Emmitt Smith: Dallas Cowboys, Walter Payton, NFL Records, LeBron, CoParenting & Moving On

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Emmitt shares how a young man from Florida who had dreams of playing for the star turned his vision into a reality breaking the mold and going far beyond what he imagined. Opening up to Fred, Ryan and Channing- the football legend talks about how his purpose went far beyond the game and becoming an admirable man solidified his legacy. Meeting Walter Payton for the first time helped Emmitt shape his mission and knowing that breaking the running back’s record was on his radar, he worked everyday as that was his mission. Sharing memories and stories of playing for the Cowboys during the glory days of the 90s, Emmitt talks about what it was really like playing for America’s team. Away from the field and away from the bright lights and star, Emmitt shares how being a father and how finding life again after separating from his wife of almost two decades changed him and redefined his purpose. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  How you doing, man?

• 0:32Fred Taylor?

  How are you?

• 0:33Speaker 01

  All the way. I love y'all's show.

• 0:34Fred Taylor?

  Still afraid of that.

• 0:39Fred Taylor?

  Gator, my boy.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  See, Chad, he don't even know you went to Florida.

• 0:44Speaker 01

  I got something for my Gators this week for the first time. Yeah. Tickets and everything else. And to any home game that's available. Right. Obviously, Gator basketball. I'm like, it's been 20, 30 some years. This the first time? The ones that dropped in.

• 1:00Fred Taylor?

  This the first time you ever been invited back?

• 1:03Speaker 01

  No, it's not the first time I've been invited back. But what make this is different is because they sent me tickets. They saying I got tickets, four tickets.

• 1:12Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  To any game.

• 1:13Fred Taylor?

  Right, right, right. Yeah, that's crazy.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Specifically.

• 1:15Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  They came in a Gator package.

• 1:18Fred Taylor?

  They gotta reach out more.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  That's my point.

• 1:20Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, a legend like you. Because I knew I ain't gonna get none.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Man, that legend is left in history. That's what they celebrate in history of what this guy did. Now they starting to bring the guy in.

• 1:31Fred Taylor?

  They are. They're trying to get it together.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  They should get it together.

• 1:34Fred Taylor?

  It's crazy that it's taking that long though, because

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Bro.

• 1:36Fred Taylor?

  I know that. I think that started maybe two or three years ago.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:40Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, but this should have been the first one.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  First, second, or whatever, it don't matter.

• 1:45Fred Taylor?

  We ain't gonna talk about the fact that you need your statue out front too.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  Man, I don't care about that statue. But they can go give me some, uh, they can give me some money that I left on the table. Since they got this NIL going on. Retro, retro NIL. Nah, I want it with interest.

• 2:03Fred Taylor?

  Hey, if you get that quarterback deal at 13.8.

• 2:07Speaker 01

  That was insane. Yeah, we couldn't do it.

• 2:09Ryan Clark?

  He's here now. He went to Arizona State.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. 13.8?

• 2:13Ryan Clark?

  He had a 13.8 million dollar deal.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  I gotta see the contracts.

• 2:16Ryan Clark?

  They showed it. So, you can look it up and find it.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:20Ryan Clark?

  He was gonna get $250,000 a month as a freshman.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Kiss me in my mouth.

• 2:26Ryan Clark?

  What tone?

• 2:28Speaker 01

  I don't need tone, nothing.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  But come on!

• 2:32Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  No, man. See, that's why we need reparations, bro. I need mine.

• 2:38Ryan Clark?

  That man said he needed reparations.

• 2:40Channing Crowder?

  If somebody signs a four-year, 13-million-dollar deal, you'll be like, "That's decent money for a baby."

• 2:46Speaker 01

  That was my second contract.

• 2:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  That was my second contract with the Cowboys. That was like 92, 93.

• 2:53Ryan Clark?

  92, oh, so they hit you up quick.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  Right after the very first Super Bowl. My second contract was 13.5 million dollars.

• 2:58Ryan Clark?

  And you held out for that?

• 2:59Speaker 01

  And I didn't hold out. I missed the first two games, though.

• 3:02Ryan Clark?

  What's the difference between holding out and missing the first two games?

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Holding out is when you have a contract and you want more money.

• 3:07Ryan Clark?

  Ah, so you're just waiting to get your contract signed?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Okay. I had to fulfill my obligation.

• 3:13Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  And I'm sitting here, stuck between a rock and a hard place, because I can't go nowhere.

• 3:18Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  I only have one team now to negotiate after the 30 days went by when you're a free agent. And I was a restricted free agent at the time. This was when it first hit. So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Nobody, the other 28 teams, the 30-some teams, never offered me not one contract.

• 3:35Ryan Clark?

  Wow.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Left me to go right back to Jerry Jones and negotiate with Jerry Jones straight away. So you coming in, what, you signed a two-year deal? Four-year deal reverted to a three-year deal. Okay, got it. So, when I signed as a rookie, it was a four-year deal. All I had to do was play one down and reverted back to a three-year deal, which would've took me back to the free agency market right then and there. But then, they were negotiating the collective bargaining agreement for the first time. Right. And so my contract was coming up, and I had went from Rookie of the Year, leading the league in rushing in '91, lead the league in rushing in '92, to the Super Bowl in '92. We win the Super Bowl, my contract is up. Right. All my obligations are done. And so I get into restricted free agency.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  I got 30 days to negotiate with 20-some-odd teams to come on, come play with them. And not one gave me a contract. Gave me an offer.

• 4:28Ryan Clark?

  What would've... Did you have any conversations with them?

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Man, I picked up the phone and called Don Shula myself. And told him I wanted to come to Miami. And play for Miami. Because I knew Dan Marino didn't have a running game.

• 4:41Ryan Clark?

  Right, yeah.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  And I wanted to go.

• 4:43Ryan Clark?

  That'd be crazy.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  And I said, I want to go back, I want to, I want to help you, help Dan and whatever, get a championship. Bring me back to the state of Florida.

• 4:49Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  He said, well, I don't know if I can make that offer. I said, because if you do, if I do make this offer. And you don't come. All my other players will see what I put on the table for you. And it's gonna mess up my, my chemistry.

• 5:05Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  I'm gonna put, just put something on the table that Jerry cannot refuse.

• 5:08Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Something that he says, I cannot match it. I said, well, I can't do that.

• 5:13Ryan Clark?

  That's crazy.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  And I said to myself, really?

