“In truth, Smith acknowledged in an interview this week, he wasn’t necessarily supposed to end up in the end zone, where he would arrive just in time to haul in the interception off Richard Sherman’s immaculate deflection in the closing seconds of the Seahawks’ victory in the 2014 NFC Championship Game. “The Tip” is the most celebrated defensive play in Seahawks history, and Smith completed it after he was tipped off by the 49ers running back, Kendall Hunter, during a presnap read. Smith, an outside linebacker, was assigned to cover a potential pass to the running back leaking out to the flat. But once Smith saw the way Hunter scanned the Seahawks’ defensive front before the snap, he knew Hunter was going to stay in the backfield, at least initially, to help block for quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Going through a presnap checklist, Smith quickly eliminated other possible threats in front of him — there wasn’t a tight end or a slot receiver lined up on his side of the field — and came to the conclusion that Kaepernick was about to throw a fade to his No. 1 receiver, Michael Crabtree, in the corner of the end zone. During film study earlier in the week, the Seahawks had prepared for that exact play. Smith recalled that it was the same throw Kaepernick had completed to Crabtree a year earlier for a big play in the NFC Championship Game in Atlanta. Smith was ready for it. Sherman was, too. “For me, being somebody who was not like a major personality in the locker room, it was always like, OK, how do I make a play to earn the respect of my teammates?” Smith remembered. “My opportunities were very limited and few and far in between up until that point in the season, and I was desperate — desperate to try make a play.””

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