Smith Still Going Strong

IRVING, Texas —  Clarence Shelmon used to think Emmitt Smith was successful mainly because he got great blocking. He also wondered if the running back was worn out after his poor season in 1997.

Shelmon quickly realized how wrong he’d been when he joined the Dallas Cowboys that offseason as Smith’s position coach.

“I studied tape on him and I didn’t see anything that said he couldn’t play or that he was declining,” Shelmon said. “And I still haven’t.”

With his 11th season winding down, the 31-year-old Smith is going strong. The proof of his consistency and durability probably will come today with two major milestones easily within reach when Dallas plays host to Washington.

Smith needs 13 yards to hit 1,000 for the 10th straight season, matching the record set by Barry Sanders. Another 37 yards after that will give Smith a career total of 15,000, a mark reached only by Sanders and Walter Payton.

And Smith is far from done. He said with a smile that he has at least three or four “good” years left.

“If I play that long, I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’ll be more of a physical question. I’ve still got a great deal of passion for the game and I’m having fun playing.”

Once Smith gets 15,000 yards, he’ll be 1,726 shy of Payton’s career record. Breaking it probably will take until the middle of the 2002 season.

Smith would be in his 13th season, which is how long Payton played. It’s also what Smith was shooting for when Dallas made him the 17th pick in the 1990 draft.

“The goal also was to get 1,000 yards every season,” said Smith, the career leader in rushing touchdowns and a three-time Super Bowl champion.

He might have that streak if he’d gained more than 13 yards on eight carries in the first two games of his career. Smith finished his rookie season with 937 yards.

The closest he’s come to missing 1,000 since then was in ‘97, when he passed the mark by 74 yards. Dallas missed the playoffs for the first time since his rookie year and he was playing through injuries that were worse than he revealed at the time.

Whispers were rampant that Smith wasn’t as good as he used to be. He used the criticism as motivation and rebounded with consecutive 1,300-yard seasons.

This year, Smith is fifth in the NFC in rushing and 13th in the NFL. All 12 guys ahead of him have been in the league at least three years less than him, making his ranking more impressive.

Other signs Smith has plenty of yards left to gain: He’s averaging 4.2 yards a carry, just under his career average, and the last two years he’s had runs of 45, 52, 63 and 65.

“He still possesses all the traits that made him great in the first place--great vision, acceleration, ability to get through a hole,” said center Mark Stepnoski, who blocked for Smith from 1990-94 and again the last two seasons. “He still makes guys miss consistently.”

While Smith savors his statistics--he still keeps the ball from every touchdown he scores--he’s also extremely proud to have missed only three games because of injuries.

His good health is more than good luck.

For more than five years, Smith has received a weekly massage and made regular visits to a chiropractor. Thanks to that recovery regimen, the aches and pains from Sunday games are usually gone by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest.

“I do the necessary things outside of just physical training to take care of my body,” he said. “I think the massages help move a lot of stuff out and get me ready to practice on Wednesday and to do what I need to do on Sundays.”

Safety Darren Woodson said another major part of Smith’s weekly routine is preparing himself mentally.

“Then, on Sunday, he turns it up to another notch,” said Woodson, a teammate for the last nine seasons.

Woodson has a symbolic role in helping Smith get psyched up on game day. Before every kickoff, Woodson motions as if he’s putting a saddle on Smith’s back. Smith thrives on the idea the team is riding him into battle.

“He wants to be the best on the field and, whatever it takes, he’s going to do it,” Woodson said. “He wants to punish people while he’s out there.”

Smith’s ability to do exactly that is another thing that Shelmon did not appreciate from 1991-97, when he was coaching running backs for the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks.

“He runs through a lot of tackles where you think the guy didn’t get a good shot at him. Then you keep seeing it happen and you realize that what it really is is that he’s so strong,” Shelmon said.

“He’s not a flashy player, but when you put his body of work together and study it, you’ll see things that make you shake your head in amazement. And you don’t see them once, you see them time and time and time again.”

You still see them. Coach Dave Campo said that last Sunday “he made some plays that only Emmitt Smith can make.”

Smith had 80 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries and lost a fumble in a 27-7 loss to Tampa Bay. Yet Shelmon agreed with Campo that Smith was outstanding because the Buccaneers were loaded up to stop him.

Smith also made several great blocks, including one where he saw a safety sneak into the backfield and prevented him from taking a shot at Troy Aikman from the quarterback’s blind side.

“Intuitively, he knows what to do. You just can’t ask for a better player,” Shelmon said. “Sometimes you give people a lot of accolades, but with Emmitt you can simply say one thing: He’s a pro.”