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Brooke Pryor
FORTY-FIVE MILES south of Pittsburgh, a man will click on the TV in his room just after 8 p.m. Thursday to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Cincinnati Bengals in a prime-time divisional matchup.
It’s a scene not unlike thousands unfolding across Western Pennsylvania, though there are differences. He won’t be wearing a black and gold jersey or twirling a Terrible Towel. Those aren’t allowed here. That’s because this man is watching from his cell at State Correctional Institute-Fayette, a maximum security prison that currently houses 1,991 incarcerated men from across the commonwealth.
Unlike many of the men at SCI-Fayette, who watch the night games in their cells or gather for Sunday afternoon kickoffs in the day rooms, this man is not a lifelong Steelers fan, but he does have a lifelong bond with one of the players suiting up for Pittsburgh this season.
Wayne Smith, the older brother of Steelers tight end Jonnu Smith, will be intently watching Thursday’s game, relishing the opportunity to watch his little brother live out his dreams on the biggest stage. For most of his 10-year stint at the prison, following his conviction in 2015 of third-degree murder and other charges, Wayne has watched Jonnu in only a handful of games, most of them prime-time national broadcasts.
But this year, coincidentally his last year of incarceration, Wayne has been able to watch every single one of Jonnu’s games, including the Thursday night game for the first time since the games moved to Amazon in 2022. That’s because the prison is in the Steelers’ local broadcast market, which means that not only does Wayne get access to Sunday games, but he can also watch the simulcast of the Thursday night game on local television.
It’s a moment Wayne, 35, started imagining since learning that Jonnu, five years his junior, was being traded to the Steelers from the Miami Dolphins over the summer.
“It was God moving the chessboard,” said Karen Smith, Wayne and Jonnu’s mom, who spoke with ESPN this week. “I was stunned. And all of us just talked about it, the entire family, we could not believe it, because they’ll be in the same state now. How ironic is that? And they’ll be able to see each other more. He’ll be able to watch his brother play. And even Wayne said that, ‘I get to see him play the entire game, not just the highlights.'”
A week ago, another moment the two brothers envisioned came to fruition, too, when Jonnu brought a group of six Steelers teammates to the prison not only to visit with Wayne, but also to meet with more than 100 inmates, listen to their stories and introduce them to resources that could help with their reentry to society after release. For the brothers, the visit wasn’t just about their family, it was also the continuation of a commitment to service and second chances that Jonnu has embodied and prioritized throughout his life, and it set a foundation for unprecedented outreach by the Steelers organization to the often underserved and stigmatized prison communities.
“His heart wants to help people,” Karen said of Jonnu. “Naturally, he has that in him. Some of our ways are just innate. We’re just born with it. Jonnu has a heart to help others. He will do outreaches for everyone. When he did this, I knew he and Wayne talked about it. And I know that it was something that they wanted to do, but it was not just for Wayne. Jonnu is interested in people evolving for the better.”
THE PAST NINE months of Jonnu’s life were punctuated by two phone calls.
The first came in January as Jonnu played in his first Pro Bowl Games. He was in Orlando, Florida, when he got the call that Wayne’s sentence was eligible to be reduced.
“It just obviously made the weekend far better than I ever imagined,” Jonnu said.
Convicted in 2015 of third-degree murder and charges of aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime and carrying a firearm on public streets stemming from his role in a 2010 street fight that resulted in fatal gunshot wounds to David Dial, Wayne was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in 2015 after the first trial ended in a hung jury and the second in a conviction. Though Jonnu was playing college football at FIU during the second trial and embarking on his NFL career as a 2017 third-round pick as Wayne began his sentence, Jonnu worked tirelessly to give his brother a second chance. He found and paid for attorneys better equipped than public defenders to file appeals and covered his brother’s expenses in prison.
Then, thanks to the Conviction Integrity Unit introduced by Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner, Wayne was granted the right to a new trial because of previously undisclosed evidence. Instead of relitigating the case, Wayne accepted a new sentence of 16 to 32 years. Because he already served 15 years — 10 at SCI Fayette and five in county prison during his trials — he is now set to be released in July 2026.