• 5:18Ryan Clark?

  In hindsight, I know Schuler was like, damn. Especially in 93 when you took off and led the league and everything.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  So, you're right, I did miss those first two games, but it was because I was negotiating my deal. I didn't have a contract.

• 5:31Ryan Clark?

  See, I needed, I needed that clarification though, that's different.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  But that's how the media twisted it. The media twisted it as if I was holding out and people think that I held out. No, I was negotiating. It's a different term.

• 5:43Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  Than holdout. Holdout seems like I withheld myself and my services that was already obligated. But I had fulfilled my deal. I didn't have no more to do. Except for get a new contract.

• 5:54Ryan Clark?

  Right. Free agency was so different then because it was fresh and new. And so to everybody, it's like, oh, Emmitt Smith held out. And because they went 0-2.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:03Ryan Clark?

  You know, everybody knew, all right, hold on, we realize Emmitt is the glue to everything we do. We gotta get this done. But it does give it kind of a different perception where you're saying, oh, I was just negotiating to get my money.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  That's all I was doing.

• 6:15Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  I was negotiating to come back to play at a reasonable rate. And I still think I came in under, under what I was really shooting for. But at the end of the day, when you lose the first two games, you see your teammates, man, and it's just, it's killing me at home. I mean, we, our first game against the Skins at the time. I'm sitting at home on a Monday night with my parents, back in Ponce de Nueva, watching this game. And we lose to the Skins and I'm watching Derrick Lyles do the best he can. And things just looked crazy. And I'm mad because I can't stand them. Can't stand to watch them. And that's the team I was with. It's like playing Florida State, you know what I'm saying? And so, we lost that game.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Then, I ended up going to Tallahassee to watch my brother Emery play. Because Clemson, I played Florida State that weekend. And then I'm watching the Bills game. We lose that one. Then I hear all the commotion that goes on. I'm like, man, this is not good. Then my phone start ringing. Before you know it, I was on a plane and getting picked up in Atlanta, heading back to Dallas. But you proved your point. You proved your point. Without you, they couldn't do it. Well, maybe that's the case, but if y'all ain't shooting, you might want to start shooting.

• 7:34Ryan Clark?

  No, I was trying. Yeah, you started talking. I was trying to start the show.

• 8:02Ryan Clark?

  It is truly an honor to be in the presence of greatness. Emmitt Smith, NFL's all-time leading rusher. A record that seems to be becoming more and more unbreakable as the game changes. And as we get far away from humans like you who could play that position at such a physical time in the league and dominate year after year with that extended excellence. So to have you sit down with us is truly an honor for our show. We got fellow Gator running back Freddie T. You didn't even know Channing played for Florida.

• 8:37Channing Crowder?

  I done been in with a hundred times. He walked in, "Hey, nice to meet you, big fella."

• 8:42Ryan Clark?

  He hit you with the, "We're friends."

• 8:46Ryan Clark?

  I'm RC, welcome to The Pivot. It's a Hall of Fame edition with all-time great running back Emmitt Smith, Hall of Famer, NFL's leading rusher. Thank you to Happy Dad and Draft Kings, our partners and our sponsors. Thank you to all the people that support the show. This is, listen, we've been talking for 15 minutes before we even started and did the intro to the show. So you already know what kind of show it's gonna be. But just in explaining what it was like to not be holding out, but to be negotiating at a time that was different in sports. You know, these boys now, they can hold out. They got franchise tags, you don't sign to a certain point. There's so much more leverage now for players as opposed to that time for you.

• 9:27Ryan Clark?

  And you say, sitting at home, watching your boys go down 0-2 was difficult for you. But that did push not only you, but the team to understand what Emmitt Smith meant. I'm gonna fast forward a little bit, which is something I never do. In October of 2002, you go to the stadium one day and you bring four jerseys. Because you understand what part of history you're gonna be on the side of.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:53Ryan Clark?

  When you're walking into a stadium that day and all that work, run, run Emmitt, run from your Mama Mary, from your father Emmitt Jr., all those things come to a head one day. What was it like for you to know that you were about to be the league's all-time leading rusher?

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Well, first and foremost, thank you guys. Y'all had one hell of a show, by the way. One hell of a show. But to answer your question, I get chills just thinking about it. Because as a young man in Pensacola, Florida, growing up, the only way you see yourself out is two ways. You either gotta go to college or you go in the military. There was no other way for me. I wasn't thinking that I was gonna go get a job. I did not want to stay home. And so as my skill set continued to evolve.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Hearing everybody saying that I'm not this, I'm not that, but yet, as we play in the SEC, as you guys know, with the best conference in the country, and everybody see that now. As you come through that conference, you realize that you have a skill set that is pretty unique.

• 10:58Ryan Clark?

  Yep.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  And that you're built tough.

• 11:01Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  And so, um, on that day, that particular day, so many different emotions just came to the surface. Even losing Peyton in the process, knowing that he was not gonna be there was an emotional moment for me because I had met him like in 92, 93 in Dallas at a Duke Walker Award. And for the first time, and I got a chance to, you know, some people go ask for an autograph and pictures and stuff. I got that, but I wanted to know, I needed some insight. I needed to know what it was gonna take and how I had to work in order to get it. So I asked all kinds of questions. I wanted him to break down his workout regimen, his recovery regimen, his eating habits,

• 11:46Speaker 01

  his sleeping patterns. I wanted to know everything. And he just downloaded to me, just downloaded it free. And from that point forth, I knew I was on a serious mission. Cause I came in the league with, with, with goals setting and everything else because this is what I learned in high school.

• 12:04Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  So on that list, was definitely not being 1-15 when I first got there.

• 12:09Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  Didn't wanna do that, and I knew we weren't gonna be 1-15 because Jimmy wasn't gonna have that.

• 12:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  So I was like, okay, I wanna lead the league in rushing. I wanted to be Ricky of the Year. I wanted to do all these things. I had my team goals, I had my individual goals, and all of my individual goals at the top was to be the all-time leader in rushing.

• 12:28Ryan Clark?

