Marvel Smith Downplays His Back Surgeries

BasX · Mar 30, 2009

After signing a contract with the 49ers, tackle Marvel Smith met with the media to discuss a variety of topics on Monday.

The Oakland native can now spend both his offseasons and his in-seasons in the Bay Area, at least for the next two years, the duration of his new deal.

Smith withered on the free-agent vine due in large part to a back injury that ultimately required not one but two procedures during the 2008 season. Predictably (because we’d do the same damn thing), Marvel projected optimism about his condition in comments circulated by the 49ers via e-mail.

“I had a loose fragment from the disc that they went in and took out,” Smith said of a procedure conducted the day before Thanksgiving. “They didn’t touch anything structurally or whatever. Supposedly it’s the most minor procedure you can have done on your back. So I noticed an instant improvement right away, even the same day when I was laying in the hospital.”

He explained that he had a similar surgery in December.

“It’s funny because it was the same type of procedure, but it was just on a different side,” Smith said. “So it was pretty much the same thing for the most part.”

He’ll be playing right tackle in San Fran, which is fine with Smith.

“I don’t have a problem with it at all,” he said. “Whatever’s best for the team, really. I played right tackle my first three years in the league and I’ve got the whole offseason, really, to get back into the groove of playing on the right side. I don’t really see it being that big of a deal, really.”

Smith also has no hard feelings about the Steelers not trying to keep him.

“That’s the decision they made,” he said. “The way I see it, they went and won the Super Bowl with the line that they had and it’s a group of young guys that they feel they can build upon. Me personally, I don’t know why they made the decision but, in my mind, the reason I just gave you is the reason why I think they made it. I’m actually glad not to be going back to tell you the truth because I couldn’t see a situation better than the one I have right now.”

The financial aspects of Smith’s contract have not yet been reported, which suggests that it must not be a great deal. Otherwise, his agent would have leaked the details by now.

Our guess is that the two-year contract is a series of one-year deals, with the Niners able to walk away painlessly if Smith ends up having too much residual pain in his back to be effective.
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http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/03/30/marvel-smith-downplays-his-back-surgeries/

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Marvel Smith Downplays His Back Surgeries

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