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NFL all time leading rusher
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00:00Hello, I'm Chris Fowler, and welcome to SportsCentury.
00:03After the 1987 season, Walter Payton retired from the NFL with a rushing record of nearly 17,000 yards.
00:11Three years later, a 5'9", 199-pound package of power, durability, and desire
00:17began a long, hammering journey toward the mark set by his childhood hero.
00:22We begin this half hour on a Monday night in 1996,
00:26when Emmitt Smith received a much-needed touch of sweetness.
00:38And Emmitt Smith is down and injured at the goal line.
00:42He went up over the top on goal line play and flipped right over the top and landed right on
00:47the top of his head.
00:48We didn't know the severity of it at that point.
00:51They took him off the field, and they were just being very careful around his neck and his head area,
00:56and the door opened, and I turned to say, hey, get out of here, and it was Walter Payton.
01:03I think that this is the end of my career, and he's talking to the doctor like he's my father.
01:08He's coming over and putting his hand on my head, rubbing my head, kissing my forehead,
01:13and telling me in my ear everything's going to be all right.
01:15They started to get Emmitt ready to leave, and Walter said, here's my home phone number,
01:19here's my office phone number, if you guys need me for anything tonight, tomorrow, or the next day,
01:24call me, and I'll take care of it.
01:27No calls were necessary.
01:29Emmitt Smith was back in action the next game.
01:32Like Payton, Smith has endured straight into the NFL record book.
01:36Eleven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and over 150 rushing touchdowns.
01:42As a child in Florida, he revered the Bears icon.
01:46We got old books of Walter Payton that he read when he was a little boy.
01:52We have videos of Walter Payton.
01:53We had our players write their goals down, and I remember his written up there,
02:00and one of them was about Walter Payton.
02:03I was a big fan of seeing the highlights of Walter, run the ball,
02:06run up the hills of the deltas of Mississippi.
02:08The biggest simulator they desired, Walter would come into camp,
02:13and you would think he was a rookie trying to make the team.
02:16Emmitt's goal was to be the leading rusher in the history of the game.
02:20People have always said, is Walter Payton the greatest running back,
02:23and then they kind of diss him a little bit.
02:24Emmitt falls into that camp as well.
02:26He just does it all, but not in a flamboyant way.
02:30They said he's too small to play in college,
02:32not big enough, fast enough to come play in the pros.
02:35All those doubters are just people that fuel the fire,
02:38that makes Emmitt Smith go.
02:40He always seemed to listen more to the critics than to those who praised him,
02:44and maybe that's why he's had such a long and distinguished career.
02:47Exactly.
02:47What a run by Emmitt Smith!
02:49Emmitt Smith has done it again!
02:52Emmitt's never been known for his speed.
02:54Emmitt was agile, mobile.
02:57He had a little bit, just enough of all of it.
03:02He had some speed, he had some size, he had some dash, some power, some moves.
03:12He had a lot of vision, and he had the right O-line.
03:19He breaks through tackles, he spins, he runs over you.
03:24He's got this lateral step that he can and be gone.
03:29There's a guy coming full speed from the back,
03:30and right as the guy's about ready to just drill him,
03:34stops, guy goes by and spins back inside of him,
03:36and you're like, how did you see that guy?
03:38We'd worked all week on we must stop Emmitt, we must stop Emmitt.
03:42First play of the game, he went 45 yards, we're playing the city stage.
03:46The linebacker hits him and knocks him dead sideways about four or five yards,
03:50keeps his balance, and it's almost like he just did it in stride.
03:54I do remember him running a sweep to the right,
03:56and when the guys actually grabbed his helmet, ripped his helmet off,
04:00he reversed it out of the way, he went all the way back to the other side line.
04:03I've never seen a man hit this hard.
04:06We were coming back to the huddle thinking, we got this game.
04:09This guy is done.
04:10Look to the sideline.
04:11What happened?
04:12Emmitt Smith jogging back to the huddle.
04:14We all kind of looked at each other thinking, you got to be kidding me.
04:17Emmitt was so good finding a spot to put the ball in the end zone.
04:21A lot of backs might be stronger and faster and more powerful
04:25and try to pull their way in.
04:27Emmitt was a smart runner in the end zone.
04:30Oh, Emmitt Smith!
04:31Oh, Emmitt!
04:33Emmitt Smith, you're unbelievable!
