Aldon Smith was among the players available to the media Thursday afternoon, and naturally the scrum pounced. You can read a transcript of his session over at Bay Area Sports Guy.
Smith told the media he has been sober since his stint in rehab last September and October. He talked about how it remains a process to work at. We can only hope he is able to stick to his sobriety. During his April incident at LAX, the police spokesperson stated that witnesses present said Smith appeared to have been drinking. However, the spokesperson also said, alcohol "was not relevant or a factor for his arrest and booking." Additionally, there has not been a single mention of alcohol since then. And that includes beat writers and the sludge at TMZ. If Aldon had been seen drinking or strongly suspected he had been drinking, I have to think somebody would have said something to TMZ.
With that in mind, I'm in a position where I just hope he is sober, and taking control of his life. We'll see how this progresses, both this season and beyond. Smith is signed with the 49ers through the 2015 season, and at some point the team will need to decide whether or not they want to try and extend him (if they have not decided already). If the team remains amenable to an extension, my guess is we don't see anything until next offseason. I have to think they want to see if he can make it through the season without any problems. And maybe they wait until next summer to see how he does through the early chunk of the offseason when he has free time away from Santa Clara.
Smith did say he is entering camp in the best shape of his career. He said his mind is "probably in the best it's been in", which hopefully bodes well for a strong upcoming season. It remains to be seen how quickly that season will begin. He will meet with Roger Goodell at some point, with some speculation that it could happen as soon as next week. Given that Ray Rice got 2 games for knocking out his girlfriend, it will be interesting to see what arbitrary figure Goodell arrives at with Smith. I had thought 4 games made sense, but following that disgusting mockery of discipline Goodell imposed on Rice, I don't think anything would surprise me at this point. I'll stick with a suspension in the range of 3-4 games, but something less now would not surprise me.