Jimmy Smith (cornerback)

James "Jimmy" Smith (born July 26, 1988) is an American football cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Ravens with the 27th pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at Colorado.

Early life
Smith grew up in a single-floor home in San Bernardino, California, which is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The neighborhood Smith lived in was notoriously bad. "It's a rough neighborhood," said Smith. "A lot of gangs. A lot of gang violence. A lot of people get shot and killed all the time." However, Smith was able to shrug this off and excel at football from an early age.

College
Jimmy Smith was another surprise out of Dan Hawkins' transition class of 2006, like Nate Solder, Jimmy was a middle of the pack recruit out of his home state of California(#57 Athlete by rivals and unranked as a corner by ESPN) that grew into a first round prospect on a series of very mediocre Colorado teams. During the 2007 season Jimmy Smith firmly established himself as a contributor, a special teams star, and as part of the secondary depth. By far the biggest play of his 2007 season came against the Huskers, with momentum heading NU's way and the Buffs trailing by 11 Smith picked off a Joe Ganz pass and took it 31 yards to the house sparking a 34-0 run and swinging the game back in CU's favor in what would eventually turn out to be a 65-51 CU win.

Smith built nicely on his RS-Freshman effort playing in 10 games for CU and starting the final three at corner, a position he'd hold through the rest of his CU career. Again Smith closed the season with fireworks against Nebraska sniffing out an ill-advised fake field goal attempt by the huskers, intercepting the lateral and taking it 58 yards for a touchdown. Things continued to progress well for Smith who took over the starting corner spot full time at the start of his Jr. season, holding it through his last game at CU in that 2 year 24 game run Jimmy gave up an average of 1 completion a game. During that span Smith made quite a name for himself totaling 70 tackles in both seasons defending 15 passes and posing such a threat to offenses he was thrown at a mere 20 times as a Senior in man coverage. In that time Smith was honored as: All-big 12 twice, the Dave Jones award winner, and was named to the Thorpe Award watch list.



Pre-Draft Concerns
Through his high school and college careers, Smith battled occasional issues with the law which resulted in some pre-draft concerns about his maturity. It was reported he failed three drug tests, had two abortions by his girlfriend, and had been charged with aggravated assault.

The concerns proved to be largely immaterial as Smith has been a model NFL citizen after joining the Ravens.

2011 season
Smith was selected with the 27th pick overall by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2011 NFL Draft. On the 20th of November, 2011, Smith made his first career interception off an errant Andy Dalton pass against the Cincinnati Bengals. After a 16 yard return he had the ball knocked out of his arm by a Bengal, which was subsequently recovered by Brendon Ayanbadejo. He notched his second interception in a Week 13 matchup against the Cleveland Browns. In the AFC Divisional Playoff game against the Houston Texans, fellow cornerback Cary Williams tackled Jacoby Jones on a punt, forced a fumble, and Smith recovered it only a few yards away from the endzone. A week later, Smith had his third interception of the season in the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots. The ball was tipped from Bernard Pollard and luckily intercepted by Jimmy Smith. Overall, Smith was the #3 cornerback behind Lardarius Webb and Williams. Smith had 20 tackles as a rookie.

2012 season
Smith played in Super Bowl XLVII and was a part of a controversial call, as he allegedly held San Francisco wide receiver Michael Crabtree on the 49ers' last offensive drive in the game, preventing the Niners from scoring on 4th down in the final minutes of the game.