04:35He was an outstanding blocker and picked up the blitzes and sacrificed his body.
04:40Look at that hit by Emmitt Smith!
04:42He shoots him on his back!
04:44I don't know what Emmitt Smith is made of.
04:46He is like a robot.
04:47He's automatic.
04:48He's always doing what needs to be done.
04:50In early January of 1994, the Cowboys battled the Giants for home field advantage in a first-round buy in
04:57the playoffs.
04:58On a 46-yard run late in the second quarter, Smith went down hard, suffering a separated right shoulder.
05:05And Emmitt Smith is down!
05:07Emmitt Smith is down!
05:08All we know is that it hurts.
05:09You're out.
05:10You're finished.
05:10Get out.
05:11He says, I'm not coming out.
05:13When they know someone's hurt, they're going to try and take advantage of that.
05:16It's like a boxer going after a cut on a guy's face over and over again.
05:19I think I bruised my sternum when they crossed the game because my chest was just sounding like knuckles.
05:24You can just hear it just cracking, just popping up every time I fall.
05:29Tears run out of my eyes, but I was not coming out of the game.
05:33Smith cut back up the middle to the 30.
05:35Still going to the 25.
05:40Okay, he can't do it.
05:41The next thing you know, it's pick up eight yards.
05:46Gained in the drive.
05:48And it showed a lot of the critics.
05:50Too small, too slow, not durable, not tough.
05:53That stubborn, I'm going to prove you wrong attitude really trot that day.
05:57That really was the beginning of the legend, Dan Smith.
06:00That pretty much typified his ability and determination to win.
06:07It was a very exceptionally talented team, but it was also a very arrogant team.
06:12And it was a team that felt there weren't many rules once they left the locker room.
06:17They earned that right to be arrogant.
06:19They earned it.
06:21The league will hand down suspensions to two Dallas Cowboys today.
06:24Michael Irvin, indicted on two counts of drug possession.
06:27He faces up to 20 years in prison.
06:29There was a house of ill repute where they could do whatever they wanted to,
06:34either with illicit drugs or with women who weren't their wives.
06:38Troy Aikman spoke out against it.
06:40And he felt like Emmett Smith, as prominent as he was,
06:44should have also joined him in publicly castigating the team for that kind of behavior.
06:49If he did feel that way, if he did say anything, nobody knows about it.
06:53He was the guy that, hey, I'm here, I do my job, I cash my check, let's go home.
06:59When all the craziness was going on, Emmett always wanted to be there,
07:03and was going to be steady, and was going to be consistent.
07:06You always had that little fear in the back of your head.
07:08What if he gets caught in that, and he never did?
07:11There are signs, and you've got to be aware of those signs.
07:14And I was a person that knew when to say when.
07:17His ability to stay on the straight path stems from him having a very solid foundation at home when he
07:23was a kid.
07:25Born on May 15, 19th, in a world of poverty and drugs, he learned to love football early.
07:33We had our babies swing, and he would sit there and watch the game,
07:37and when something exciting happened, he would reach up and grab the post and stop the swing.
07:43It was a pretty rough place.
07:44You know, they could hear gunshots at times at night.
07:47There were rats scurrying around.
07:49Emmett saw drugs around the neighborhood.
07:51I had no idea.
07:52Money was tight.
08:01I thought that's how everybody else lived.
08:04I mean, as a kid, that's it.
08:05His mother was the enforcer.
08:07She was the one who gave him the whippings, and she had a very simple rule.
08:13No schoolwork, no excuses.
08:16Whippings had to get switches from my mom.
08:19My mom had a switch tree growing up in the backyard.
08:22Yeah.
08:22Emmett called me about five minutes before time couldn't be home and asked me could he stay a little while
08:27longer,
08:28and I told him no.
08:29I guess he decided to try me, and I was right there waiting on him.
08:34I'd taken care of him, but he'd never done it again.
08:38In 1983, Smith entered a football program that managed just one winning season in 18 years,
08:45but Escambia High School had another problem that seemed to reach beyond sports.
08:50Its student body was still feeling the divisive effects of a race riot that occurred seven years earlier.
08:57You would go to the cafeteria and see a black student or a white student sitting together having lunch.
09:03But once the football team started winning, it was incredible.
09:08Football
09:11In the morning, Emmett Smith, 150 yards, 200 yards, people started to notice, you know, who is this kid?
09:18And people started going back out to the games.
