Aldon Smith spent the final morning of his life Saturday delivering pizzas to a Bay Area homeless charity with his friend Amir Shirazi.
Scott Wagers, the co-founder of CHAM Deliverance Ministry, told The Athletic that he texted Shirazi to bring Smith with him the next time he came back with another delivery.
Roughly an hour later, Shirazi called him back with news.
The former San Francisco 49ers All-Pro was dead.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Wagers said. “I could not believe that. … It’s been very hard for me to see that.”
Shirazi, a businessman who owns a popular Bay Area gas station and is friends with several 49ers, often shows up at Wagers’ charity to volunteer in any way he can. So it wasn’t a surprise when he showed up on Saturday with pizzas.
But Wagers didn’t expect, or recognize, the massive human being wearing a Knicks jersey who Shirazi brought with him this time.
“You must be a football player, a basketball player,” Wagers said he told Smith, who was 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds when he played. “You’re one of the biggest guys I ever met in my life.”
The meeting to drop off the pizzas lasted “five to eight or 10 minutes,” the retired pastor said. But it was just enough time to form his own impression of Smith.
“He seemed so down to earth, truly humble,” Wagers said. “As sincere as anybody I’ve ever met in my life.”
Before leaving, Wagers said the last thing Smith told him was, “‘I want to get my Niner friends, my Niner family, my ball player friends involved.’”
About an hour later, Smith was gone at the age of 36.
Shirazi detailed his account of what happened that day in an exclusive with the San Francisco Chronicle. When contacted by The Athletic, Shirazi said he had already spoken to the Chronicle and that publication had all the information on the events leading up to Smith’s passing.
“I’m just very saddened and shocked,” he said.
After delivering the pizzas, Shirazi told the Chronicle, they drove to a grocery store, Shirazi’s gas station in San Jose, and his home in Los Gatos, Calif.
“We were joking about life and talking about stuff right before,” he told the Chronicle.
Shirazi said he then briefly went inside his house, and when he came out, he found Smith slumped over in the passenger seat of Shirazi’s white Chevy pickup with his mouth open. He said he first thought the former All-Pro was asleep because he was slightly twitching. He eventually realized Smith was in a much more dire state.
Shirazi told the Chronicle he called 911 and called former 49ers running back Anthony Dixon, a teammate of Smith’s in San Francisco, to come help with CPR. Dixon lives in Campbell, Shirazi told The Athletic, which is a neighboring city less than 10 miles away from Los Gatos.
Later that night, the 49ers announced that Smith had died, but did not reveal a cause of death.
On Saturday, Shirazi posted pictures on Instagram of Smith handing out the pizzas. The 48-year-old said he became friends with Smith through a mutual friend in former 49ers star linebacker Patrick Willis. Through Willis, he met and befriended several 49ers from around 2010-2015, including Pro Bowl running back Frank Gore and Smith, and kept in touch with many after they retired.
Smith, whose NFL career was derailed by several DUIs and multiple years of suspensions stemming from criminal charges, had recently shown up at a 49ers practice at the team’s practice facility in Santa Clara, Calif. While he was there, he spoke to San Francisco’s rookies, team sources confirmed to The Athletic.
He also did a recent interview on YouTube with Tee Maultsby, a barber who interviews current and former NFL players. While Smith had his hair cut, he detailed what his life looked like after his playing career ended following one season with the Dallas Cowboys in 2020.
Smith, who declared for the NFL Draft after playing two seasons in three years at Missouri, said he began the process of finishing his schooling after he retired. He continued working out with other athletes, but said it didn’t lift his spirits much.
“I found myself being just negative,” Smith said in the video. “People were trying to get back in the league, and here I was done with it and just unsure of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”
Smith said he briefly worked selling roofing packages, which he called a humbling experience, and said it didn’t last long.
Drafted with the seventh pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, Smith recorded 152 tackles and 44.0 sacks in 50 games for the 49ers over four seasons, including three straight trips to the NFC Championship Game.
He was released by the 49ers in 2015 after his third arrest for driving under the influence, which also involved a hit-and-run. He signed with the then-Oakland Raiders, playing briefly before being suspended repeatedly over the next four seasons. He returned for one more season with Dallas in 2020.
Reflecting on his playing days in the interview with Maultsby, Smith expressed regret over how it ended.
“My career didn’t have the ending that I think it maybe should have,” Smith said. “I wasn’t proud of how things ended.”
Those who were with him in his final hour felt the positivity permeating from the once fearsome edge rusher.
“I felt like he was completely genuine and wanted to help,” Wagers said. “And an hour later, he’s dead.
“I can’t believe what happened here. I can’t believe that.”