Salisbury Post. A cause of death has not yet been announced.
Chris Smith (right) lost his fiancée and mother Petara Cordero (left) in a car accident in 2019
Smith pictured with his daughter Haven, who was just four months old when her mother died
He received a traffic ticket related to Cordero’s death and ended up paying $316 in fines and court costs for not controlling his vehicle.
The tragedy happened on September 12, 2019.
Smith told police a tire on his Lamborghini ruptured, causing his car to spin and crash on I-90 west of Cleveland. Cordero, 26, got out of the vehicle and was pinned by an oncoming car driven by a woman who admitted to police that she had been drinking.
Despite this admission, police decided not to charge the woman, 47-year-old Tracy McIvor, who was found not to be intoxicated at the time of the accident.
McIvor would tell police she was distracted by an insect that flew into her car.
“She felt no pain,” Smith told Cordero’s Sports Illustrated in 2020. “It was like she died in her sleep.”
But Smith was not left alone to grieve. Instead, his Browns teammates rallied around the former Arkansas standout.
“Baker Mayfield stayed two doors down,” Smith said, referring to the Browns’ quarterback at the time. “I fell into his arms crying.”
Cleveland police video shows officers approaching the scene where Cordero was killed
Haven, pictured years earlier, is now 4, but has already lost both her mother and father
Cordero is pictured on social media following the birth of her daughter Haven in 2019
Although he was scheduled to play that week and said it was what Cordero had wanted, Smith nearly retired from football before embracing the support of his teammates.
“My teammates lifted me up,” he said.
He later discussed the experience with Charlotte’s WSOC-TV.
That night we talked about Haven, starting a family, going on trips and things like that, and before you know it she was gone,” Smith said. “So it’s like, ‘Man, God, really?’
He said the experience made him “even stronger, on the football field, as a person and as a parent.”
Cordero’s death almost caused Smith to retire
Smith also said he felt Cordero’s presence when he got the chance to sign with the Charlotte Panthers in his native North Carolina.
“She always hated it when I flew back to Cleveland,” Smith told WSOC-TV. “Especially now that my daughter is here, my family – she definitely had a hand in that.
“We should enjoy life and we should celebrate her legacy,” Smith concluded.
Smith would eventually partner with Emergency Safety Solutions, Inc. to raise awareness about the shortcomings of traditional hazard lights on cars. His hope was that all new cars would be equipped with a new warning light system, similar to the lights used by emergency vehicles.
Cleveland radio personality Daryl Rider immediately recalled Cordero’s death when he heard the news about Smith on Tuesday.
“Just woke up to the terrible news that former #Browns defensive lineman Chris Smith passed away at the age of 31,” Ruiter tweeted. “He was such a nice person. Smith lost his girlfriend and mother of his daughter in a car accident on I-90 in 2019. Praying for her, his family, friends and teammates.”
“Well, you’re reunited with her now,” one Browns fan added.