09:21They brought the community together.
09:23I would see all these rumors about this guy that's, uh, he was called a freaking major at the time.
09:27Nobody could tackle him, and they didn't know why.
09:30He wasn't the fastest player around in high school.
09:33He wasn't the biggest or the strongest.
09:35He had 45 100-yard games that was a high school record in the country.
09:41He never missed one practice.
09:43He was never in any trouble with any of his teachers, and I never heard him swear one time in
09:48four years.
09:49His grandmother died.
09:50We had won a state championship.
09:51You know, here's a 16-year-old kid with a state championship ring.
09:54I saw him walk up to his grandmother's coffin, take that ring off, and put it in that coffin.
10:00That's a 16-year-old?
10:02No, no.
10:04He doesn't even have to show ID.
10:06That's not a 16-year-old.
10:08There's no way.
10:10In 1987, after averaging 180 yards a game and leading Escambia to two state titles,
10:17Smith enrolled at the University of Florida,
10:19where not everyone believed that the number two all-time high school rusher could make it as a Gator.
10:25There were some talent evaluators who felt that perhaps Emmett was a step slow, perhaps he was an inch short.
10:32The first time he stepped on the practice field at the University of Florida,
10:36we was all waiting to see this great, great running back.
10:39He came out there and started pulling a sled, and he sort of threw up all over the field.
10:44After not starting his first two games as a freshman,
10:47Smith got the nod on the road against...
10:53He and some other football players happened to be at a fraternity,
10:58and some players argued with some of the frat guys.
11:01And the next thing you knew, guys were brawling.
11:04I'm in the middle of all that.
11:05By the activists I possibly could be,
11:07the reality was the three guys that was actually throwing most of the blows,
11:12they was laying them down.
11:14There was a headline in the paper the next day.
11:16I believe it was Smith and 11 others will be suspended.
11:18Right then and there, I got a good glimpse of how when you are considered a star or a celebrity,
11:24you're going to be publicized in a negative light just as well as a positive light.
11:30By the end of his All-American junior season,
11:33Smith was Florida's all-time leading rusher.
11:35But when former Gator Heisman winner Steve Spurrier took over in late December of 1989,
11:41Smith felt an immediate chill.
11:44Spurrier made no effort whatsoever to convince Emmett Smith to stay in Florida.
11:49All he said to Emmett was,
11:51make up your mind because I'm trying to recruit some running backs.
11:55It would probably be best for me to leave the university for it.
12:01I just didn't get the sense that he truly wanted me to stay.
12:04He did everything other than just saying,
12:07Emmett, I think that you should go.
12:09Smith would soon face a new challenge.
12:12Finding his way in an unfamiliar environment ruled more out than Texas.
12:20When I think of Dallas, I think of GR, the ranches, cattle ranches, just steers and horses.
12:30There is Texas and then there is Dallas.
12:33Dallas is a little more dressed up.
12:35Dallas is all about big and brassy and braggadocious.
12:43And Emmett's none of those things.
12:44As a kid, his grandfather took him one day to the bank and talked to him about the importance of
12:51money.
12:52As a millionaire, he was living in an $800 a month apartment.
12:56We always used to kid him about how tight he was.
12:59Everybody else was driving around in a big Mercedes and Emmett had his little economy car because it wasn't a
13:04gas guzzler.
13:05He came into my office one day and asked if he could just sit on the couch and listen to
13:11me take calls and visit with people
13:13so that he could get a little better insight into how business was done.
13:17My mom told him, if anything he'd do in life, be sure you graduate from college.
13:22He told her he would go back.
13:24And he went back.
13:25There's an honesty, a plainness about him that you like.
13:30There's no frill.
13:31If he's happy about something, you see it.
13:33It's all over his face.
13:35It's coming out of his spirit.
13:36If he's not pleased about something, you'll see that too.
13:40After the Cowboys finished the 1989 season with just one victory, the franchise nurtured the hope of picking up a
13:47premium runner in the upcoming draft.
13:50They had a picture of that guy in words.
13:53He's 6'1 to 6'3.
13:56He's 200 to 214.
14:00They wanted another Hershel Walker.
14:03They wanted Hershel Walker so much, they shouldn't have traded him.
14:08They had that guy.
14:10Hershel Walker.
14:13Emmett.
14:14No, no, no, no, no.
14:17You look at his height, his weight, his speed.
14:20A lot of backs had that.
