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Emmitt feels good in red
Fri Sep 5, 6:34 AM ET Add Sports - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!
By Greg Boeck, USA TODAY
When Emmitt Smith moved into the home he's renting in Paradise Valley, an upscale Phoenix suburb, not a remnant of his glory days in Dallas accompanied him.
Not his MVP trophies, his old jerseys, his helmets and hats, not even his three Super Bowl championship rings. (Fantasy comparision: Emmitt vs. Antowain Smith)
If that rankles Smith fans who believe the running back was born with a silver-blue star across his forehead, get over it. Smith has.
The NFL's all-time leading rusher, with 17,162 yards, has moved on from America's Team, which ruled the 1990s with three Super Bowl crowns, to the Arizona franchise that has won one playoff game since 1965.
"Life is about changes," says Smith, who stunned the football world when he signed a two-year contract with the downtrodden Cardinals in March. The deal includes a signing bonus worth between $2 million and $3 million, with an equivalent first-year salary. "It's about taking the ups and dealing with the downs, keeping your head up, dusting the dirt off and keeping moving."
The 34-year-old, eight-time Pro Bowler has plunged headfirst socks first, too into his new city and his new team with the gusto of a rookie. He says he's excited. He feels wanted.
"It's nice to be in a place where somebody says, 'I want you on my ballclub. I like what you're made of. I like the fiber you bring to the game. I like the attitude you bring,' " he says. "That makes a player feel good vs. 'Well, we don't know if you fit in here.' "
He is soaking up every moment. Off the field, he's enjoying sunsets from his patio against the backdrop of nearby Camelback Mountain. "Every day here I'm liking it more and more," he says.
He also has found three golfers to make a regular foursome to tee it up with: former NFL star Roy Green, former NBA star Charles Barkley and former major league star Vince Coleman. "We kick it in," Smith says.
On the field, he has seized the leadership role, from delivering a five-minute address to his teammates after practice Monday to suggesting a change in the socks the team wears on game days to set-in-his-ways owner Bill Bidwill.
Bidwill listened, and the Cardinals now wear red socks with their red or white pants. No more white socks with red pants. Smith has everyone's ear in the desert.
"I don't know how many adjectives there are in Webster's that mean 'great,' but every one of them I'd use for Emmitt Smith," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis says. "I cannot tell you the impact he has had on this football team. He's been even more than I could have envisioned.
"There is a huge difference in pro sports between a superstar and a prima donna, and Emmitt Smith is a superstar. He brings such a presence and aura. He's instant respect."
That's exactly what the Cardinals, pro football's legendary losers, are looking for in their latest remake that includes Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson, veteran quarterback Jeff Blake and veteran linebacker James Darling.
And precisely what Smith, pro football's legendary champion, is seeking in the twilight of his storied career.
What do they have to lose?
Football's odd couple is motivated by a common goal as the 2003 season opens Sunday at Detroit: proving themselves. For Smith, that he still can churn out 1,000-yard seasons at an age when most running backs are ready to leave the game. For the Cardinals, that they finally can win.
"He wants to go to a rebuilding team and show he can not only help them but also himself," says No. 3 running back Damien Anderson, one of the young players Smith has taken under his wing. "That will make it all the sweeter, coming from the bottom."
But can he still play? McGinnis has no doubt: "He has a lot left. He's Emmitt Smith. His days aren't gone, not by a long shot."
He's in tiptop shape, in perfect health and highly motivated a dangerous combination even with older legs. "That's one thing historians never talk about," Smith says. "It's how healthy the others were when they moved on. A whole lot of them weren't healthy."
He pauses. "Hey, I can do 1,000 yards. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, I can do more than 1,000 yards. I honestly believe I can still play the game at a high level."
Defensive tackle Barron Tanner, entering his fourth season in Arizona, says, "He doesn't seem like he's lost anything to me."
Smith will get his chance to prove that. The Cardinals will feed him the football. Often.
He can't wait.
