&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jerry Smith AIDS: The NFL Star Who Publicly Announced His Diagnosis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Before Magic Johnson, There Was Jerry Smith&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When people think of the athletes who changed the public conversation around &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_activism&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HIV and AIDS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.goodbyehiv.com/celebrities-with-hiv-23-magic-johnson&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Magic Johnson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#39;s name often comes to mind. But five years before Johnson&#39;s landmark announcement in November 1991, former &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Commanders&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Washington Redskins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; tight end &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Smith_(tight_end)&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jerry Smith&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; had already taken a remarkable and deeply courageous step.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In August 1986, Jerry Smith &amp;mdash; a two-time Pro Bowl selection, an NFL record holder, and one of the greatest tight ends in the history of professional football &amp;mdash; became the first professional athlete publicly known to announce that he had AIDS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He did it at a time when publicly disclosing an AIDS diagnosis carried enormous social stigma. AIDS was still widely associated with gay men and people who injected drugs, and misinformation about the disease was widespread. To announce an AIDS diagnosis publicly, in your own name, at the height of your athletic legacy, required considerable courage.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jerry Smith endured it. He lived for two more months after the announcement, supported by former teammates who filled his hospital corridors and flooded Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, with so many calls that hospital staff said every third one was for him. He died on 15 October 1986. He was 43 years old.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2025%20%E2%80%93%20Jerry%20Smith%20The%20NFL%20Star%20Who%20Became%20the%20First%20Professional%20Athlete%20to%20Publicly%20Announce%20He%20Had%20AIDS%2002.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 25 &amp;ndash; Jerry Smith The NFL Star Who Became the First Professional Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS 02.jpg (109 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/jerry-smith&quot;&gt;The Legacy Project&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Born in Eugene, Built in Washington&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gerald Thomas Smith began his collegiate football career at Eastern Arizona Junior College before transferring to Arizona State University for his junior and senior years. The Washington Redskins selected him in the ninth round of the 1965 NFL Draft, marking the beginning of a remarkable 13-season professional career spent entirely in the nation&#39;s capital.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At 6 feet 3 inches and 208 pounds, Smith was a physically imposing tight end with exceptional speed, reliable hands, and a remarkable ability to find the end zone. He was named AP second-team All-Pro in 1967 and AP first-team All-Pro in 1969. He was selected to two Pro Bowls and played in Super Bowl VII, where the Redskins lost to the Miami Dolphins.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/0BLMwd8ifKU&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; height=&quot;314&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Watch: Jerry Smith and the 1972 Washington Redskins in action against the Dallas Cowboys.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By the time he retired in 1977, Jerry Smith had played 168 games, caught 421 passes for 5,496 yards and scored 60 touchdowns &amp;mdash; an NFL record for tight ends that stood for nearly 25 years, until it was surpassed by Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe in 2002. He was later inducted into the Washington Commanders Ring of Fame and named to the Professional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in 2011.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was, by any measure, one of the finest tight ends of his era.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2025%20%E2%80%93%20Jerry%20Smith%20The%20NFL%20Star%20Who%20Became%20the%20First%20Professional%20Athlete%20to%20Publicly%20Announce%20He%20Had%20AIDS%2012.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 25 &amp;ndash; Jerry Smith The NFL Star Who Became the First Professional Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS 12.jpg (165 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://boundarystones.weta.org/2025/06/20/after-becoming-nfl-star-washington-jerry-smith-battled-aids&quot;&gt;WETA Boundary Stones&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Double Life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Behind the public face of one of the NFL&#39;s most celebrated tight ends, Jerry Smith was living a private life that the deeply homophobic world of professional football in the 1960s and 1970s made extremely difficult to acknowledge openly.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Smith never publicly identified his sexuality. After his death, however, former Redskins teammate David Kopay spoke about a sexual relationship between the two men. Kopay was one of the first professional athletes in any sport to come out publicly as gay, doing so in 1975.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After retiring from football, Smith moved to Austin, Texas, where he became associated with The Boathouse, a gay bar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He played under several Washington coaches during his 13-season career, including &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Lombardi&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vince Lombardi&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, who coached the Redskins during the 1969 season. Lombardi was known for demanding discipline and respect within his locker room, but even his influence could not shield Smith from the wider homophobia of the era.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Smith&#39;s decision to keep his sexuality private reflected the reality of professional sport at the time. For a gay athlete in the NFL of the 1960s and 1970s, publicly acknowledging his sexuality could carry profound personal and professional consequences.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Decision to Speak&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By the summer of 1986, Jerry Smith was living with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland, while battling AIDS. He had first begun feeling unwell in August 1985, and further tests in December 1985 confirmed that he had AIDS. By August 1986, he decided to make his illness public.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What happened next took courage that is difficult to fully appreciate at this distance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After discussing it with his family and friends, Smith contacted &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Solomon&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;George Solomon&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;mdash; a journalist at &lt;em&gt;The Washington Post&lt;/em&gt; &amp;mdash; and agreed to an interview. He would tell his story. He would put his name to it. He would become, in doing so, the first professional athlete publicly known to announce that he had AIDS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I want people to know what I&#39;ve been through and how terrible this disease is,&quot; he told Solomon. &quot;Maybe it will help people understand. Maybe it will help with development in research. Maybe something positive will come out of this.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those words appeared in &lt;em&gt;The Washington Post&lt;/em&gt; in August 1986. The story brought his illness into the public eye at a time when AIDS was still surrounded by fear, misinformation, and stigma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jerry Smith made AIDS personal for readers who knew him not as an anonymous patient but as a celebrated former NFL player. His decision to speak openly helped bring greater visibility to the human reality of a disease that was still widely misunderstood.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2025%20%E2%80%93%20Jerry%20Smith%20The%20NFL%20Star%20Who%20Became%20the%20First%20Professional%20Athlete%20to%20Publicly%20Announce%20He%20Had%20AIDS%2003.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 25 &amp;ndash; Jerry Smith The NFL Star Who Became the First Professional Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS 03.jpg (104 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nfl.com/photos/jerry-smith-through-the-years-0ap2000000316152#22fb8fdb-c715-46b1-bf1b-76ce8292f64f&quot;&gt;NFL Photography Gallery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Final Weeks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The response to Smith&#39;s announcement was not hostile &amp;mdash; it was, by the accounts of those who were there, overwhelmingly supportive. His former Redskins teammates rallied around him. The corridors of Holy Cross Hospital filled with visitors. Every third call to the hospital, staff noted, was for Jerry Smith.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His friend and former roommate Brig Owens &amp;mdash; a fellow Redskin &amp;mdash; was there almost every day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2025%20%E2%80%93%20Jerry%20Smith%20The%20NFL%20Star%20Who%20Became%20the%20First%20Professional%20Athlete%20to%20Publicly%20Announce%20He%20Had%20AIDS%2009.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 25 &amp;ndash; Jerry Smith The NFL Star Who Became the First Professional Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS 09.jpg (130 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nfl.com/photos/jerry-smith-through-the-years-0ap2000000316152#22fb8fdb-c715-46b1-bf1b-76ce8292f64f&quot;&gt;NFL Photography Gallery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Smith died on the evening of 15 October 1986, at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was 43 years old, less than a year after his AIDS diagnosis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His funeral was held at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Silver Spring. Twenty-three players from Washington&#39;s 1973 Super Bowl team reunited to serve as pallbearers, including legendary teammates &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Jurgensen&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sonny Jurgensen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Taylor&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Charley Taylor&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Mitchell&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bobby Mitchell&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig_Owens&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brig Owens&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. He was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the burial Mass, Owens walked towards the gravesite alone. He lingered over the site, plucking a single red carnation from the floral arrangement atop the casket. Before turning to leave, he made a fist with his right hand and gave the casket two quick taps in a silent, final goodbye to his best friend.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2014, NFL Network&#39;s &lt;em&gt;A Football Life&lt;/em&gt; revisited Smith&#39;s career and private life, introducing his story to a new generation of football fans. The programme highlighted the contrast between his public success as an NFL star and the private life he had been unable to acknowledge openly during his playing career.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2025%20%E2%80%93%20Jerry%20Smith%20The%20NFL%20Star%20Who%20Became%20the%20First%20Professional%20Athlete%20to%20Publicly%20Announce%20He%20Had%20AIDS%2006.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 25 &amp;ndash; Jerry Smith The NFL Star Who Became the First Professional Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS 06.jpg (158 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nfl.com/photos/jerry-smith-through-the-years-0ap2000000316152#22fb8fdb-c715-46b1-bf1b-76ce8292f64f&quot;&gt;NFL Photography Gallery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What He Left Behind&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jerry Smith died five years before &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Johnson&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Magic Johnson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&#39;s announcement. He died four years before the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White_CARE_Act&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ryan White CARE Act&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; was enacted in 1990. He died in an era when AIDS was still surrounded by fear, misinformation, and stigma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He did not have to speak. He was already ill. He could have kept his diagnosis private and allowed the public to remember him solely as a Washington football star. Instead, he contacted a journalist at &lt;em&gt;The Washington Post&lt;/em&gt; and told his story.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Maybe it will help people understand.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His announcement helped foster awareness at a moment when people with AIDS faced widespread discrimination, fear and social stigma. By putting a recognised professional athlete&#39;s name and story alongside the disease, Smith helped make the epidemic harder to dismiss as something that happened only to people on the margins of society.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His teammates remembered him. His story was preserved. And decades later, his decision to speak remains part of the history of HIV and AIDS in professional sport.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jerry Smith never received a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton. His NFL record stood for nearly 25 years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But his legacy extends beyond the records he set.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In August 1986, Jerry Smith stood at the intersection of professional sport, AIDS and stigma &amp;mdash; and chose to speak.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For a man who had spent his career protecting so much of his private life, that decision may be one of the most important things he left behind.&lt;/p&gt;

