Rivera admits he feared playing Smith: 'What if he gets hurt again?'

Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera spoke glowingly of recently released quarterback Alex Smith, but also shared his fears about putting the veteran passer back on the field following his recovery from a gruesome leg injury.

"It was always in the back of my head, what if he gets hurt again? What if he hurts that leg again? I'll be the guy that put him back on the field to get him hurt again," Rivera said in a video conference call Wednesday, according to ESPN's John Keim.

"I struggled with that every day. That was tough."

Smith required 17 surgeries to repair his fractured leg, but appeared in 11 games for Washington. He went 5-1 as the starter, leading the team to a division championship and earning the league's Comeback Player of the Year award. Upon his return to training camp prior to the season, he believed the team didn't want him.

"When I decided to come back, I definitely threw a wrench in the team's plan," Smith said in an interview with GQ Magazine in February. "They didn't see it, didn't want me there, didn't want me to be a part of it, didn't want me to be on the team, the roster, didn't want to give me a chance."

Rivera met with Smith prior to the player's release, but he confirmed much of what the quarterback said.

"We both had a chance to see the other side and perspective. I don't disagree with a lot of things he said. They were fair," Rivera said. "The biggest thing we talked about, there was no road map to get us to where we were. I told him exactly how I felt and how hard it was for us."

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