"You know what? Nobody is expecting me to do jack nothing anyway," he says. "So what do I have to prove? Ain't nobody expecting the Cardinals to do jack nothing anyway. They already predicted us to go dead last in our division.
"So what? We got nothing but upside. That's the attitude we have to take. What do we have to lose?"
Risking legacy not a concern
Some suggest Smith has everything to lose, starting with the grand football legacy he left behind in Dallas. He broke records and won rings as a Cowboy. What is there left to achieve in the sport?
The image of NFL stars ungracefully attempting to extend their careers in other uniforms is a painful memory: Johnny Unitas in San Diego, Joe Namath in Los Angeles, Franco Harris in Seattle.
That's the risk Smith is running with the Cardinals, smudging his reputation as a winner, as a money-in-the-bank 1,000-yard performer. Jerry Rice, who crossed the bay to play for Oakland after a Hall of Fame-Super Bowl run in San Francisco, is the exception.
Can Smith break the mold, too?
"You think I care about a mold," he says. "I'm not even supposed to be here. As a matter of fact, I'm three times extinct. They retired me in Dallas. They told me I was too small, too slow. I wasn't going to be a good college back. They told me I wasn't going to be a great NFL back."
He is the last one concerned about his legacy.
"Legacy? My legacy is not in football," Smith says. "My legacy is what I leave to my family. Football legacy is what others define you to be anyway. That has nothing to do with me. What? I got a record? Records are made to be broken. Some kid some day may come along and break that record.
"So my legacy may be affected. But one area where my legacy won't be affected is in my own family and how my kids take what their daddy has labored for and hopefully build on that. That's what's really important. They can't cut me on that team."
Of course, that's what they did in Dallas after all those yards and all those wins and rings. Shortly after a regular season in which he broke Walter Payton's rushing record on a 5-11 team, Smith was cut loose by the Cowboys after 13 years.
Apparently, rebuilding guru Bill Parcells saw Smith as a liability. To their credit, the Cowboys and Jerry Jones gave him a royal sendoff.
Even Smith says he understands the move. "It probably was the right thing to do. To stay committed to me and not turn to a younger player is probably unfair."
In contrast, the Cardinals, seemingly in the remodeling mode since they arrived in the desert in 1988, saw Smith as an asset a winner who also would be the perfect marketing vehicle in the transition to a new stadium due in 2006.
So far, so good, at least in the locker room. Although Smith had just four carries in preseason, his fingerprints were all over the team. At every turn, he schooled others in the art of winning.
From the beginning, he arrived in the weight room at 6:30 a.m., alone in the early going. Now there's a crowd. He took younger players to dinner in Flagstaff, home of the team's training camp. He played dominoes in the locker room and spread his message.
The upshot: a 4-0 preseason.
"He's fit in perfectly," Anderson says. "When it's football, he's all football. When he's off the field, he makes everybody feel comfortable. No one is bigger than him, and he's bigger than no one. His positive attitude is contagious.
"Every story he tells is about an NFC championship or the Super Bowl. We all feed off that. We want to have our own life experiences."
'Miracles' can happen
After practice Monday, Smith took the stage from McGinnis and set the tone for the season.
"He told us 4-0 in the preseason is good but let's do it in the regular season," says safety Justin Lucas, whose locker is next to Smith.
" 'Let's get in the playoffs and win a championship.' Everybody was sitting there, looking at him. He's the all-time leading rusher. You're going to listen to what he has to say."
Off the field, the early reviews aren't so dramatic. Cardinals fans fed a steady diet of wait 'til next year haven't stormed the ticket windows to see a player they would wildly cheer when their beloved Dallas team came to town. Season renewals are down and season ticket sales are stagnant. Fewer than 25,000 turned out at Sun Devil Stadium for the two preseason games.
"Coming off the season we had last year, it didn't surprise us," says Mike Bidwill, Cardinals vice president. "We didn't sign him necessarily to have an immediate impact at the gate. We signed him to win football games, which will have an impact at the gate."
And Smith kept a low profile in preseason. That changes Friday with the debut of a weekly 30-minute TV show: The Emmitt Zone.
