Inside the rise of Super Bowl star Jaxon Smith-Njigba… as told by his ‘petty’ mom and those who know him best

If there’s a flicker of nerves, the sunglasses have hidden it well this week. But after spending his day talking the talk as the coolest kid in San Francisco, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is ready to try and fulfil his destiny in the Super Bowl.

The 23-year-old Seattle Seahawks wide receiver has been the man everyone wants to speak to. He’s taken each moment at his own pace, often leaving media waiting as the last man to appear for the cameras, keeping his sunglasses on or adjusting his $25,000 chain before taking a question.

Watching as he holds the attention of the football world in the palm of his hand, you wouldn’t realize that the man of the moment is also a proud mommy’s boy.

‘My No 1 person,’ Smith-Njigba told the Daily Mail about his mother, Jami. ‘She’s ultra-competitive. If I need to be told something, then she’ll tell me straight up.

‘I love her, I know she’ll do anything for me and likewise. It is great to have a mother lion like that in your corner.’ 

Indeed, Jami Smith is very protective of her youngest son. When he played at Ohio State, Jami would monitor reporters who interviewed him or discussed the young star, good or bad. Anyone who stepped out of line went into her black book.

‘I can be super petty with all of it,’ Jami admitted in 2023. ‘I’m defensive. I’m mama bearish. I’m making a list of people who will never have an interview for (Jaxon’s) entire career. 

‘I take it very personally, as any parent would, regardless of what your kid is doing. There are a lot of people out there trying to make a buck.’

She wanted him close to home when he headed into the NFL Draft in 2023. Having raised Jaxon in Nacogdoches, the so-called ‘oldest town in Texas’ with a population of just 32,000, a pick by the Dallas Cowboys would have been a dream come true. Young Jaxon was a Cowboys fan, too.

‘From East Texas, a proud native, we breathe different,’ the Seahawks star said. ‘Maybe it’s something to do with the sun, football is a religion there.’

But when it was the Seahawks who took Smith-Njigba with the 20th pick of the first round, ushering a move to the Pacific North West, none of the family could have pictured this, now, in their wildest fantasies. As his third campaign enters the final stretch, his breakout season ends with the world at his feet and ultimate stardom just a game away.

Staff and teammates tell Daily Mail they have been blown away by his emergence in the regular season; 119 receptions for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns. Against the Rams, for the NFC Championship, he had 10 catches, a touchdown and 153 yards. When he’s on, which is most weeks, nobody knows how to stop him.

It’s incredible, really, to think that it’s a historic season born out of opportunity after the Seahawks traded away D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Nobody, not even the Seahawks coaches, knew they were clearing center stage for a new star of the game.

‘If I could say that we saw a candidate for MVP of the league, no (we didn’t),’ the impressive Seahawks offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, told the Daily Mail.

‘We knew we were going to have to rely on Jax and when we saw him in camp, man… with every practice that went on, we put more on his plate and he could handle it. It’s all on him, his work ethic and how smart he is.’

That dedication, Smith-Njigba revealed, is born in part from acknowledging a weakness. 

‘The body type that I have, I’m not the biggest or the fastest,’ Smith-Njgba, who stands at 6ft 1, said. ‘It has always been ‘what can I do?’ and I still have some work to do. I feel like my ceiling is high and I’ve got to go and get it.’ 

‘That’s cool that he said that,’ Kubiak, the man who Tom Brady is about to make the Las Vegas Raiders head coach after the Super Bowl, added. ‘He works like a college walk-on, like a free agent with something to prove. He’s not satisfied with where he is. 

‘After we traded away DK Metcalf, with every practice that went on, he would make route adjustments that were better than what I would have suggested. He’s so smart.’

Smith-Njigba caught the eye of another wide receiver, teammate Cooper Kupp, at Ohio State in his sophomore year, where he made his name as a star in the making by taking 95 passes for over 1,600 yards.

‘I remember watching him then and thinking this guy is going to translate really well to the NFL,’ Kupp said. ‘It has been a really fun journey with Jax, a blessing to be alongside him. But he was an incredible player before I got here.’

Smith-Njigba makes no secret of how valuable Kupp’s arrival at the Seahawks has been to him. Released by the LA Rams last summer, where he was a Super Bowl MVP in 2022, Smith-Njigba has quizzed Kupp, relentlessly, about what it takes to get to the top.

Another huge influence is his brother, Canaan, a professional baseball player drafted by the New York Yankees in 2017. 

The instincts that make Smith-Njigba the man of the moment were honed across hours in the yard with his older brother. And like so many great sportsmen, he didn’t just play football as a kid.

‘I grew up playing baseball, basketball, all sports as a kid,’ he said. ‘Basketball nearly even took me away from football. But I’ve been playing football since I was three.’

It wasn’t long before his family realized there was more than just love that Jaxon had for the game. It was real talent that would take him far. His dad, Maada, a former linebacker at Stephen F. Austin university who became a firefighter, knew that better than most when he saw it.

‘My dad sacrificed his time at his job so I could visit schools or just travel and play some ball,’ Smith-Njigba said. ‘My dad and brother saw the potential at a very young age and pushed me to my limits, got me up at a very young age and I give credit to that.

‘I was talking to my brother today, saying I envisioned this for a very long time,’ he added, before pausing. ‘To get from where I was to here, it really is a blessing.’ 

His mom might have wanted him to be a Cowboy but right now, on the biggest stage of all, Smith-Njigba is exactly where he needs to be.