  Wow.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  And I knew it was gonna take 13 years at least because it took Peyton 13 years. And so, that day going into the stadium, I knew in my heart it had to happen right then and there because we was gonna be on the road two weeks in a row after that point on. And I didn't wanna break it on the road and not be celebrated the way it needed to be celebrated. So that day, I was like, oh my gosh, I was like in the zone. I mean, in it, in it to win it, undeniable. Didn't matter who was in front of me, I was gonna run my ass off to get there. And I gave it everything I had, and my teammates was, was excellent. Even when I broke the record, I didn't even know what to do.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  I was like. How you celebrate this? How you celebrate this? Because I've never seen it happen before in the middle of a game. Right. I'm in the middle of a game. How do I go from an emotional high to like, to like, celebrate something and got to get back in it? Yeah. It was crazy. But seeing my mom on the sideline and my baby boy and my family on the sideline and the Peyton family was there and all, it was a surreal moment. And unfortunately, we didn't close it out the way we wanted to. We didn't win it. Kind of like LeBron did the other night. Yep. How do you do that? And so for an athlete, it's like you're torn. How do you celebrate something so significant in a loss?

• 13:47Fred Taylor?

  We recently witnessed LeBron James breaking Kareem's record that stood for 40 years.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:53Fred Taylor?

  And on the flip side of that, you said you didn't know how to feel because you had never seen it, but you felt some type of way, obviously.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:00Fred Taylor?

  Now that your record, as RC says, seems unbreakable. It's been standing almost 21 years. This October be 21 years. Do you think Kareem thought that record was safe? And do you think your record is safe?

• 14:12Speaker 01

  I don't know if Kareem actually thought his record was safe, especially with Jordan on the court. I mean, with Jordan replaying, I mean, I grew up with coaches telling us records are made to be broken. They're made to be broken. And if a man did it before, I believe this, and this is myself, I believe if a man did it before, another man can do it again. The question is, what is the circumstances that that person is under? The game itself changed and evolved so much and it going to continue to evolve. So there might come a day when they start respecting the running backs again.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  And start relying on us again because, you know, with this NIL thing, quarterbacks may not be the same kind of quarterbacks. They may be, they may be prima donnas by that time because they're getting paid so soon and so early and they're not earning things like they used to. And players, as you know, you got your prima donna quarterback, you go run into another hard head in that locker room that's just going to call you out and may even punk you out. I hate to even use the word, but they may just. You said. They may even try to take your manhood. Right. So, because we, we want, if we want a leader that's going to lead us, we want you to earn it. Correct. We don't want nothing given to you. And so. I believe Kareem believed that someday it was gonna happen. He just didn't know when. He just wanted to be around to see it. Just like I want to be around to see it.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  That's a long way to go, though.

• 15:31Fred Taylor?

  It's a long way to go.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  It's a long way to go.

• 15:33Fred Taylor?

  The game has changed.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  The game has changed.

• 15:35Fred Taylor?

  It's changed.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  And so, I would never say never because, you know, like they say, the game is changing and the game is steadily evolving. And with all the other concussion protocols and everything else, longevity is really what makes a record like that very strong.

• 15:51Channing Crowder?

  Shouldn't every record have been made in Dallas, man? That'd have been the sweetest way.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  What you mean?

• 15:57Channing Crowder?

  What you mean? The record, if he was still in Dallas, he ain't go to Arizona.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 16:03Channing Crowder?

  If you were in Dallas, playing for Dallas, drafted by Dallas, played out, did major record. You had, the proof's in the pudding. You were physically capable of setting that record in Dallas.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  He set it in Dallas.

• 16:14Fred Taylor?

  Against Seattle, 2002.

• 16:16Channing Crowder?

  The whole, the whole, the whole big record. You should have stayed in Dallas your whole career.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Oh, so he's saying, finish his career.

• 16:22Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, finish your career in Dallas.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Start and finish in Dallas. Right, right, right. It would have been nice to do it that way, but closure is something that every man and every person need to have in their life. Now, I think closure for me, and proving that I can still go as far as I could, that's what I was after. I wanted to go further than what Peyton, yes, I got 16, 727 right there in Dallas, but I wasn't gonna stop. Yeah. I wasn't ready to stop. And so, when the opportunity presented itself for me to go to, because I would have stayed in Dallas, they would just sign me, restructure my contract. I would have stayed in Dallas and played for about a million and a half instead of the 10 that was due.

• 17:06Speaker 01

  I would have did whatever to stay in Dallas, to play with Parcells, because I knew Parcells was coming in to change the environment that I was just coming from, which needed to happen. Yeah. Which needed to happen. I mean, guys like Darren Wilson and other key players on that defense and offensive team, they deserved better than what we had in '02, at '01. They deserved better. And I wanted to be a part of that change. I knew I wasn't gonna be that long, but I wanted to be a part of that change. But what I found, though, Shannon, that since you asked that question. I found how much my heart was intertwined with the Dallas Cowboys. Wow. And that's how come I was able to get closure. When I went to Arizona, I loved it.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  It's crazy because I've always liked coming to Arizona. If you remember, they used to have the Fiesta Bowl, Samarian All-American team. And so I came out here with the All-American team for the very first time and got a chance to experience the desert from a different perspective. And it was so beautiful coming from the state of Florida. You don't see stuff like this. And so when you see it, it's like, wow, I can live here. I can live here. So when the opportunity presented itself and the Cardinals wanted me to come, I'm like, sure. I got a chance to extend my career and go out here to Arizona, give this a shot. And when I came out, I gave it everything I had. Players, Marcel Ship, Damon Anderson, Larry Fitzgerald, and Juan Bode, Adrian Wilson,

• 18:33Speaker 01

  all these young players all around, Josh McCowen, all of these guys, Josh Scobie, all of them all the way around. Leonard Davis ended up coming out and all that, they were all there. And the thing is, what I appreciated about them, they were great teammates. They soaked it up like a sponge. They wanted to know what was it like. Because they see me show up at 5 o'clock in the morning to go work out. I'd be in the gym by myself. And they're coming in about 6:30, 7:00. Like, dude, why are you here so early? This is what I do. They see me in practice, running 40, 50 yards down the field and jogging back. Dude, why are you running so far? I'm preparing myself for the game. When I get in the open, I want to take it to the house. This is the way we work.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  They start doing it. And that part was awesome. But when I went back to Dallas to play the Cowboys and I went in as a visitor, we drove down on that bus. This is the first time I went into Texas Stadium in a bus, on a visiting bus. Got off the bus, walked into the visitors' locker room, saw my Cardinal uniform, and I looked around, I fell out of place. For the first time ever, fell out of place. I sat down in my locker, looked at that uniform again, I stood up.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  And I come to realize, and I said this out loud, I'm not supposed to be here. This is not my room. I broke down in tears and cried for forty-five minutes before we played that game. I mean boo hoo, cried like a sobbing baby. And I had to get myself, my teammates didn't know what to do. I had to get myself together and go on the football field and play a game. And so when you start talking about the emotional and the psychological of players and so forth, we go through stuff. And I went through a heartbreaking moment, knowing that this is not where I was supposed to be. This is not where God placed me at. This is not what he wanted for me. He wanted me to be with the boys and do what I do with the boys. But he also had a different plan. And I had to accept that plan.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  That plan was to transition out and help others as I leave the game. And leave them with something that they can go with. And so that time with the Cardinals was a transitional time. Sometime they'll take you on the backside of the desert just to get your attention. And I knew after that game, when I was holding my daughters and I got my shoulder all jacked up, where Williams knocked the living crap out of him.

