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Emmitt Smith

Emmitt James Smith III (born May 15 1969 in Pensacola, Florida) is a former American football player, who played for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals. Smith is a three time Super Bowl champion and the NFL's all time rushing leader, a record formerly held by his childhood hero Walter Payton. Smith surpassed Payton on October 27, 2002 against the Seattle Seahawks at Texas Stadium. He is the only running back to ever have won a Super Bowl championship, the NFL Most Valuable Player award, the NFL rushing crown, and the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award all in the same season (1993). Emmitt Smith is one of the three "Triplets", along with Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin that highlighted the Dallas Cowboys' offense during the 1990s.

Personal life

Smith was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at Florida and returned to school during the off-season to take classes. He received his degree in Public Recreation from the University of Florida in May, 1996.

Smith married former Miss Virginia beauty queen Patricia Southall on April 22, 2000. Their son, Emmitt IV, was born on Smith's 33rd birthday, May 15, 2002. Smith has a daughter, Regan by ex-girlfriend Hope Wilson and a stepdaughter, Jasmine, Southall's daughter from her previous marriage to comedian Martin Lawrence.

NFL records

Emmitt Smith was the first player in NFL history to have five consecutive seasons with over 1,400 rushing yards. Smith, Jim Brown, and LaDainian Tomlinson are the only players with seven straight 10-touchdown seasons to start their careers. With 1,021 rushing yards in 2001, Smith became the first player in NFL history with 11 consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and the first to post 11 1,000-yard rushing seasons in a career. He is the NFL's all-time leader in rushing attempts with 4,409.

Smith currently holds the NFL record in career rushing yards with 18,355, breaking the previous record held by Walter Payton, on October 27, during the 2002 NFL season. He leads all running backs with 164 career rushing touchdowns, and his 175 total touchdowns ranks him second only to Jerry Rice's 207 touchdowns. The sum of his rushing yards, receiving yards (3,224) and fumble return yards (-15), gave him a total of 21,564 yards from the line of scrimmage, making him one of only four players in NFL history to eclipse the 21,000-combined yards mark.

Smith also accumulated a number of NFL postseason records, including rushing touchdowns (19), consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (9) and 100-yard rushing games (7). His 1,586 yards rushing is also top on the NFL postseason chart, and he shares the total playoff touchdown mark of 21 with Thurman Thomas. Smith is one of only five NFL players who have amassed over 10,000 career-rushing yards and 400 career receptions. Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice are the only two non-kickers to score 1000 points in a career.

Playing style

Emmitt Smith was noted for being a very durable back with excellent vision, tremendous leg strength, great balance, a competitive heart, and one of the most complete players to ever play the position of running back. Smith excelled at running between the tackles as a highly efficient downhill runner skilled at cutting through quickly changing gaps toward "daylight", but was also skilled in running to the outside, and catching the ball as a receiver. Although Smith is right-handed, he mainly carried the ball in his left hand.

In the mold of Walter Payton, Smith was a great blocker in pass protection - the great blocking fullback Daryl "Moose" Johnston noted that Smith was better in pass protection than he was.

During his career, he was often compared to Detroit Lions Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders as both men were extremely successful for their respective teams and combined for 8 rushing titles during the 1990's. Smith provided many highlights and considered more of a "north-south" runner who provided a more balanced running game and excelled in the short yardage game. Many experts and fans have debated who was better with no real conclusion being drawn other than both can easily be regarded as the greatest ever and both are among the greatest players to ever play the game. In 1999, three years before becoming the game's all-time rushing yardage leader, he was ranked number 68 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

Retirement

On February 3, 2005, at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida three days before Super Bowl XXXIX, he announced his retirement after fifteen seasons in the NFL. Smith was released by the Arizona Cardinals, and signed a one day contract for no money with the Dallas Cowboys – after which he immediately retired as a Cowboy, the team he played for from 1990 to 2002.

In September 2005, Smith signed on to serve as a studio analyst on the NFL Network show, NFL Total Access.

On September 19, 2005, at halftime of the Cowboys-Redskins game (broadcast on Monday Night Football), Smith was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor with his longtime teammates Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin.

Smith becomes eligible for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010, and it is widely expected that he will be inducted on his first opportunity. He was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on July 21, 2007 as a 2007 Division I-A inductee.

On July 23, 2006, Smith was a judge at the Miss Universe 2006 pageant.

In the fall of 2006, Smith won Dancing with the Stars with professional dancer Cheryl Burke. Smith was praised for "making dancing look manly" and for his "natural charm", and Burke was given credit for coaching Smith while still allowing him to improvise some moves.

On September 30, 2006, he was one of the first four Gator legends inducted into the Gator Football Ring of Honor, alongside Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Jack Youngblood.

In 2007, Emmitt was named to FHSAA's All-Century Team that listed the Top 33 football players in the state of Florida's 100 year history of high school football.

On March 12, 2007, Smith joined ESPN as a studio analyst for their NFL pregame coverage alongside Chris Berman, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, Ron Jaworski and Chris Mortensen. He, Mortensen, Jackson, Berman and analyst Steve Young did the Monday Night Football countdown each week.

Smith has been criticized by some in the media and sports blogs as being inarticulate. Jimmy Kimmel Live created a video called "Emmitt Smith: Wordsmith" mocking his numerous malapropisms. Sports Illustrated's Peter King called Smith's comments regarding Michael Vick's involvement in the Bad Newz Kennels "idiotic and inappropriate."

Video games

He has a football video game named in his likeness called Emmitt Smith Football which features all 28 NFL teams and is commentated by Emmitt Smith. It was released in 1994 for the Super NES and Sega Genesis.