NFL PLAYOFFS : Smith’s Status in Doubt : Pro football: Injury could keep Dallas star out of NFC title game against San Francisco.

IRVING, Tex. —  The idea that Emmitt Smith is more mischievous than injured was rebutted Monday by an image that could soon symbolize the end of the Dallas Cowboys’ championship reign.

“After Emmitt hurt the hamstring Sunday, he was crying on the bench,” said a Cowboy player, asking not to be identified. “He was just weeping. None of us had ever seen him like that before. Just crying like a baby. We all crowded around him so the TV cameras couldn’t get it.”

The teammate added quietly, “We’re afraid he’s really bad this time. No kidding. It’s bad.”

That scene has led the two-time defending NFL champions to suspect they will be without the full services of their star running back for Sunday’s third consecutive NFC championship showdown against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park.

“More than likely he’s not going to be ready,” Cowboy Coach Barry Switzer said Monday. “You can play with a bad shoulder, like he did against the New York Giants last year, but this is an entirely different thing. You can’t play without wheels.”

When Smith aggravated a strained left hamstring late in the first quarter against the Green Bay Packers in the second-round playoff game Sunday, then did not return, many Cowboy observers figured he was playing a mind game with the 49ers.

It wouldn’t be the first time somebody hobbled around for six days, then rushed for 150 yards on the seventh.

But as teammates and coaches have searched Smith’s eyes and studied his voice for signs of his condition, those signs have not been good.

“I asked him today how he was feeling, and he did one of these . . .” said Switzer, pausing.

He then held out his hand and waved it side to side in a symbol of indecision.

Smith uncharacteristically refused to speak with reporters, even while being followed to his car after the workout.

Blair Thomas, Smith’s good-natured replacement, also did not meet with reporters.

“I know we were up, 14-3, when Emmitt was hurt, but we didn’t have that game won by any means,” said owner Jerry Jones. “This being the playoffs, if he could have gone back in that game, he would have. I’m afraid this is not a set-up.”

And these statistics are not exaggerations:

--The Cowboys have lost the last six games in which Smith has carried the ball six times or fewer, dating to his 1990 rookie season.

--In the last two NFC championship games against the 49ers, Smith has gained 346 total yards rushing and receiving--173 yards in each--and scored four touchdowns.

--Thomas, Smith’s replacement, wasn’t even with the team until Nov. 30, after having been released by the New England Patriots. He has carried the ball 48 times for Dallas.

Not only does he still not know some of the plays, the other players still don’t know him.

“I haven’t played with him enough to comment on him,” said quarterback Troy Aikman. “It’s very hard for a player to come in the middle of a season and get confident with the offense.”

Smith’s treatment this week will be so intense, he will have a trainer living at his home. Switzer said he hopes Smith can practice by the end of the week so the team will have a better idea of his condition.

For now, he will be listed as questionable, which, under league guidelines, means he has a 50% chance of playing.

Also questionable for the Cowboys is Aikman’s ability as a mudder.

He played probably his best game of the season against the Packers, but Aikman admitted Monday he does not like a wet ball, and there are predictions of weeklong rain in the Bay Area. Some players privately expressed concern about his ability in wet conditions.

“I don’t know any quarterback who likes a wet ball,” Jones said. “And it seems to me we did pretty well on a pretty messy field there in the championship game a couple of years ago.”

Perhaps overcompensating for their troubles, the Cowboys spent much of Monday bragging about the things they plan to do to Steve Young and teammates.

For the first time this year, the champions were talking like challengers.

“If anything, the 49ers will come in overconfident,” said safety James Washington. “Playing our worst game of the year and just losing, 21-14, to them (in November), I don’t think that hurt our confidence or anything.

“Can the 49ers be stopped? Obviously. We’ve done that time and time and time again.”

When asked if he thought Young could be rattled, as in the past, Washington smiled.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” he said. “I’m not in his head--yet. Our front seven, they’ll get in his head.”

Fullback Daryl Johnston said the Cowboys were disappointed about the bragging done by the 49ers after the regular-season game in San Francisco.

“You want to have the respect of your peers and opponents, but we feel like it doesn’t exist over there,” he said. “It was very uncharacteristic of them.”

Scott Galbraith, reserve tight end from USC who caught a touchdown pass Sunday, said the difference between this game and their regular-season meeting in November will be as obvious as the color green.

“Back then, a lot of their guys had gotten their big paper (money) and felt like they had to show their boss that they were worth it,” he said, referring to 49er free agents. “For us, the regular season was very boring, very mundane.”

And now?

“Now that it’s winner take all . . . everything changes,” Galbraith said. “Everybody from both teams gives their best effort. How much money you make grows strangely dim when somebody is putting a helmet in your sternum.

“If they play their best and we play our best, we will win, because we’re the better team.”

Nate Newton, Cowboy guard, said he guessed that his team feels as he did Sunday night when leaving the stadium.

“Some old lady wearing a piece of cheese on her head and carrying a flask came up to me said, ‘Nate, you fat sucker you, how you gonna beat those world champion 49ers?’ ” Newton said. “I just looked at her and said we’d do our best.”

Is that possible without Smith?

Who knows? After a week of trying to convince the 49ers that Dallas can win against all odds, maybe the Cowboys will even convince themselves.