• 21:04Channing Crowder?

  We saw.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  I ain't lying, man. I'm gonna slap him next time I see him. But I love him to this day. Having that moment gave me a chance to have closure. The only thing I had to do was finish and honor out my contract with the Cardinals and give them the best I could, so.

• 21:22Fred Taylor?

  You talk about closure, Emmett, and I love that. Why can't we get closure from the Cowboys fan who's living off the days when you guys were great? Because right now, they seem like a bunch of crazy, obnoxious.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  They lost.

• 21:38Fred Taylor?

  Delusional.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  They lost.

• 21:40Fred Taylor?

  The Cowboys fans are tough. How do we give them closure?

• 21:43Speaker 01

  How often have you played in Philly?

• 21:44Fred Taylor?

  No, I mean Philly fans, Philly fans are, they're crazy, tough fans. I think they kind of understand where they are. Cowboy fans be like, they be way up here.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  Man, every year I got a Philadelphia fan to my, okay, the Eagles going back to the, going to the Super Bowl this year. I'm like, what? Really? This is back even before they became good. From other people's perspective, because I hardly ever hear about how bad our fans are unless I hear it or see it through the lens of someone else. I think we have some of the best fans. They're not bad as bad. Okay. They're just sometimes, yeah. Yeah, yeah, they crazy about some Cowboys. And everywhere you go is Cowboys. So that just shows you how big the brand is. The brand is everywhere. How many of you guys in the room wanted to be a Cowboy when you grew up? Let's be honest. I wore 22 in middle school. Right? You're not gonna be honest? Who was your team?

• 22:39Ryan Clark?

  Being, I was a Philadelphia Eagle fan.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  Oh. Oh, my gosh. I'm taking my tequila back.

• 22:45Ryan Clark?

  Here's the thing though. But, but in my defense, let me explain it, right? I played quarterback my entire life until like my sophomore year of high school. My name is Ryan Clark. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, who was one of the very few quarterbacks that looked like me, had my same initials. So Randall Cunningham was the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. So I felt like there was a familiarity with him.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:09Ryan Clark?

  Right? And I was like, that's what I want to be. Like, that's who I want to be. So it was, I didn't love the team, I just loved the man.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:16Ryan Clark?

  And I was like, I could see myself in that. It wasn't, I mean, I didn't play running back. Maybe if I played running back, I would have wanted to be like Emmett.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:22Ryan Clark?

  But I didn't.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  I get it. I think I loved the man. I think I was a Cowboys fan because of Emmett. Yeah, yeah, because I wore 22 because of you.

• 23:30Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  No overcheck, I wasn't worried about no overcheck in the last game, whatever his name was. What you just touched on though are the things that draw people to the game.

• 23:38Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Sometimes it's not about the team. Sometime it is about the player. Sometime it's about the team and the player because if the player happened to be on one of your favorite teams, now they become your favorite team. I mean, it happens all kinds of ways. And so it's that piece that you just described, the familiarity that you just talked about, is what drew you to Randall Cunningham, not necessarily the Eagles.

• 23:59Ryan Clark?

  Yep.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Because you're right, sometime the guy in that position supersedes the organization.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  And people, oftentimes fans, they, sometimes they don't even know why they fans. They just love it because mama loved it. They love it because I grew up with it. I mean, I grew up watching the Cowboys when I was a kid, and that was one of my favorite teams.

• 24:52Ryan Clark?

  I know, but I was gonna ask you that. You said as a kid,

• 24:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:57Ryan Clark?

  you were gonna be a Cowboy. Like stood up on the couch, like nah, that's the team

• 25:01Speaker 01

  That's the team I wanna play for. That's the team I wanna play for, right there.

• 25:04Ryan Clark?

  How does that happen for you? Was it just that they were, they were good and you would see them on TV all the time? What was it about the Dallas Cowboys that drew you to them as a child?

• 25:15Speaker 01

  I think it was Roger Starback, and Dorsett, Newhouse, Tom Landry with the hat on the sideline, the Chill Eaters, all of that. They, and plus, back in our day, Ron, we only had three channels. ABC, NBC, and CBS.

• 25:29Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  And TVN, TBS, if you had cable. And so the Cowboys was America's team. They was, they were promoted and marketed that way. And so they were on the prime time games just about every week. So I would watch them out of the South, because who else? I was watching Atlanta five years.

• 25:49Ryan Clark?

  Right, right.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  I see the Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints at the time. No disrespect to Archie Man, I was a fan of him too. But when you look at those three teams. Who's the best? Cowboys. You know, it's the Cowboys. And so, for me, that's what I grew up like. Yeah, that's where I want to play.

• 26:08Ryan Clark?

  I couldn't imagine that feeling for you, growing up that way and then actually getting to play in that place. And I feel, and I feel like what happens in those locker rooms for the Cowboys is different. Right, our producer is a Cowboy fan in the sickening manner. Right, like not necessarily, yeah, not necessarily. So, I think, I think a lot of our feelings of Cowboys fans comes from personal experience. So, that's, that's the first thing, you know, I'd like to say. But we've also, because your team and your era was so great, we've had an opportunity to sit down with Playmaker. We've sat down with Charles Haley. And I know you have a unique relationship with Charles Haley.

• 26:52Ryan Clark?

  Charles came in in team issue clothes, feet ashy as hell, and immediately started roasting us.

• 27:00Channing Crowder?

  And, why ain't you tell us about the crazy?

