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Sport · Football
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Jaylon Smith was born 14 June 1995 in Fort Wayne and starred at Bishop Luers High School, where he helped the Knights to four straight Indiana Class 2A state football championships and, as a senior, won both Indiana's Mr. Football award and the national high school Butkus Award. At Notre Dame (2013–15) he became one of the program's most decorated linebackers, winning the collegiate Butkus Award in 2015 as a consensus All-American. A severe knee injury in the Fiesta Bowl on 1 January 2016 dropped him from a projected top-five draft position; the Dallas Cowboys took him 34th overall in 2016, and he fought back to a Pro Bowl season in 2019, playing 88 NFL games, chiefly for Dallas. He has since returned to Fort Wayne, where he has coached at North Side High School, and built a second career as an investor.
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Sources: Wikipedia, "Jaylon Smith"; Pro Football Reference; Indianapolis Star (April 2026).