Emmitt Smith Visits San Angelo

Emmitt Smith visited San Angelo Thursday at a luncheon benefiting the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health, at the McNease Convention Center. Smith participated in a question and answer session with Will Wagner, ASU Head Football Coach.

Emmitt answered questions about his life before and after his renowned football career.

 “When I was about seven years old I was laying on the floor watching my favorite football team play, the Dallas Cowboys,” Smith said met with applause. “I was looking at the game just fascinated by the sport, and I turned to my father and just blurted out ‘One of these days I’m gonna play professional football, and I’m gonna play for the Dallas Cowboys’, you should’ve seen the look on his face, and that’s where it all started,” he said with a chuckle.

Smith talked about his college football experience in Florida, and later on NFL draft day.

“Draft day was so nerve-racking,” he recalled. “Here’s the ultimate day, the day of reckoning. Not knowing where I would go, knowing that even though the Cowboys were my favorite team they had a pick in the top 21 or 22. I thought that I would end up in Tampa Bay as the number four pick, or I would have two shots to go to Seattle, like maybe the sixth or tenth pick in that draft,” said Smith. “When it got down to the tenth pick and Seattle traded their pick away, I was extremely nervous, because I did not know where I would go,” he said. Smith said he was watching ESPN during the draft, which did not ease his mind. “Green Bay was about to get on the clock, and I’m starting to trip, like I don’t want to go to Green Bay,” he said as the crowd laughed and clapped.

“The Cowboys made a trade, and moved up to the seventeenth pick, and I get the call, and it blew my mind, because right then and there I was going back to that kid that was on the floor thinking about what it is that he wanted to do, and it was just one of those surreal moments to where I didn’t even think about how bad the Cowboys [were], they were 1 in 15 the year before I didn’t even think about that. I was happy. I was overwhelmed with joy, my family was so excited, it was a magical moment for me.”

Smith talked about the hard work, focus and dedication of Troy Aikman, and Michael Irvings’ relentless pursuit to become a gladiator of the gridiron by training twice as hard as the other players. In their heyday, Smith, Aikman, and Irving were known as the Cowboy’s “triple threat”. Smith reflected on his last season in football, and when he knew it was time to retire. It happened when he was playing for the Arizona Cardinals, his last team he was assigned in his career.

“When I came back to Texas Stadium to play the Cowboys, and I got dressed in the visitor’s locker room, I felt like a man in a strange land, and it broke my heart to pieces," Smith said. "I cried for 45 minutes straight in front of all of my teammates. They were trying to figure out what was wrong, and I couldn’t even put it into words, and finally I blurted out ‘I’m not supposed to be in this locker room, this is not my locker room, my locker room is over there, and I hate this.’

"After I pulled myself together, I knew right then and there my love for the sport was leaving. But I knew I needed to honor my contract with the Arizona Cardinals, and give them everything I had planned on giving them from the beginning. So, when my contract was up I knew it was time for me to say it’s over, so I walked off the football field, took my shoes off, tied them up, put them on my shoulder, and walked around the stadium…took a deep breath, looked around, went down changed and walked out, and that was it,” he said somberly. “That’s a tragic story,” he said smiling, as the crowd laughed.

Since his retirement, Smith has not been idle; he won a season of Dancing with the Stars. Who knew Emmitt Smith could dance the cha-cha?

He also owns four businesses and a couple of charity organizations. Visit Emmitt Smith on the web.