• 27:02Speaker 01

  You, you had to read it.

• 27:05Channing Crowder?

  It's just a different level.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  It's on a totally different level. But Charles, man.

• 27:12Channing Crowder?

  See?

• 27:14Channing Crowder?

  Playmaker does the same thing. Every time he says Charles' name, he start laughing.

• 27:17Speaker 01

  You have to experience it in order to believe it. You have to experience it. But Charles' heart means, means well. He really does. As out of the box as Charles is.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  He has this soft, gentle heart if you are able to break through all the other cluster. And Charles and I, we spend time, because he was hurt, like I've been hurt, everybody hurt. So, when you spend time in a locker room or in the training room with someone, and you both are going through it.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  You have ways of just connecting. And so with Charles, Charles, he'd never let up though. Never let up. So one day Charles was messing with me, he come fooling around with me and I grabbed him by the locked hands. And I squeezed his hand, I knocked his hand out of joint. Just located his finger and he like, ah, ah, he broke down like a little kid. And then he was like, oh, I just, then we put it back.

• 28:15Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  And from that point on, he's just trying to see if you can take it. That's what it is.

• 28:21Channing Crowder?

  Trying to see if you can take what?

• 28:22Speaker 01

  Whatever he throws at you.

• 28:23Channing Crowder?

  You talking about the cluster?

• 28:25Speaker 01

  And it's coming. It's like a tidal wave, it's a tsunami of stuff, just coming at you. But in quiet moments with Charles, if you can get him right, you can see his heart. And I think he has a huge heart. And you just got to understand what you're dealing with. And it's all over the place. It really is. It's just Charles, man, I mean, it's kind of hard to even describe.

• 28:52Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, and then going Pincocola to Gainesville.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  That's like going back to Pincocola.

• 28:57Channing Crowder?

  To Dallas. So you said, small town, small town, everybody loves you, high school All-American, college All-American, everything, first round pick. Like you ran through it. Then you get to Dallas with them boys like Charles Haley, with the clutter around them, but the fame, America's team you brought up. What, was it a, just a eye opener to you when you got to Dallas? As their future and the person that's going to change their organization?

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, they didn't even know what the future looked like. They just drafted a guy with the anticipation that this guy has the potential to be a good back force. No one knows how good you really are until you really prove yourself and how you handle everything else. The success, the shortcomings, your work ethic, your focus, your study habits and all those kind of things. When they start to see that you take your job seriously and you are a pro. And they understand that you have a mission and your goals are always high. It's beyond what they do. Because what they had for me, I broke the mold. They, they, they probably thought I was gonna be there for four years or five years and I'm gonna be out.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  That's what most writers was writing. I'm not big enough, I'm not fast enough, I'm not strong enough. How can he survive? When you go beyond those things, the question then, they be like, okay, how long can he last? Well, shoot, he's still here. Mm-hmm. The Energizer Bunny's still running. And then when you get to 2002 and you do something that no other man has ever done outside of Peyton, and then Jim Brown prior to that, who set the first mark, then it's like, he's still going. And so for me, the consistency over time was really what I was after. Cause that's the only way you're able to break through cluster and molds and everything else in terms of what people see for you. People put their limitations on you.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  If you allow that to, to just to flow and filter through who you are, then you not really operating in your gifts. Mm. And for me, I was always about my gifts. If I did it in high school, which I believe is some of the best high school football in this, in the country. The best. The best. If I could do it in the SEC against some of these players that's been drafted one, two, and three, and four, and free agency and all, if I could do it there, how come I not, cannot do it here? I played against Troy Aikman my freshman year at Florida when we went to Honolulu and playing the All-American, playing the bowl game out there against Ken Norton and James Washington, and Troy on the same team and, and all that.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  And I played against Andre Bruce and Tracy Rocker when they was with the Auburn Tigers. I done played against Derrick Thomas. Yeah. When he was at Alabama, and so forth and on and on. I'm like, some of the best in the game. And y'all trying to tell me I can't play? No, that don't work for me. When I got drafted that day, and when I got on the plane to fly to Dallas. In the polka dots? In, in the polka dots, yeah. And what I could afford at the time. I'm getting on a, I'm leaving and my dad says, son. He said, "You gonna make that team a better team." I said, "Why you say that?" He said, "Because you gonna have all the pieces that you did not have in Florida."

• 32:07Ryan Clark?

  Wow.

• 32:08Speaker 01

  And they don't know what they're getting. And when I think back on it, the Cowboys didn't realize what they were getting because they got a guy who loved them more than they realized. And who embraced the star like it was his own star. And I was gonna hold on to that star and make that star shine as bright as I possibly could for the position that I was playing, for as long as I possibly could. I didn't realize how big the star was and how bright the lights were. Didn't realize it until you winning championships and you rolling around like rock stars on buses and you getting off, there's crowds of people sitting there waiting for you. Didn't realize it. When you can go into enemy territory, you show up and there's forty-five thousand fans

• 32:51Speaker 01

  there to cheer you on and you playing in the Coliseum against the Raiders.

• 32:55Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  On their home stadium. Didn't realize it until you go to DC and you see all them Cowboy fans up there and then you go to Philadelphia the same way you go to New York. It's on and popping. And didn't realize it. Then when you play the Steelers. Then you realize the history of the game.

• 33:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  And the magnitude of that, those two teams. Then you play the Niners. It's like, "Okay, this is how we gonna define ourselves? Let's do it." That's how it was for me, man. That was like, "Yeah, I'm in my element."

• 33:27Ryan Clark?

  So, my question there is too, Emmett, you know, you speak of the Dallas Cowboys and the star and the bright lights, but Emmitt Smith has to go home too.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:38Ryan Clark?

  Emmitt Smith has to be there for EJ and for Skylar and for Reagan. And you have to separate yourself from the league's all-time leading rusher.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:50Ryan Clark?

  And just be dad.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:51Ryan Clark?

  Just be present.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:53Ryan Clark?

  How are you able to compartmentalize those things that when Emmitt Smith gets home, he's not the star running back of the most prestigious organization in football?

• 34:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:05Ryan Clark?

  He's just Emmitt, who Mary raised, who Emmitt raised, who grew up with his brothers. It's just like, how were you able to separate that and now instill the things in your family that you learned growing up and through your experiences?

