Alex Smith proud of how he and Patrick Mahomes worked together as Chiefs teammates

Former Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith announced his retirement last week, completing an impressive 16-year NFL career.

Smith threw for 35,650 yards with 199 touchdown passes and twice returned from injuries that kept him out for a full season. That included the 2019 season with Washington in which he was recovering from having two broken bones in his right leg and a potentially fatal infection that followed.

That medical scare certainly gave Smith a greater appreciation for life away from the football field.

Smith was with his wife, their three kids and his parents on a skiing trip when retirement first seemed appealing.

“It was an amazing experience for me, full of the same range of motions,” Smith said Tuesday on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “The night before I had a ton of anxiety, couldn’t sleep, wondering about my leg and how it holds up, and then to get out there with my kids and my dad also, and for all this to be on the mountain together and my mom and you know it was an amazing experience.

“So for me, there was a moment where I we paused on the side of the mountain and my two boys were next to me, and my dad was there as well, and I definitely hit me that I want more of that. I want to chase more of that. I’ve been putting that off for a long, long time, and I could go do that now. And the reason I can go do it is partly because I pursued football (rehabilitation), that I knew if I push football as hard as I could, all the other things in life, I wouldn’t have any limitations, so I’m excited to go knock down some more walls that I built out.”

Patrick also asked Smith about when the Chiefs moved up to select Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft. Smith started most of the season and led the Chiefs to the playoffs again, then was traded to Washington.

Did Smith know his days in Kansas City were numbered, Patrick wondered.

“Obviously we moved up to take Patrick early so I knew no question, obviously the future was was in him,” Smith said. “I think for me, I was going into my 13th year, and I could either let this distract me from continuing to play good football, play winning football, and certainly there were a lot of media distractions that tried to pit us against each other. Or I could choose not to buy into that and really not let it distract me from what I wanted to go do and continue down my road towards trying to reach my potential and play the best football I could play, which I felt like I was still going down that road.

“So I think through everything I’ve been through is really me determined to not essentially let this become another distraction for me.”

Smith led the league in quarterback rating in 2017, with the lowest interception percentage. He was grateful that there was never a Smith vs. Mahomes sentiment on the team.

“(I’m) proud of the fact that everybody including Patrick, coach (Andy) Reid, the entire organization chose to not let that be what everybody was trying to make it be,” Smith said. “That it could be done a different way, that we could coexist, that we weren’t pitted against each other.

“So yeah I ended up having probably one of the best years of my career, maybe the best, in the face of that, and essentially determined to tell myself that, ‘If I played good football I was gonna have a job.’ Or I could let this distract me and not play good football and then it would become this self-fulfilling prophecy.“

Here is the entire interview: