Who is Connor Shaw’s wife, Molly Smith? All about family as former Gamecocks QB suffers medical emergency at son’s football game

On September 17, former NFL star Connor Shaw experienced a medical emergency while coaching his nine-year-old son's football team at Gracely Park in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

The ex-quarterback collapsed on the field and was immediately transported in an ambulance to Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he is currently stable in the ICU, according to MSN. The cause of the collapse remains undisclosed.

The city of Simpsonville released a statement on Thursday morning about his condition, sending “thoughts and prayers” to Shaw and his family and wishing him a “speedy recovery.”

According to The Daily Mail, Connor Shaw is married to Molly Smith, and the couple shares three children. During an exclusive interview with The Greenville News in 2015, Shaw revealed that his wife is a “really good tennis player” and a yoga practitioner. However, it remains unclear whether she plays tennis professionally.

Former South Carolina Gamecocks player JP Hovey, now a podcast producer, posted about his former teammate’s health emergency on X Wednesday night.

“Reading that Connor Shaw collapsed while coaching his kid’s football team tonight. Freaking scary stuff. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Connor Shaw, it’s that he’s a fighter. Keep fighting, 14, and we’ll keep praying,” Hovey wrote.

Exploring the family life and career of Connor Shaw

Connor Shaw was born on September 19, 1991, in Flowery Branch, Georgia, USA. He attended Flowery Branch High School and played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks as a quarterback from 2011 to 2013, with a record 6,074 passing yards and 56 touchdowns. In 2021, he was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame.

In 2014, he was an undrafted free agent and was signed by the Cleveland Browns. Shaw played for the Chicago Bears from 2016 to 2017. The 34-year-old has also coached Furman University and the Gamecocks in 2018 and 2020, respectively. In 2020, Connor Shaw became the director of player development for the Gamecocks, followed by director of football relations in 2021.

He met Molly Smith in high school and dated a “little bit.” However, the duo became serious after they joined the University of South Carolina as students, according to his 2015 interview with The Greenville News.

After years of dating, Shaw proposed to Molly during their weekend trip to the Georgetown Waterford Park in Washington, D.C., in March 2013. Over a year later, they walked down the aisle in July 2014 in the Caribbean, according to ABC Columbia.

A week before the wedding, Connor Shaw posted a photo of himself with his pregnant fiancé on social media and wrote in the caption:

“One week from today, this will be Mr. & Mrs. Shaw.”

A couple of months later, their first child, daughter Mila, was born.

"It was awesome, man, 2014 was incredible. Starting it off with that bowl game at Carolina, to the (NFL) Combine, the all-star game, the draft, going to OTAs (organized team activities) in Cleveland, and then getting married and having my daughter," Connor Shaw told The Greenville News in 2015.

Back then, he added, "Some guys prefer to be alone, away from their families. I'm not one of those guys. I focus better when they're with me. I don't want to miss out on anything with my daughter growing up, and I definitely don't want to be away from my wife."

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Connor Shaw also spoke about his wife’s “good genes,” mentioned she was 5’9” or 5’10”, and called her “my good luck charm.” He noted how USC won all the games she attended and quipped, “So I’ve got to keep her around for a long time.”

In 2016, Molly Smith gave birth to the couple’s second child, son Decker Drew, who Connor was coaching on Wednesday, when he collapsed. According to the Daily Mail, the pair also has another child, whose name remains undisclosed. The couple is friends with former pro cyclist George Hincapie.

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