14:22But Emmett got it done.
14:24We actually had him rated as the fourth best player in the draft.
14:26And he was still available at 17.
14:29He's going to move up.
14:29This guy's a great player.
14:31Dallas selects Emmett Smith running back from Florida.
14:36One of the offensive linemen went up to Jimmy Johnson and he said,
14:40Now, coach?
14:41He said, I wouldn't be betting the farm on any rookie.
14:44And we're sitting around going, hey, man, what else do we got?
14:47What the Cowboys got was the wellspring of a new era.
14:52Capturing NFL rushing titles in his second and third seasons,
14:56Smith led Dallas back to Super Bowl glory in January of 1993.
15:01But when negotiations over a new contract stalled the following summer,
15:04Smith held out on the Cowboys.
15:07That first Super Bowl that they won, we was walking on the field and Jerry said to him,
15:13Yeah, we couldn't have done it without this man right here.
15:15I would give this man anything he want.
15:18And my brothers looked at him and my brothers said,
15:20Jerry, now you hear that, right?
15:21We quite possibly, but we need to be without him.
15:24Jerry Jones was making all these brash public statements.
15:27He said Emmett Smith is a luxury for the Cowboys, not a necessity.
15:32He had a great line in front of him.
15:34What?
15:34There was a lot of doubt as to, is this guy really that good?
15:38Because you had one of the best lines maybe in football at the time.
15:42Anything that we did that created the perception that we were not appreciative of his value,
15:50he took it personally.
15:51At the time, no other running back in the issue ever won a wrestling title and went to Super Bowl
15:551.
15:56I was the first to do so.
15:58I'm going to ask Emmett to sign this contract to be with the Dallas Cowboys for the next few years.
16:04Now, when he does that, the Dallas Cowboys are the winners.
16:07In December of that season, Aikman suddenly signed a contract, $50 million for eight years.
16:14Emmett had gotten 13.6 for four years.
16:17And Emmett was flat out insulted by that.
16:19How in the world can they sit up there and talk about, I'm asking for too much money?
16:27What passing title did Troy Aikman win to get $50 million and Emmett Smith's only getting $13.5?
16:35Smith struck back by winning his third straight rushing title and MVP honors.
16:40On the way to his third straight, MVP honors.
16:46This is with Barry Sanders in the league.
16:50To rush for more than him, no matter how good your offensive line is.
17:05At halftime, Dallas almost trailed 13.6.
17:09I came in the locker room from upstairs and Emmett just grabbed me and whispered in my ear,
17:14he says, hey, you know, get me the ball.
17:17I said, you got it.
17:18Emmett, big hole.
17:20Emmett again.
17:21Emmett again.
17:22Emmett again.
17:24If something's good, you go back to it.
17:26That opening drive, we had the ball, I think, nine plays.
17:29He touches it eight times.
17:30And I think all eight plays were the exact same play.
17:33Hit the backfield by right.
17:35Breaks away.
17:35Emmett Smith touchdown.
17:39Running for 132 yards, Smith was voted MVP as the Cowboys rolled to their second straight title.
17:46Two years later, he ran for an NFL record 25 touchdowns as the Cowboys went on to win their third
17:52Super Bowl in four seasons.
17:54He had done it all by six years in the league.
17:57Six years in the league, he had done it all.
18:00A combination of retirements, free agency, and salary cap restrictions ended the Dallas party.
18:06We had some diamonds, but we had a lot of cow poo-poo around it.
18:12And the diamonds was mixed in with the poo-poo.
18:15It just all looked like poo-poo.
18:17There was a period there in 97 where a lot of people were thinking maybe Emmett had lost his step
18:22and that his career was winding down then.
18:24Emmett's view was if they want to put me in the ground, go ahead and let them.
18:29But I'm not going to let that change the person who I am.
18:32My performance is not based upon what you're saying about me.
18:35Because when I'm playing the game, I'm not even thinking about none of those comments, not thinking about none of
18:39those people.
18:48He's very competitive on and off the field.
18:51Whether we're playing golf or dominoes or a deck of cards, he wants to win and be in charge of
18:57the whole situation.
18:58He plays dominoes is exactly the way he plays the game.
19:00He's going to try to outthink everybody and then he's going to go in for the kill.
19:04Emmett wants people to realize he's the best.
19:07There's a swagger that you inherit when you become a member of the Dallas Cowboys.