Test Once, Test Often: An HIV Testing Awareness Campaign

On-Demand PrEP (2-1-1): How It Works and Who Can Use It

Early Signs of HIV: Symptoms and When to Get Tested

Gil Scott-Heron: The Godfather of Rap Who Lived With HIV and Spoke Truth to Power (Celebrities with HIV #36)

Celebrities with HIV – 25 – Jerry Smith: The First Pro Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS

Easy HIV PrEP Refill Online Through Goodbye HIV

Where to Get PrEP in Bangkok, Thailand

Celebrities with HIV - 04 - Arthur Ashe: The Tennis Legend Forced to Reveal His HIV Diagnosis

Celebrities with HIV – 23 – Magic Johnson: The NBA Legend Who Changed the HIV Conversation in One Press Conference

Celebrities with HIV – 21 – Renato Russo: The Voice of a Brazilian Generation Who Died of AIDS Before He Could Say Goodbye

Celebrities with HIV – 16 – Dennis deLeon: The HIV-Positive NYC Commissioner Who Refused to Stay Silent

Celebrities with HIV – 18 – René Enríquez: How Hollywood Hid His AIDS Death From the World

Celebrities with HIV - 02 - Keith Haring's HIV Diagnosis: How One Artist Became an AIDS Activist

Celebrities with HIV – 25 – Jerry Smith: The First Pro Athlete to Publicly Announce He Had AIDS

What Else