• 34:20Speaker 01

  Great, great, great question.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  You know how you turn lights on? That power? When you're playing with the Cowboys, the lights are on. When you leave that facility, the lights are off. For me, I was able to flip that switch and go home and be, and wanna be home. I wanna be normal. Wanna be that guy in the, in the house that's taking out the trash. That guy that's able to pour wisdom into my children. But you know, as kids, they don't, they don't always receive everything that you have to offer. But you try to give them as much as you, as you possibly can, as much as they can handle. Some of them want it, some of them don't.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  But you gotta find where they are and go to where they are and be where they are. But you wanna make sure that they're disciplined. And those are the things that Mary taught us, was being disciplined. And having this belief that you can do things, but you gotta put your mind, body, and soul to it. And you also have to learn how to work at it. It just doesn't come naturally. You can't just, and I tell my kids, you can't just ride off my gifts. These are mine. You have your own set of gifts. We have to develop these things. I had to develop mine's. And I had to develop them through all kinds of channels. Whether it's my cousins instilling in us how to play the game, teaching us the fundamentals of the game.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Or whether it's a coach that give you this, this, this tongue lashing because you're farming the ball four straight times in practice and let you know that you cannot play this game. And no one will give you any opportunity. You keep letting that ball down on the ground. You gotta go through some stuff in order to appreciate the true gift. And you gotta recognize that you have a gift. First and foremost, most people don't even realize their gifts. And how, and how good they are in certain areas. And then you're learning through this portal or this transitional of life at every level. There's always something else to learn. Are your kids as driven as you are? Do they come from the same environment which you come from? No.

• 36:31Channing Crowder?

  No.

• 36:32Speaker 01

  No. So how can I have a high expectation unless I got one of them kids or two of them kids that's willing to go through the fire to get it? EJ may not have my mindset. He got a piece of me that makes some sense. He trusts me.

• 36:48Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 36:48Speaker 01

  He believe that I have information for him. He knows now as he goes through. That's why he trusts me with some of the decisions. Now, can I be too much? I'm like, because I, yes, I could ride you. I'm like, son, what you thinking? I said, let me ask you this. Tim Hardaway and his son had a conversation and Tim was trying to teach him something and he didn't want it. And Tim asked him, I think he asked him a fundamental question. Am I overpowering you with this? And he was like, yeah. You need to give me some space. And EJ said the same thing to me one time. Because I asked him, I asked him a question. Am I giving you? He said, Dad, he said, sometimes you can, you can be a little hard. I said, cool. I said, so it's not that I want to be hard, son.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  It's just I want the best for you. That's all it is. But let me just say this. I don't want that to happen. I just need you to tell me, do you want to talk to me as my son? And you want to have a dad-son conversation? Or do you want to have an Emmitt Smith-son conversation? Two different things. I'm always trying to be the dad. But as long as you playing this game of football, there's nobody on the planet going to love you and take care of you the way I'm going to take care of you. Your dad have been through it.

• 38:03Channing Crowder?

  You gave him your name.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Why you think you got it?

• 38:06Channing Crowder?

  Yeah. But that, that's.

• 38:10Channing Crowder?

  But he got those shoes to fill. And then the big story was he, you know, when he picked the Stanford hat off the floor. My heart was broken. I don't know either. I heard, I heard how you talked about it on TV. I don't know if your heart was broken, my heart was broken.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  No, my heart was not broken.

• 38:21Channing Crowder?

  But I had the same thing. My dad went to Penn State. When I visited Penn State, Joe Paterno and them was there still back in the day. And I would have went to Penn State, it was just too cold on the visit.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:30Channing Crowder?

  I went on January, it was like 11 degrees, I was like, Copertano, I can't come and live here, this is crazy. But, given the kid your name, because I have a junior, I'm a second actually, I have a third. And then, given the name, did you put too much pressure on him? Because I almost feel that way about my son now, because people around town in Miami know me. So they see my son, they're like, hey, Channing Crowder. Even though Emmett doesn't know me by your standards. But, they'll be like, Channing Crowder, and then my son will be on the list of a baseball team, and they'll be like, and they'll start looking around the stands, you know what I'm saying?

• 38:58Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:58Channing Crowder?

  Of, of, what about your kids have, being Emmett Smith's children?

• 39:03Speaker 01

  Popularity wise, they get it, and they want their own identities, that's first and foremost. With EJ, I actually rousled with this, in terms of giving him my name. I mean, we were looking at names like Tristan, and, and something else, we was looking at different names, and he was born on my birthday.

• 39:24Channing Crowder?

  Wow.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  I said, shoot. I mean, come on, man, how can my kid be born on my birthday? This is you, dude, you take this. Period. And, and so, when that happened, I was like, okay, I get the message.

• 39:40Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  There it is, right there, this is, this is part of my legacy. And he's gonna be part of my legacy regardless if his name was EJ or something else, but that's part of my, that's truly it. There's nothing that's gonna break this chain right now, it's like Emmett Senior, Emmett Junior, Emmett the Third, now I got Emmett the Fourth, who's born on my birthday, take it. I did not know, now he's a baby, you never know what your baby's gonna do, he could have grew up wanting to play baseball, which he did, played soccer, he played just about every sport, he was very gifted, very talented. He didn't want to play football for a couple of years, so I took him out of that, he played for Deion's team back with the Truth, and... Then finally, he got to junior high school. He said, Dad, I want to play football. I said, we'll see.

• 40:26Speaker 01

  I want to see how bad. I wanted to see how bad he wanted it. The next year came around, he said, I want to play football. I want to play junior high football. I said, OK. Now, if you start, I don't want you to quit. I want you to finish. He said, don't worry. And he took off, took off. And I started to see something on the football field that I did not have. We started working on developing the skill set. I wanted to train him as a wide receiver. And therefore, he can run routes outside. He can come out of the backfield and do all those kind of things. He got great hands. Now, I got to see you compete. Well, he went to Dallas Jesuit, transferred from his school, went to Dallas Jesuit, and played 6'8" ball against Allen High School, DeSoto's, and stuff like that. And he's on the, he's at a private school. So, he out here scoring four and five touchdowns, catching, beating the malls and folks.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  I'm like, yes. I'm like, OK, you got something. And I knew you had it. And he developed it. He wanted to develop it. He wanted to set up all these training. And he come to me and say, boom, boom, boom. And the way we went. The same thing would happen for Reagan. The same thing would happen for Jasmine. The same thing would happen for Skylar. And Elijah just doesn't want to play any sports at all. So, OK, cool, son. You want to act? Let's get you some acting lessons. Whatever we're going to do, let's do it. Let's go forthwith at it. And that's, that's the approach.

