Inside Alex Smith's Fortress

By Dennis Georgatos, Mercury News

Alex Smith got aggressive Tuesday - playing "Halo 3."

The 49ers quarterback hosted an Xbox 360 sneak preview at his Los Gatos home. Several teammates plopped into bean-bag chairs in Smith's family room to play the science-fiction game against NFL counterparts in Washington and Cincinnati; Smith mixed it up with former 49ers receiver Brandon Lloyd, who's now with the Redskins.

"He was on there talking," Smith said. (Not much surprise there.)

It was a rare glimpse into Smith's life outside of football, which includes:

• A view of the Santa Cruz Mountains (example, left) from his kitchen, a backyard pool, and a pool table and pingpong table in the front room.
• Two Labrador retrievers, brothers Winston and Truman, and an English bulldog named Dwight. "It's kind of a history thing going on there - the Great Generation, but it probably would have been more fitting if I named the bull dog after Winston Churchill," Smith said.
• A game room with a sound system, two flat screens and a projection screen, and a popcorn maker.
• Books such as "Finding Fish," Antwone Fisher's biography that in part inspired Smith to dedicate his foundation to helping emancipated foster children, and "The World is Flat," Thomas L. Friedman's look at globalization.

"I read a lot more than I play video games," he said. "And I've always followed economics. A lot of focus in my major at Utah was economic history going back to the consequences
of the Crusades, stuff like that."

• And some football. As soon as backup quarterback Trent Dilfer arrived, he sat down with Smith in the kitchen and started talking about Sunday's game in Pittsburgh.