Cardinals’ Smith Ready to Retire?

Running back Emmitt Smith is expected to announce his retirement Thursday, according to several media reports.

Smith, a free agent, will make the announcement three days before the Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., according to reports Tuesday by ESPN.com, the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

ESPN.com cited “confidants” of Smith’s that it did not identify; the newspaper reports, posted on the papers’ websites, cited unidentified sources.

Contacted by the Morning News, Smith, 35, said: “Did you see my year last year? Do you think I’m ready to retire?”

Smith rushed for 937 yards and nine touchdowns this season for Arizona, his second year with the Cardinals. Smith played 13 years with the Dallas Cowboys, the team with which he won three Super Bowls.

He said Monday that he wanted to retire as a member of the Cowboys.

Smith, the league’s most valuable player in 1993, has an NFL-record 18,355 yards and holds the rushing touchdown record with 115.

Neither the Cardinals nor Cowboys had any announcements planned regarding Smith.

Former Cowboy safety Darren Woodson said that Smith had been thinking of retirement for weeks.

“I’ve known about it for a while,” Woodson told the Star-Telegram. “I didn’t know it was out yet.”

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Former Miami Dolphin running back Ricky Williams, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as the defendant in a paternity case, said he was unsure whether he would play football again.

New Dolphin Coach Nick Saban has said he would consider welcoming back Williams, whose abrupt retirement last July sent the team reeling to a 4-12 season.

Asked about Saban, Williams said, “I don’t know anything about him. I haven’t talked to him.”

His comments followed a hearing on a paternity claim by Cherie Nicole Clark. She filed papers in August asking Williams to pay child support for her baby son. Williams is contesting the amount of child support he must pay.

The judge scheduled another hearing for March 30.

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Carolina Panther linebacker Mark Fields, who sat out the 2003 season while battling Hodgkin’s disease, has been added to the NFC roster for the Pro Bowl on Feb. 13. Fields replaces the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Derrick Brooks, who will sit out the game because of a knee injury.... The Denver Broncos hired former Green Bay Packer defensive coordinator Bob Slowik as defensive backs coach.