• 41:42Fred Taylor?

  You mentioned rock star lifestyle. Everywhere the Cowboys went, it was like a rock star atmosphere. But take it back to Dallas and the rock star lifestyle. Practice, the game, it can all become overwhelming. And you guys had a place where you can make a pit stop, the infamous White House. How many times did you do tour?

• 42:03Speaker 01

  I cannot confirm nor deny what you're talking about right now. We went to the White House three times, though, Fred.

• 42:10Fred Taylor?

  No, not that White House. Night two, night three. The infamous White House. Confirm one story. One of your most memorable White House moments, if we're able to.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  What are you talking about?

• 42:24Fred Taylor?

  Well, we'll take it.

• 42:28Speaker 01

  Confirm one story.

• 42:29Fred Taylor?

  Is it something that all of the guys signed up before and say, "We cannot neither confirm nor deny this myth."

• 42:36Speaker 01

  What are you talking about?

• 42:39Fred Taylor?

  Hey, you never heard of it, right?

• 42:40Speaker 01

  What are you talking about?

• 42:41Fred Taylor?

  Well, take me here, take me here.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  I had a cream colored car.

• 42:46Fred Taylor?

  Obviously, bigger than life. You know, the only running back to win the crown, league MVP, Super Bowl MVP. And you know, on the outside, we see Emmitt Smith. Always happy, fun going, the businessman, just everything about you. But there has to be some adverse moment throughout your career. You know, because we've all gone through that. I know Ryan, you know, he went through his stuff in Denver, where he lost his entire inside. That's another thing. Channing, you know, he's had 17 knee surgeries. If he stood up right now, you could see why, with all the surgeries. But your adverse moment, what's that moment that we might not know about?

• 43:26Speaker 01

  In 96, 97, I signed my biggest contract with the Cowboys at that time. It was a contract extension. Signed it at 3 o'clock that afternoon. It was on a Thursday. And I think we had a preseason game that night against Denver. I take off running, bounce up, get to the next level, and the power falls on me from behind. I sprained my knee, badly sprained the ankle. I don't know if it's a high ankle sprain, but it's badly sprained. So, didn't think much of it. I'm out for the rest of the preseason. So, I'm getting ready for the regular season now. We go to Chicago, I believe. Everything is all taped up and everything else.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  Go over the top, laying on my shoulder funny, and I'm slightly paralyzed.

• 44:14Channing Crowder?

  Wow.

• 44:15Speaker 01

  So, this is how my season starts and grows on. So, every game, my ankle was swelled, and I never knew why. And I, and it kept swelling so bad. And they kept saying, "Well, you had a high ankle sprain, you got to this, you got to that, but yada, yada, yada." This went on for the whole entire season. And now, I'm in the middle of my, my career, and people are starting to say, "I'm on the backside of my career." But they didn't know how badly I was hurt. And so, when people start throwing daggers at you, and you, you, you know the truth, but there ain't nobody else stepping up for you and telling people how bad you are. And then when Thanksgiving rolls around, then they finally say, "Well, you know what?"

• 44:52Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest, or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  We think we need to have surgery on his ankle. I want to go in and say, like, it took you like 10, 12 weeks to figure this out? I've been in the training room every week. And they're all I hear from you, ice and stem, ice and stem. Take this medicine, do this exercise, oh, this and that. And I'm just, I'm getting roasted. They got me on the cover of this and everything else. So we talk about this star that's shining, but we also talking about this guy that's supposed to be declining. Season ends. I go get an independent review. Take the same old x-rays. Fly to New York, visit with Dr. Hamilton. Grant Hill's doctor.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Come in, my mom and dad with me. Get a guy to x-rays. He takes another x-ray. But he looks at the x-rays and he draws a circle. He said, here's your problem. He said, you, you got a broken bone spur in your ankle. And, and we're gonna have to operate on it. I was like, okay, when you want to do it? Tomorrow. So, book rooms, we stayed. Next morning, I'm in the, I'm in the surgery. Get ready to go in, I say, how long you think it gonna take, doc? He said, it should take about two hours. Four hours later. Four hours later, I'm coming out. He said, you did a great job in there, blah, blah. I'm like, I was asleep, I don't know what's going on, but you, you must have did a great job. He said, well, when we got in, it was a lot worse than I thought.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  You had broken a couple spurs, and you had 20 others that I had to get cleaned up. He said, but you're gonna be fine? He said, you should have been in here 10, 12 weeks ago. He said, I don't know how you lasted this long. Had to deal with that. And had to deal with that drama and all that, so. That was an, and the only thing that got me through that whole entire season, because I went through a state of depression during that time. Mark Tounay, my office lineman, he and I was in the tub together the whole entire, entire time. And I was sitting over there soaking, and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this. And, because you know when you have your goals and you're not even close, you, you're like, will I have a chance to reach it? Right. Or is this gonna be the end?

• 47:33Speaker 01

  Will I bounce back from this? And how well will I bounce back from it? And so from that point on, I recovered, got back on the football field. Everything felt normal again. Felt normal again because I was able to not lose a step, not lose a beat, still be who I was and still be able to carry the rock. And I just got cleaned up.

• 47:54Ryan Clark?

  Just listening to you tell these stories and all that went along with, you know, playing for the Cowboys, it almost seems you, you get into retirement and life gets easier. You know, all three of us are married and I've been married, I've been married 19 years now. Freddie T, 20, I think Chan, which you're in 11.

• 48:13Speaker 01

  I'm at 12.

• 48:14Ryan Clark?

  And so, you know, you look at all those dynamics in a relationship and what happens to us when we do retire, as, as we get older? And now you're starting a, a new chapter, have started a new chapter of your life. You and your ex-wife, Pat, you know, decided to get divorced. How difficult is that when you go through so much with someone? And you reach a point to where you make this decision because you think it's best. But all those people you have mentioned of having to take care of, having to raise are involved. And in the end, you're still Emmitt Smith.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 48:51Ryan Clark?

  And that's gonna be seen different than if Joe Small on the street does that for 20 years.

