"I passed out": Ex-Tennessee star Trey Smith reveals dealing with severe blood clots in lungs while gasping for breath

Trey Smith, offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, has had an incredible start to his NFL career. He has won two Super Bowls and is expected to sign a huge contract extension. But his path to the league almost ended before it began.

While at Tennessee, Smith faced a health issue that nearly ended his career. During his sophomore year in 2018, after an entirely new coaching staff, including Jeremy Pruitt, was hired, the workouts ramped up.

"They just started pushing us every single day during mat drills,” Smith said on the New Heights podcast on Wednesday (Timestamp: 37:44). "And I was eating it. It was nothing to me. I'm laughing at them.

"One week in conditioning, we were doing half-gassers, and I passed out. I had never passed out. I couldn't breathe well. I lost 13 pounds in a day. … They rush me to the hospital and figure out that I have blood clots in both sides of my lungs.”

Doctors put him on blood thinners for five months, which made playing football dangerous because even a small injury could lead to serious internal bleeding.

Smith returned to play, but then had similar symptoms again later that season. Another trip to the hospital led doctors to believe the blood clots were back, and they told him he might never play football again.

“At that point, my career was completely over in my mind,” he said.

However, things turned in a positive direction.

“You know, through the grace of God, I had some people in my corner," Smith said. "The University of Tennessee flew me across the country. And we went to the Cleveland Clinic, where we met with some doctors.

"We looked at my scans with all of my tests and they're like, 'You don't have blood clots again. It looks like you have residual scar tissue in your lungs from the first case.' That's how close it was. I almost didn't take that trip. I was pretty much done.”

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What did Trey Smith do after his diagnosis?

After making that trip, Trey Smith worked with a specialist in North Carolina who created a plan just for him.

"He created a health plan that had never been done in the sport of football before," Smith said. "I took blood thinner every single day of the week, except for Friday morning, and I would just wake up and play on Saturdays.

"So that meant no practice, no contact, no training camp. I would literally just be vibing out, doing cardio, watching films as much as I can. We would just go play on Saturdays. So it was a crazy experience.

“But my junior year, I was able to play the entire season. Decided to stay at Tennessee (for his senior season). I made a promise to my deceased mom, Dorsetta Smith, that I would get my degree and play in the NFL one day. So I kept my promise."

Despite Trey Smith's talent, many NFL teams were in doubt due to his medical history, and he fell to the sixth round of the 2021 NFL draft. But the Chiefs took a chance and the rest is history.