Emmitt Smith could do it all–run, catch, and block. He’s the NFL’s all-time rushing leader and perhaps the greatest running back in NFL history. So why does Smith get bashed? Here’s why. And here’s why I don’t buy it.
Let’s begin by taking a look at Emmitt Smiths’ accomplishments. He played for 15 seasons and 226 games, scored 175 touchdowns (2nd all-time), gained 18,355 rushing yards (1st all-time), and caught 515 passes for 3,224 yards.
Courtesy: Dallas Cowboys
Career highlights and awards include being a 3× Super Bowl champion, the Super Bowl 28 MVP, 8× Pro Bowler, (1990–1995, 1998, 1999), a 4× first-team All-Pro (1992–1995), a 2× second-team All-Pro (1991, 1996), the 1993 NFL Most Valuable Player, the 1993 Bert Bell Award winner, the 1990 NFL Offensive ROY, a 4× NFL rushing yards leader (1991–1993, 1995), a 4× NFL rushing TD leader (1991–1993, 1995), a member of the NFL 1990’s All-Decade Team, a member of the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, and he’s a Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.
Smith also holds notable NFL records, including 18,355 rushing yards in a career, 164 rushing touchdowns in a career, and 4,409 rushing attempts in a career.
With all of that, he still gets bashed! Why? Well, three reasons–based on pure emotion–are impossible for me to counter. First, many fans dislike the Cowboys and anything or any player associated with the team. Second, Smith is often compared to Barry Sanders, the shifty and popular running back, who played during the same era. Finally, Smith broke Walter Payton’s all-time rushing yardage record. Payton was, and remains, a fan-favorite.
But other reasons that fans bash Smith can be refuted by recounting events and reciting stats. Here are three.
First, some fans contend that Smith only cared about his stats and wasn’t a team player. Well, I think it’s bogus to conclude that Smith only cared about himself. Here’s an example. On January 2, 1994, the Cowboys played the division-leading Giants in New Jersey. The Cowboys needed to win that game to grab the division title and secure home-field advantage in the playoffs. The Cowboys jumped out to an early 13-0 lead, but Smith sustained a separated shoulder just before halftime. Then, soon after at the start of the second half, the Giants tied the game, 13-13. Knowing his team needed to win, Smith sucked it up and (to put it mildly) performed. He not only finished with 229 total yards, but Smith was also handed the ball on nine of 12 plays during the team’s game-winning drive. If that’s not being a team player, I don’t know what is!
Second, fans sometimes say that Smith had the advantage of playing on a great team with incredibly talented teammates. While true, you can say the very same thing for at least half the players in the NFL Hall of Fame. For example, does anybody discredit Jerry Rice because he had two Hall of Fame QBs throwing to him for the majority of his career?
Furthermore, many of those very same ‘extremely talented teammates’ played for the Cowboys the year before Smith joined the team? Dallas went 1-15 that year. But Dallas went 7-9 during Smith’s rookie year and 12-6 (including two playoff games) in his sophomore campaign. In Year 3, America’s Team went 16-3 and won the Super Bowl!
Of course, Smith didn’t do that all by himself. But he was a significant reason why the team achieved success. Why do I say that? In Year 4, Smith was involved in a contract dispute with owner Jerry Jones and sat out the first two games of the season. The Cowboys lost both of those games! Smith returned in Week Three. Dallas won 15 of the next 17 games and went on to win another Super Bowl!
Third, fans contend that Smith was successful because he ran behind a great offensive line, perhaps ‘the best ever line.’ Really?
Whether that’s true or not really doesn’t matter. Why? Other great backs ran behind great offensive lines.
And here’s the kicker! From 1990-93, when Smith gained 937 yards, 1,563 yards, and 1,713 yards respectively, none–I repeat, none–of the Cowboys’ O-linemen was named All-Pro! Yes, Smith did have a great O-line from 1993-’98–a line that I think was the best O-line in the game at that time. But that’s just for six years of the 15 years Smith played in the NFL. For 60% of his career, Smith ran behind an average offensive line.
Consider this. Only one offensive lineman who played for Dallas in those years–Larry Allen–became a HOF player. But Allen didn’t join the Cowboys until 1994 and didn’t become a full-time starter until 1995. That means Smith had already played five full seasons before Allen started paving the way.
By 1999, the Cowboys were no longer a playoff team even though Larry Allen alone (among Cowboys’ offensive linemen) was named All-Pro. Yet, Smith continued to be productive, gaining 1,397 rushing yards that year.
What’s my conclusion? While I know that great athletes have their critics, it seems to me that Emmitt Smith has more than most. And while it’s impossible to counter emotional jibberish, it’s easy to show that other major criticisms just don’t hold water.
This is utterly preposterous. I can tell that whoever wrote this is a Cowboys fan just buy the title. Anyone that knows football knows that Emmitt Smith was a very good running back but there are over 10 running backs that we’re better than Emmitt Smith. Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Gale Sayers and Jim Brown are the easy ones. Just look at what they could do on a football field and then look at what Smith was able to do on a football field. The speed and Power were light-years ahead of Emmitt Smith. Other guys that were better than Emmitt Smith are Eric Dickerson, Bo Jackson, OJ Simpson, Marcus Allen, Earl Campbell, Adrian Peterson, Marshall Faulk, Tony Dorset and LaDainian Tomlinson. All of them, in my opinion and a lot of people’s opinion we’re better than Emmitt Smith. I don’t care what you have to say but when you have the best offensive line in the game and possibly ever then your life is going to be a whole lot easier as a running back. Imagine if Barry Sanders had the offensive line that Emmitt Smith had. He would have broken that rushing record by 5000 yards. Hey, it says a lot to be a top 15 running back of all time. I still put him ahead of the likes of Curtis Martin, Ricky Watters, Jerome Bettis, Franco Harris, and Leroy Kelly but guys like Herschel Walker and LeSean McCoy I’m up in the air with. Just look at their physical ability and it’s not even close. Emmitt Smith was a tough son of a bitch. I will give him that but Anyone who puts them at the top of the running back list just because he has the most yards is absolutely ludicrous.