What happened to Alex Smith's daughter Sloane? Ex-NFL QB's 7-year-old battling brain cancer, undergoes two surgeries

Alex Smith overcame seemingly insurmountable odds before returning to playing football. A life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis forced him to undergo 17 surgeries to save his leg from amputation. He was hands-down the NFL Comeback Player of the Year when he donned helmets and pads again.

His comeback season was his last before ending a 16-season NFL career with three teams. But while he survived his ordeal, the Smith family faces another challenging physical battle because of their seven-year-old daughter, Sloane.

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Alex Smith’s daughter is battling brain cancer

The three-time Pro Bowler shared with The New York Times’s Jonathan Abrams that his daughter had a recent surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. However, the doctors could not remove all of the tumor in the first procedure, leading to a second craniotomy that lasted for ten hours.

Alex Smith shared with Abrams:

“It’s different when it’s your little girl, and you’re helpless with how terrifying that is. You just have no idea what it means. The words brain tumor are terrifying.”

Meanwhile, Alex’s wife, Elizabeth, posted the good and bad times of Sloane’s journey on Instagram. She wrote:

“Over the past year, our daughter Sloane has been a little fighter. From 2 brain surgeries, therapies, countless MRI’s, blood draws, EEG’s, pokes, prods, and a million doctors appointments. One thing we know is she continues to fight and never lets her light dim. She shines bright and doesn’t let anything hold her down.”

“Never does a parent expect to fight this battle. No parent is prepared to hear those words. But we continue to fight. Fight for advancements in medicine, fight for all the other families going through similar if not worse battles, and fight for our baby girl."

Despite this battle, Smith continues to use his platform to help others in need. He started the Alex Smith Foundation in 2007 to help send foster teens to college. Last month, he also raised $45,000 for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute during a charity bicycle race across Massachusetts.

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Alex Smith’s NFL career

The San Francisco 49ers selected Alex Smith first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft. The Niners made two playoff appearances in his eight seasons with the squad.

San Francisco traded Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2013 second-round pick and a conditional selection in the 2014 draft. He played for the Chiefs until 2017, the year they drafted Patrick Mahomes.

Smith finished his career with the Washington Commanders, retiring in 2020. He once led the league in passer rating (2007) and won the 2021 George Halas Award from the Pro Football Writers of America.