Smith hosts the lifestyle magazine show that will give viewers a look inside his world on and off the field. "It's not just about sports, it's about life," says Werner Scott, president and CEO of Advantage Marketing Group. "This is a guy looking to do special things in life."
Smith also will be heard regularly on radio during morning and afternoon drive-time shows. The multimedia blitz is a new marketing tool for Smith, but he's more pumped about his new team.
"People say, 'Well, the Cardinals this, the Cardinals that.' But there are miracles every year in sports, so my thing is, how come a miracle can't happen to us?" he asks.
"I see a new day here. With all the changes that have been made, the attitude ... sometimes it takes just a little bit of dough to make a biscuit. Sometimes the right attitude, the right chemistry, the right mix, the right direction can turn a team around quickly."
Not to mention the right socks.
Emmitt feels good in red
Fri Sep 5, 6:34 AM ET Add Sports - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!
By Greg Boeck, USA TODAY
When Emmitt Smith moved into the home he's renting in Paradise Valley, an upscale Phoenix suburb, not a remnant of his glory days in Dallas accompanied him.
Not his MVP trophies, his old jerseys, his helmets and hats, not even his three Super Bowl championship rings. (Fantasy comparision: Emmitt vs. Antowain Smith)
If that rankles Smith fans who believe the running back was born with a silver-blue star across his forehead, get over it. Smith has.
The NFL's all-time leading rusher, with 17,162 yards, has moved on from America's Team, which ruled the 1990s with three Super Bowl crowns, to the Arizona franchise that has won one playoff game since 1965.
"Life is about changes," says Smith, who stunned the football world when he signed a two-year contract with the downtrodden Cardinals in March. The deal includes a signing bonus worth between $2 million and $3 million, with an equivalent first-year salary. "It's about taking the ups and dealing with the downs, keeping your head up, dusting the dirt off and keeping moving."
The 34-year-old, eight-time Pro Bowler has plunged headfirst socks first, too into his new city and his new team with the gusto of a rookie. He says he's excited. He feels wanted.
"It's nice to be in a place where somebody says, 'I want you on my ballclub. I like what you're made of. I like the fiber you bring to the game. I like the attitude you bring,' " he says. "That makes a player feel good vs. 'Well, we don't know if you fit in here.' "
He is soaking up every moment. Off the field, he's enjoying sunsets from his patio against the backdrop of nearby Camelback Mountain. "Every day here I'm liking it more and more," he says.
He also has found three golfers to make a regular foursome to tee it up with: former NFL star Roy Green, former NBA star Charles Barkley and former major league star Vince Coleman. "We kick it in," Smith says.
On the field, he has seized the leadership role, from delivering a five-minute address to his teammates after practice Monday to suggesting a change in the socks the team wears on game days to set-in-his-ways owner Bill Bidwill.
Bidwill listened, and the Cardinals now wear red socks with their red or white pants. No more white socks with red pants. Smith has everyone's ear in the desert.
"I don't know how many adjectives there are in Webster's that mean 'great,' but every one of them I'd use for Emmitt Smith," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis says. "I cannot tell you the impact he has had on this football team. He's been even more than I could have envisioned.
"There is a huge difference in pro sports between a superstar and a prima donna, and Emmitt Smith is a superstar. He brings such a presence and aura. He's instant respect."
That's exactly what the Cardinals, pro football's legendary losers, are looking for in their latest remake that includes Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson, veteran quarterback Jeff Blake and veteran linebacker James Darling.
And precisely what Smith, pro football's legendary champion, is seeking in the twilight of his storied career.
What do they have to lose?
Football's odd couple is motivated by a common goal as the 2003 season opens Sunday at Detroit: proving themselves. For Smith, that he still can churn out 1,000-yard seasons at an age when most running backs are ready to leave the game. For the Cardinals, that they finally can win.
"He wants to go to a rebuilding team and show he can not only help them but also himself," says No. 3 running back Damien Anderson, one of the young players Smith has taken under his wing. "That will make it all the sweeter, coming from the bottom."