That first call was the culmination of years of work by Jonnu to get Wayne a second chance, whether through a reduced sentence or a new trial. Once shielded by his older brother from the rough realities of growing up in North Philadelphia, Jonnu reversed their roles and fought for his brother throughout Wayne’s incarceration.
“[Jonnu] spearheaded leading these attorneys to doing this, and this is how my son gets to come home next July,” Karen said. “And this is how that happened. His brother did become [Wayne’s] guardian. [Jonnu] became the one helping him and guiding him.”
When the boys were growing up, Wayne embraced guiding Jonnu as Karen worked multiple jobs to provide for her two sons and four daughters after a tow truck accident killed her husband, Wayne Sr., when Jonnu was 4. Karen knew the bond between her boys was special from the moment 5-year-old Wayne Jr. held his newborn baby brother.
“You know how kids look at their little siblings, and they just love them? I saw that from day one,” Karen said. “All they did was play all the time. Wayne was like Jonnu’s protector.”
When Wayne “started to learn what the streets had to offer,” Karen said, that’s when the two brothers became a little distant. Even so, Wayne still looked out for Jonnu.
“[Wayne] always sent his brother home,” Karen said. “He always made sure [Jonnu] didn’t do what he did. They were going on two different paths, but [Wayne] was still trying. [Wayne]’s doing wrong things, but he was still making sure his brother did not.”
Their paths forked when Wayne was arrested in June 2010 following the fatal street fight. Two days later, Jonnu was on a plane to Ocala, Florida, to live with his aunt. He stayed with her through high school, attending West Port High School before earning a scholarship to FIU.
“I have to send Jonnu away because these streets will swallow him up,” Karen remembered telling her sister in a panicked phone call. “They will chew you up and spit you out.”
“I sent him to my sister’s, and his path went in a good direction.”
THOUGH THE BROTHERS’ paths diverged as Wayne served his sentence and Jonnu pursued a football career, the two talked nearly every day in Wayne’s 15-minute allotments. Separated by thousands of miles and living worlds apart, Jonnu leaned on Wayne for advice as he got married, had two kids and played for four NFL franchises. At the same time, Wayne worked to better himself so he would be ready for the next phase of his life, whenever it arrived.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Jonnu said. “We say this, and we really believe this, but [Wayne’s downfall] made him a better man, and changed his life in a way where it changed my life. And if things didn’t happen the way they did for his life, I probably wouldn’t be where I’m today.”
Eventually, their paths converged again when Jonnu got his second life-changing phone call of 2025.
Jonnu learned in late June that he was going to be traded from the Dolphins to the Steelers, reuniting him with Pittsburgh’s Arthur Smith, his position coach and offensive coordinator from the team that drafted him, the Tennessee Titans, and also with the Atlanta Falcons. More importantly, the trade placed him an hour’s drive from Wayne during his brother’s final year of incarceration.
“When Omar [Khan] and Mike [Tomlin] brought it up to me, the potential of [the trade], I told them a lot about him and about our history, and I did bring it up,” Smith said. “I told them about his brother. Jonnu and I had talked about it, and it’s kind of a unique full circle in life, the timing that he’s up there. I know that means a lot to probably his brother. I’ve never met his brother, but I feel like I know him through Jonnu.”
When Wayne called for their daily chat on June 30 — the day of the trade — Jonnu gave him the news.
“He just couldn’t believe it,” Jonnu said. “He was like, ‘Wow, are you kidding me?’ As men of faith, we definitely believe that this was a God-ordained moment.”
No longer would Jonnu have to wait until the offseason to fly to Philadelphia and then drive hours across the state with his family to visit Wayne. Now, he could visit more frequently, though the Steelers’ off day is Tuesday and SCI-Fayette doesn’t allow visitors on Tuesdays.
The proximity to Wayne gave Jonnu another idea: What if he and some of his Steelers teammates and members of the organization visited the prison and held an outreach event with the inmates? In August, he approached Blayre Holmes Davis, the Steelers senior director of community relations, and administrators at SCI-Fayette to inquire about the possibility.
“In 26 years of service in the Department of Corrections, I’ve never had a player himself reach out,” said SCI-Fayette Superintendent Tina Walker. “… When high-profile athletes like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jonnu Smith request to come to the prison and speak with inmates, it shows a commitment from them for community engagement and rehabilitation.
