On paper, signing Smith in the preseason made plenty of sense for Atlanta. In 11 seasons, the veteran pass rusher had 70.5 sacks and previously played for head coach Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland. After losing Jalon Walker for the season due to injury and James Pearce Jr. for eight games due to a suspension, Smith was a strong solution to a defensive need.

However, his on-paper reputation was quickly overshadowed by his character.

In his introductory press conference, Smith was forthcoming and vulnerable while explaining his decision to retire from the NFL six games into the 2025 season.

"I wasn't supposed to retire," he said. "… Got a phone call from my mom's doctor telling me that she don't have much longer to be on this Earth. So, I let the team know. Obviously, they wasn't trying to let me leave, but that was the only thing I had left: to retire. So, I retired.

"Dealt with that. After losing my mom, I lost my grandma. Then, after my grandma, I just lost my dad."

Smith left the game he loved to be alongside his mother in her final days, but the successive losses left the southern boy who grew up surrounded by family and community in a dark place.

When he first received calls about a football comeback, Smith was at his lowest. He needed a purpose, something to pour himself into. He needed to return to his happy place.

Multiple teams offered Smith a path back to the gridiron, but Atlanta satisfied something no other team could. Something that carried newfound weight for him in that moment.

"My mom, rest her soul, she always wanted me to be in Atlanta with the Falcons," Smith said. "I'm from Alabama, so she always wanted the fam to come up and support me for the games because that's a closer ride."

The first chance he got, Smith made sure anyone who wanted to make the three-hour trip to support him could. Turns out, many people were eager to do just that, including his older brother Stephano.

"A quick, easy way to come watch him play," Stephano said of the new trek. "Usually we were traveling nine, ten [hours]. I think Green Bay, we'd be like ten hours away. So, we're closer now. A three-hour trip. Come up, go back home. We don't have to try to take off work to come watch him play ball."

Stephano held a sign displaying his mother, Sharon, and grandmother, JoAnne Smith, as he spoke; a reminder that proximity wasn't the only thing different about this trip. After a difficult year of his own, managing the same grief that gripped his younger brother, he felt blessed to make the trip with his church to be near Za'Darius as he ran onto an NFL field once again.

The two brothers spent their childhoods surrounded by family, but they naturally spent a lot of time together. Stephano, 10 years older than Za'Darius, was the caretaker, especially when their mother worked at night.

"Yeah, he followed me around," Stephano said. "… I kept him. Everywhere I go, he had to go."

On Sundays, that meant going to Harrison Street Baptist. Sharon oversaw the church's youth department, and all the Smith children were heavily involved. They attended Sunday school, participated in church plays and broke bread together at the end of each week.

Sharon was passionate about her faith, and she made sure her family grew up with God in their lives, Za'Darius included. It didn't stop there, however.

"Sometimes she would even get her Sunday school children and bring them to church," Wanda said. "That's how well she loved the church and loved her children."

Naturally, that meant plenty of memories were made from the pews.

The one Wanda reached for as her 34-year-old nephew warmed up on the field in the stadium behind her came from a moment long before a life of professional football was even a consideration.

"I remember when his mama first bought him his cowboy boots," she recalled. "He had to go up in the pulpit and show the preacher, pointing down at his shoes, that he had on cowboy boots."

Breaking out the cowboy boots for an impromptu show-and-tell at Sunday service seems a fitting early act of confidence for the three-time Pro Bowler. That confidence would grow from there. Often with the help of Stephano, whose eyes twinkled with mischievous pride in the way only a big brother's could as he happily took his share of credit for shaping Za'Darius into a man tough enough to tackle the NFL.

Wanda suggested it wasn't until Za'Darius' junior or senior year of high school, around age 17, when Stephano had to ease up on his not-so-little-anymore brother. He disagreed.

"I'll still give him a try," he said. "I'm always big bro."

One particular afternoon, Za'Darius felt especially outnumbered. Wanda had just arrived at Sharon's house for an afternoon conversation with her sister, as she often did after visiting the hairdresser.

What she saw upon arrival was not part of the routine and gave an early clue that her nephew wasn't one to back down.

"When I got to her house, I saw Za'Darius walking with a weed eater," Wanda said. "So, I went out to Sharon [and asked], 'What in the world is he doing with a weed eater?' She said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Well, he's running with that weed eater.' She said, 'Boy, what are you doing with that weed eater?' He said, 'Mama, they double teamed me. They double teamed me. They jumped on me. And I got to get 'em one by one. If I got to get 'em one by one, I'm gonna get 'em one by one.'

"The children had jumped on him. The brothers, most of the cousins, the sisters. I mean, they jumped on him, and he wanted to get them back. I think he might have been eight or nine. He was a very active child."

Now an adult, Smith remains just as active. His target, however, has changed.

Through two games with the Falcons, Smith has 2.5 sacks, the most he's ever had in his career entering Week 3. The first pair of sacks Smith earned with his new team carried a special weight.

"My mom used to always talk about Aaron Rodgers," he explained the day after Atlanta's Week 1 matchup against Pittsburgh. "When I left Green Bay and went to Minnesota, and I had to play against the Packers, it was always, 'Go get Aaron Rodgers, get him on the ground.' And I had an opportunity to do that yesterday. That was the only sad part: I couldn't call her and talk to her about it."

Stephano also felt that absence on his brother's memorable day, dotting his elation with moments of privation.

"Last Sunday when he got those two sacks, I said, 'My phone's been blowing up.' My mama would have been blowing my phone up, saying, 'Did you see my baby get them sacks on Aaron Rodgers?' … Any sack, she would have been calling my phone, blowing it up, but especially Aaron Rodgers."

There's a common expression in the NFL that sacks come in bunches. A player can go weeks without taking down the quarterback before one big game or going on a three-game tear. For many people, grief can operate in the same way. The pain of loss can hit hard at a moment's notice without forewarning, and it can persist long after a loved one is gone.

Smith has been honest about his pain even as he returns to the place he cherishes as a source of joy. That is the duality of his life right now.

By honoring his mother's longtime wish to bring his church up for a game, Smith got to run out of the tunnel for his Falcons home game in front of those who have known him longest and loved him deepest.

As Sharon once saw to it that no child was left behind for service, her son ensured her memory was present on another special Sunday.