Chris Smith, the former NFL player who recently died at 31, was ‘well liked’ and had an ‘infectious personality,’ according to his former Cleveland Browns head coach, Freddie Kitchens.
Kitchens was not speaking in the aftermath of Smith’s death this week, but rather, after the former Browns defensive lineman lost his fiancée and mother of his young daughter in a traffic collision four years earlier. Smith and 26-year-old Petara Cordero were pulled over on the side of a Cleveland highway after blowing a tire in 2019, when an oncoming driver collided with the new mother. She was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after.
‘Chris is on my mind right now,’ Kitchens said in 2019 following the death of Cordero, who had given birth to Smith’s daughter Haven a month earlier. ‘His family’s on my mind. Her family’s on my mind. The four-week-old baby is on my mind. It’s a difficult time, but we’re going to 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 XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons. His death was revealed by his former high school, and later confirmed by the Salisbury Post in North Carolina. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Chris Smith (right) lost his fiancée and mother Petara Cordero (left) in a car crash in 2019
Smith pictured with his daughter, Haven, who was just four months old when her mother died
He was issued a traffic citation in connection with Cordero’s death, ultimately paying $316 in fines and court fees for failing to control his vehicle.
The tragedy occurred on September 12, 2019.
Smith told police a tire on his Lamborghini blew out and caused his car to spin and crash on I-90 West of Cleveland. The 26-year-old Cordero exited the vehicle and she was stuck by an oncoming car driven by a woman who admitted to police she had been drinking.
However, despite this admission, police decided not to charge the woman, 47-year-old Tracy McIvor, who was not found to be drunk at the time of the crash.
McIvor would tell police that she was distracted by a bug that flew into her car.
‘She didn’t feel any pain,’ Smith told Sports Illustrated of Cordero in 2020. ‘It was like she died in her sleep.’
But Smith was not left to grieve alone. 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 after giving birth to her daughter, Haven, back in 2019
Although he would play that week, saying it’s what Cordero would have wanted, Smith nearly quit football before embracing the support from his teammates.
‘My teammates lifted me up,’ he said.
Later, he discussed the experience with Charlotte’s WSOC-TV.
That night we were talking about Haven, having a family, taking trips and stuff like that and then the next thing you know 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 nearly caused Smith to retire
Smith also said he felt Cordero’s presence when he had the opportunity to sign with the Charlotte Panthers in his native North Carolina.
‘She used to always hate when I would fly back to Cleveland,’ Smith told WSOC-TV. ‘Especially with my daughter being here, my family – she most definitely had a hand in that.
‘We got to enjoy life and we got to celebrate her legacy,’ Smith concluded.
Smith would ultimately partner with Emergency Safety Solutions, Inc. to raise awareness about the inadequacies of traditional hazard lights on cars. His hope was that all new cars would be equipped with a new hazard-light system, which was similar to the lights used by emergency vehicles.
Cleveland radio personality Daryl Ruiter immediately remembered Cordero’s death when learning the news about Smith on Tuesday.
‘Just woke up to the horrible news that former #Browns defensive lineman Chris Smith passed away at the age of 31,’ Ruiter tweeted. ‘He was such a kind person. Smith lost his girlfriend and mother of his daughter in an I-90 car accident in 2019. Praying for her, his family, friends & teammates.’
‘Well you have now reunited with her,’ added one Browns fan.
Portraits of Cordero are seen at Smith’s home following her 2019 death