“It sends a message to our inmate population about second chances and personal growth and accountability and choices that you make maybe don’t always define your future.”
The visit came together on Oct. 7, when Steelers players Pat Freiermuth, Connor Heyward, Corliss Waitman, Matt Sokol and Calvin Anderson met Jonnu at the prison on their day off following their Week 5 bye.
“Jonnu invited some of us, and I couldn’t not go to that,” Heyward said. “I saw how much it meant to him, and he told us it meant a lot when we got there, and even prior, before going, he was just like, this is very close to his heart. So anytime somebody has something like that, especially with his brother in that situation, it was just special though being there and being able to take that all in.”
The six Steelers players first met with a small group of 12 inmates, including Wayne, for half an hour. Each incarcerated individual shared his story and what he’d done to rehabilitate himself for entry back into society. Then, the players went into the prison’s gymnasium for a larger program attended by 100 inmates. Community Kitchen, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that assists in food services training programs and opportunities for people with employment barriers, gave a presentation on its services, and the players answered questions posed by inmates about topics like how they overcome adversity, how they stay focused and what other ways they’re giving back in the community.
“Our mission was to come to inspire, but ultimately we were the ones that were inspired,” Jonnu said. “… Outside of me being traded, there hadn’t been a Pittsburgh Steeler to step foot in that prison. And those guys, it changed their day and some lives and how they see things and how they look at things. But for us, the visitors, the outlook that we got on life was that, man, your situation doesn’t have to define you.”
Anderson, a six-year NFL journeyman, has done prison outreach work throughout his career. He has seen the challenges to reaching an often underserved community, and he has grown to understand the value in the work.
“There’s a lot of red tape involved with getting in, but then there’s also a stigma around people that are in prison,” Anderson said. “And I think in general, I try to look at people as humans, and one bad mistake can lead to pretty significant changes in your life experiences. And so I think you have to kind of take away the judgment when you walk into settings like that and just try to see people for the humans that they are.
“Any of us can make bad decisions that lead to significantly bad outcomes. The goal is to try to see if you can use some of the things you’ve learned in life to give people inspiration so that they can make better decisions and they can see life different and hopefully not end up in those situations.”
Walker, who has been the superintendent at SCI-Fayette since 2023, has received positive feedback from inmates in the week since the visit from the Steelers and the special program.
“I’ve received thank-you request slips from our inmate population and in person on my rounds, thanking me for allowing this type of program to be made available to the incarcerated individuals because it meant a lot to them,” she said, adding that she hopes to continue a relationship with the Steelers organization for more programming in the future.
Karen, too, got a glowing review of Jonnu’s visit from her older son.
“[The players] probably think, ‘Oh, it was nothing,’ but they really don’t know what it is that they did for someone else. Or maybe they do, but it was bigger probably than they can imagine,” she said.
“Wayne talked about it for days afterwards. He’s still talking about it. He said, ‘Mom, that was the best day of all the days that I’ve spent in jail. That was the best day. That was it. Those men, the Steelers coming, my brother and those players coming up to talk to us, Mom, it was such a good day.'”
JONNU DOESN’T NEED to circle the date on the calendar for a visual reminder that it’s on the horizon. On July 18, 2026, Wayne is scheduled to be released after 16 years of incarceration.
Jonnu is under contract in Pittsburgh through the 2026 season, but because he’s turning 31 years old on Aug. 22 with a $10.8 million cap hit, his future in Pittsburgh beyond this season is anything but certain. In five games this season, Jonnu has 17 catches on 20 targets and one touchdown.
What is certain, however, is that he’s going to be alongside his brother every step of the way as Wayne transitions to the next phase of life. But that doesn’t mean Jonnu is going to leave the prison community behind. Jonnu envisions continuing to work in the prison-reform space with his brother and through his nonprofit, the Nu Family Foundation.
“July 18th, 2026 is going to be, up until that point, the happiest day of my life,” Jonnu said. “He’s got his whole life ahead of him. … He went to jail when he was 20 years old. He was a baby and had to kind of become a man on his own.
“And I’m proud of the man that he’s become, because the man that he’s become impacted this man right here.”
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