• 48:56Speaker 01

  Emmitt Smith tried not to lose himself in Emmitt Smith. Meaning, you talked about Mary, you talked about Emmitt, you talked about my upbringing and so forth. Those are the things that I hold dear to, to my heart. And even in this situation here, which we still have a great relationship. Yeah, we know what's, what is important. And it's important that we, we, we're there for our children. And that will never ever change. And that's the way we're gonna approach it. Love is still there. And, but I understand that times...

• 49:32Speaker 01

  We, we have to go apart sometimes so we can find ourselves again. And we're not quite divorced yet. So, but, but yeah, we're, we're still going through it. But I, I see us going through it, through everything with, with, with, with style and class like we always have been. And that's the way it's gonna be. She's not a vindictive person, and neither am I. And so I think we both have an understanding that we have a greater responsibility, not only to each other, but our greater responsibilities to the people that we brought into this world that didn't ask for these things. They wanted to have mom and dad, and they're gonna always have mom and dad. And that's the way it's gonna be.

• 50:11Ryan Clark?

  I love that. Also too, though, Emmett, are, are we gonna ever get a, a reoccurrence on Dancing With The Stars?

• 50:18Speaker 01

  Don't think so.

• 50:22Ryan Clark?

  It's early in the morning, Emmett, but you, you brought us a little gift, man.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  You don't have to pop it right now, you can pop it.

• 50:27Ryan Clark?

  Okay, we gonna pop it later?

• 50:28Speaker 01

  Nobody else knows how early it is.

• 50:29Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  It's a show.

• 50:33Ryan Clark?

  Hey, we can, we can tell a miss whatever time of the day.

• 50:35Speaker 01

  Exactly, no, no.

• 50:36Ryan Clark?

  Oh man, so what you got here, man?

• 50:38Channing Crowder?

  I'm gonna miss mine with some Happy Dad. I think that'd be a good.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  No, man, I come bearing gifts. Every time, you know, I come to a show or do something at the Super Bowl, I come bringing Hettie Door tequila. This right here is Old Train Naho. Uh, some people call it Cristalino, but it's the best, in my opinion, on the market. You got all the other ones, until you try that one.

• 50:56Fred Taylor?

  Do you have to roll the R when you pronounce it?

• 50:59Speaker 01

  Yes, you do.

• 51:00Fred Taylor?

  Okay, I'm not gonna try, cause they just, they just recently clowned me about rolling the R.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  You know I saw the boys, man.

• 51:07Ryan Clark?

  Hey, he tried, he tried to say Sambro, the, the other.

• 51:10Speaker 01

  Sambro?

• 51:11Fred Taylor?

  Sambro.

• 51:12Ryan Clark?

  That's not how you say it. That, that must be a, a Florida Gator.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  What is Happy Dad?

• 51:17Channing Crowder?

  Man, we gonna bring some gifts to you, man.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  What is that?

• 51:20Channing Crowder?

  Hor Selsey, yeah.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Oh man, I, I'm, I'm intermittent fasting right now, bro.

• 51:25Ryan Clark?

  That's why you look so good. I was wondering.

• 51:27Channing Crowder?

  We gotta take something with you. Yes, sir.

• 51:28Ryan Clark?

  I was wondering how you around here all, all slim. When we sit down with somebody like you, who such a great storyteller, but has so many stories to tell, and it's three of us, we're like, oh, we gotta ask this, we gotta ask this. This is one of, this is when you become a fan. But for you, you know, we had Brian Dawkins on recently and I wanted to just give him an opportunity because the questions we ask might not always be what you want people to take away from your interview or from your opportunity to talk. We all know the stats. We've all seen, like you said, the bright lights shine on Emmitt Smith. What is important to you that people know about Emmitt Smith?

• 52:11Speaker 01

  I would just say that as much as they, people want to put not only myself but us athletes on pedal stools, you must remember, it's not money that's defining who we are. I don't think any of us played the game for the money. I think we played the game because we absolutely loved the game. The money was just a secondary component. The world wants to make more about the money and how much a quarterback get paid, how much a running back get paid and whether or not he's worth all that. That's the world's judgment upon you as an individual. But for me, it was all about maximizing my true potential. And it's still gonna be that way because potential don't just begins and ends with football.

• 52:56Speaker 01

  It supersedes football. And being a good person is, is not necessarily a chore. It's who you really want to become. And I am steady evolving every day by extending and, and learning new things and growing every day. I'm not afraid of growth because where there's new growth, there's new opportunity. And as long as you are on the planet, you have an opportunity to maximize your true potential, there's always an opportunity for you to grow and learn new things from somebody because this is nothing new.

• 53:33Speaker 01

  Somebody have come before us anyway and have shown us a way. Some of us are taking it and going even further. And that's what we're supposed to do. That's how you're maximizing your gifts. And for me, I would just say that I am a human being. I'm flawed. But I'm also one that's always working to try and get better. I may make mistakes. Some of them may be public. Some of them may not be public. Whatever, I have to retool and rebalance and keep moving forward. And that's what I'm gonna continue to try to do for the rest of my life.

• 54:06Ryan Clark?

  There are certain opportunities we get here. And you mentioned speaking to your kids and how EJ understands who you are. Who Emmitt Smith is, who dad is. I think to us, you're always gonna be Emmitt Smith. You're always gonna be one of the greatest football players to ever touch the field. But what we got to learn today was about the man. And you are right. When we see the star on the helmet or when you watch the highlights, you never know what someone is going through during that time, except for what other people tell you.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 54:40Ryan Clark?

  So it was so cool and such an honor to get to sit down with you and listen to you tell us a little bit about your story. All I know is this. Your father, your mother raised you the right way. And you have continued to give people who watch you and admire you the things that they need to learn from someone who has the ultimate success, but also the ultimate humility. Thank you for taking this time. It was truly a blessing to us. And if I had to be around three Florida Gators, I'm glad one of them, I could like.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Man, I thank you guys. And much success on this show, man. Y'all are doing great. Look good in that blue, man. Amen.

• 55:18Ryan Clark?

  Only Dallas Cowboys still wear the colors. That's it, man.

• 55:22Fred Taylor?

  They're pride.

• 55:23Ryan Clark?

  If I went to any of them things, I'd act like that too.

• 55:28Channing Crowder?

  Appreciate you, brother.

• 55:28Speaker 01

  Good to see you too.

• 55:29Channing Crowder?

  I love you.

• 56:04Speaker 05

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