19:12Emmett inherited that swagger.
19:14Emmett's kept every football he's ever scored a touchdown with.
19:16He's creating a legacy.
19:18He wants people to respect that legacy.
19:20He's always had this complex of insecurity.
19:23He's always acted as if his job were in jeopardy.
19:27He was always wary of anybody else who was a running back.
19:30As the Cowboys slid from glory, Emmett Smith's priorities were questioned as he crept ever closer to Walter Payton's career
19:38rushing record.
19:38There are people in the front office who believe that Emmett Smith's pursuit of Walter Payton's record got in the
19:45way of the Cowboys putting the most talented young running backs on the field.
19:51People on the coaching staff, clearly disappointed when they lose.
19:54But if his numbers are there, the disappointment is not quite as much as if he doesn't get his numbers.
20:00Two weeks after he was drafted, I grabbed a piece.
20:04Oh, the running back with more rings than any other star running back should be disappointed.
20:11Look, he already has his rings.
20:14And that might be lazy for somebody to say, he already had his rings.
20:21You can't come out of the ball game, even when the outcome had been decided.
20:38He always wanted to remain in the game and continue to amass yards.
20:43Emmett counted his yards the way he counted his change when he was a little boy.
20:48He'll always do that.
20:49He said to me, point blank, that 20,000 yards is...
20:58I think Emmett takes offense when people don't put him at the very top of the list.
21:03You would think those doubts would have quieted by now.
21:05But even now, he still plays with a chip on his shoulder.
21:08Now it's on 33 and people don't think I can run.
21:11This sport is just...
21:12Emmett actually ranks Jim Brown and Walter Payton as his one and two.
21:17That's from his mouth.
21:19It's like the wind.
21:20It comes and it goes.
21:21People are with you sometimes.
21:23And most of the time, they're not with you.
21:25And when things are good, they want to pat you on your back.
21:28And when things are bad, they want to put their foot on your throat.
21:31In April of 2000, Smith married former Miss Virginia Pat Lawrence.
21:36And two years later, he received the Spirit of Sweetness Award from the Walter Payton Cancer Fund.
21:44I'm trying to hold my emotions and all, but that's how much it's meant to me.
21:51And that's how much it's going to mean to me when I break it.
21:54Second and seven at the Dallas 30.
21:57Hutchinson, handoff, Smith at left guard.
22:0035, 40-yard line.
22:03That should do it.
22:06Move over, Sweetness.
22:08Make a place for Emmett.
22:11I've come a long way from Pensacola, Florida, and I hope that everybody has an opportunity
22:17to enjoy this moment like my family and the Payton family will enjoy this moment.
22:21In 2002, Smith failed to rush for 1,000 yards for the first time in his 12 seasons.
22:27In February of 2003, he was cut loose by new head coach Bill Parcells.
22:33With 17,162 career yards, the most prodigious runner in NFL history,
22:39he was signed a month later with the Cardinals,
22:42asserting that he still had the legs and the heart to march deeper into our memory.
22:46I come here to help.
22:48I don't come here to replace.
22:49I don't come here to agitate.
22:50I don't come here to discredit.
22:52I don't come here to belittle.
22:54I come here to help build every man on this ball club
22:56because it's going to take all of us to go out here and win.
22:59Emmett is a gobble.
23:00He gobbles the game.
23:02He gobbles life.
23:03The thing you admire about him is how, on the one hand,
23:08he seems really average.
23:10But on the other, he's just extraordinary.
23:13Emmett Smith is very comfortable with who he is,
23:15but I still think there's a part of Emmett...
23:19Oh, he'll be good, but he'll never be great.
23:21I still think that haunts at him a little bit.
23:23And despite all the achievements,
23:25he does seem to have trouble letting that go.
23:27Hmm.
23:30Even as a boy, Emmett Smith had the legs of a running back.
23:33They were so well-developed that his mother sometimes had to travel
23:37across the Florida state line into Alabama
23:40to find jeans wide enough that she could alter
23:42to fit around his powerful thighs.
23:44And when he reached the eighth,
23:46his 180 pounds of muscle disqualified him
23:49from playing in the youth league.
23:51But when he grew up, he could play anywhere he wanted
23:54and have his slacks custom-tailored.
23:57For SportsCentury, I'm Chris Fowler.
24:00So you know right now,
24:02this famous miss set will never be broken.
24:05Ever.
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