Titans Linebacker Lived With, Learned From 'Great' Police Officer
NASHVILLE – The scene in the video was like so many others that have developed across the country in recent days. Police on one side. Protesters on the other.
What played out in fewer than 30 seconds, though, might have been shocking to some.
One officer gives his business card to a man with a megaphone and makes it known he is available to help, “Anything I can do for you,” he says. Everyone hugs it out and the video, which was posted to Twitter, ends.
Josh Smith, a linebacker with the Tennessee Titans, was not surprised. The officer was his father, Demetrius Smith, an 18-year veteran of the Middle Tennessee State Police Department who is well-known across campus for his accessibility with, and concern for the entire campus community.
“For me, it made me proud as a son and as a member of the community,” Josh Smith told AllTitans this week. “But it wasn’t necessarily shocking for me. My father has raised me and my family members on the quote, ‘If you want to see change, you have to be the change that you want to see.’ So, he’s been doing that day-to-day through his life and through his work, and those who know him could probably attest to that.”
In the wake of George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25, many across the country have chosen sides. There have been protests that have called for dramatic changes to policing tactics, equal treatment for all demographics by law enforcement and even – in some cases – defunding police departments in favor of other governmental services.
For Josh Smith, the issue has been far more complicated. He is not just the son of a police officer. He is a 23-year-old black man in America.
“It’s been a swing of emotions, really,” he said. “Having my father in the police force, it’s been nerve-wracking having him out there with him being in danger on the front lines. And with myself, the danger is also there for myself. So, it’s been a roller-coaster of emotions but at the end of the day, I think the conversations with my father, my family and I – just keeping the conversation going – has definitely been helpful for me and my family.”
Smith grew up in Murfreesboro, Tenn., a rapidly growing town of roughly 150,000 citizens southeast of Nashville. Close to three-quarters of the population is white.
Middle Tennessee State, with an enrollment of more than 21,000 is a significant part of the community, and the state’s second-largest university. Demetrius Smith was a member of the school’s football team in 1991 but it is these days – nearly 30 years later – that he is a big man on campus.
“From an athletics point of view, he’s a former athlete so he knows the rigors of our kids,” MTSU athletics director Chris Massaro said. “He can relate to our kids. And our student-athletes respect him and what he stands for. He’s able to approach them and be a mentor in a way that coaches and the rest of us can’t be. … He’ll get to know a couple of them and let them know he’s there to be reached out to and those kinds of things. From my chair, it seems to work really well because it’s informal and it’s a safe space for the players and that kind of thing.
“So, he’s really valuable to us as a university community in total and in athletics even more so.”
He’s also a father. Josh (pictured) and his older brother Emmanuel played college football at Vanderbilt and both are now NFL hopefuls. Josh Smith spent time with the Titans briefly during training camp in 2019, had a short stint on the practice squad late last season before he agreed to a futures contract for 2020 in January. Emmanuel Smith, also a linebacker, was on the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice squad throughout their championship run last season.
These days, though, family discussions have little to do with the sport that all three played. It is much more about the connection they have with the country’s African American community and the emotions generated by recent events, which have sparked so much debate and public displays.
“It’s been a matter of really just talking through the issues, not just the most recent one with George Floyd but every one that has been videotaped and occurred throughout time,” Josh Smith said. “Just having a sit-down with my father and talking through how he sees it as a law enforcement officer how he sees it as a father and how we see it as people who could possibly be in that situation. He’s really just educating us on how the police tactics are used and what’s lawful and what we can do as citizens to help police officers out.
“… Anger and frustration couldn’t describe the way my father was feeling in those moments. He, himself, is a great officer. He knows great officers and he knows there’s an abundance of great officers.”
And, thanks to Twitter, everyone got a quick look this week at how one such officer operates.
“I know a good officer because he’s my father,” Josh Smith said. “But there’s people in my community and surrounding communities who might not know a great officer or a good officer or ever had an encounter with a good officer. So, for them to see that and for him to kind of be that cornerstone of positivity within the community and trying to mend what is going on in America, I think it was great to see. There needs to be more of it.”
