{"id":834893,"date":"2026-09-03T06:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834893\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T06:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:12:19","slug":"alphonso-smith-jr-dead-at-40-after-troubling-social-media-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834893\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphonso Smith Jr. dead at 40 after troubling social media post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alphonso Smith, a standout cornerback at Wake Forest who later spent four seasons in the NFL, died by suicide Wednesday at the age of 40, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/09\/02\/alphonso-smith-jr-dead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TMZ reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The former Bronco and Lion wrote a troubling social media post hours before his death, in which he called himself a \u201ccoward\u201d and referenced abuse he suffered as a child.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.28643216;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40635280\" width=\"759\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-135505929.jpg\" alt=\"Alphonso Smith #27 of the Detroit Lions scores a touchdown after a second quarter interception in front of Toby Gerhart #32 of the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field on December 11, 2011 in Detroit, Michigan.\" class=\"wp-image-40635280\"\/>Alphonso Smith of the Detroit Lions scores a touchdown after a second-quarter interception in front of Toby Gerhart of the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field on December 11, 2011. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Smith, a Pahokee, Fla., native, was a standout at his local high school before embarking on an accolade-filled career at Wake Forest that saw him get two All-ACC First Team nods and an All-American Second Team pick before it all culminated in a consensus All-American season in 2008. <\/p>\n<p>In 2007 and 2008, he led Division I college football with eight and seven interceptions, respectively. In \u201907, he also ran back three interceptions for touchdowns, which also led DI.<\/p>\n<p>His 21 career interceptions still rank as the most in program history.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, following his illustrious career with Wake Forest, was taken in the second round (37th overall) of the 2009 draft by the Broncos, spending one season in Denver.<\/p>\n<p>At the outset of the 2010 season, Smith was traded to the Lions and recorded a career-high five interceptions. He added three more the next season, but played just four contests in 2012 before being waived that November. <\/p>\n<p>He was not picked up by another NFL squad.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.64648438;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40635281\" width=\"381\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-84117550.jpg\" alt=\"Navy's coach shaking hands with Wake Forest's football player, Riley Skinner, at the EagleBank Bowl.\" class=\"wp-image-40635281\"\/>Alphonso Smith of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.<\/p>\n<p>If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24\/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to <a href=\"http:\/\/suicidepreventionlifeline.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SuicidePreventionLifeline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alphonso Smith, a standout cornerback at Wake Forest who later spent four seasons in the NFL, died by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1607,26522,7820,1810,349,99,5642,3679],"class_list":["post-834893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-college-football","tag-deaths","tag-denver-broncos","tag-detroit-lions","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-suicide","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}