But can he still play? McGinnis has no doubt: "He has a lot left. He's Emmitt Smith. His days aren't gone, not by a long shot."
He's in tiptop shape, in perfect health and highly motivated a dangerous combination even with older legs. "That's one thing historians never talk about," Smith says. "It's how healthy the others were when they moved on. A whole lot of them weren't healthy."
He pauses. "Hey, I can do 1,000 yards. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, I can do more than 1,000 yards. I honestly believe I can still play the game at a high level."
Defensive tackle Barron Tanner, entering his fourth season in Arizona, says, "He doesn't seem like he's lost anything to me."
Smith will get his chance to prove that. The Cardinals will feed him the football. Often.
He can't wait.
"You know what? Nobody is expecting me to do jack nothing anyway," he says. "So what do I have to prove? Ain't nobody expecting the Cardinals to do jack nothing anyway. They already predicted us to go dead last in our division.
"So what? We got nothing but upside. That's the attitude we have to take. What do we have to lose?"
Risking legacy not a concern
Some suggest Smith has everything to lose, starting with the grand football legacy he left behind in Dallas. He broke records and won rings as a Cowboy. What is there left to achieve in the sport?
The image of NFL stars ungracefully attempting to extend their careers in other uniforms is a painful memory: Johnny Unitas in San Diego, Joe Namath in Los Angeles, Franco Harris in Seattle.
That's the risk Smith is running with the Cardinals, smudging his reputation as a winner, as a money-in-the-bank 1,000-yard performer. Jerry Rice, who crossed the bay to play for Oakland after a Hall of Fame-Super Bowl run in San Francisco, is the exception.
Can Smith break the mold, too?
"You think I care about a mold," he says. "I'm not even supposed to be here. As a matter of fact, I'm three times extinct. They retired me in Dallas. They told me I was too small, too slow. I wasn't going to be a good college back. They told me I wasn't going to be a great NFL back."
He is the last one concerned about his legacy.
"Legacy? My legacy is not in football," Smith says. "My legacy is what I leave to my family. Football legacy is what others define you to be anyway. That has nothing to do with me. What? I got a record? Records are made to be broken. Some kid some day may come along and break that record.
"So my legacy may be affected. But one area where my legacy won't be affected is in my own family and how my kids take what their daddy has labored for and hopefully build on that. That's what's really important. They can't cut me on that team."
Of course, that's what they did in Dallas after all those yards and all those wins and rings. Shortly after a regular season in which he broke Walter Payton's rushing record on a 5-11 team, Smith was cut loose by the Cowboys after 13 years.
Apparently, rebuilding guru Bill Parcells saw Smith as a liability. To their credit, the Cowboys and Jerry Jones gave him a royal sendoff.
Even Smith says he understands the move. "It probably was the right thing to do. To stay committed to me and not turn to a younger player is probably unfair."
In contrast, the Cardinals, seemingly in the remodeling mode since they arrived in the desert in 1988, saw Smith as an asset a winner who also would be the perfect marketing vehicle in the transition to a new stadium due in 2006.
So far, so good, at least in the locker room. Although Smith had just four carries in preseason, his fingerprints were all over the team. At every turn, he schooled others in the art of winning.
From the beginning, he arrived in the weight room at 6:30 a.m., alone in the early going. Now there's a crowd. He took younger players to dinner in Flagstaff, home of the team's training camp. He played dominoes in the locker room and spread his message.
The upshot: a 4-0 preseason.
"He's fit in perfectly," Anderson says. "When it's football, he's all football. When he's off the field, he makes everybody feel comfortable. No one is bigger than him, and he's bigger than no one. His positive attitude is contagious.
"Every story he tells is about an NFC championship or the Super Bowl. We all feed off that. We want to have our own life experiences."
'Miracles' can happen
After practice Monday, Smith took the stage from McGinnis and set the tone for the season.
"He told us 4-0 in the preseason is good but let's do it in the regular season," says safety Justin Lucas, whose locker is next to Smith.
" 'Let's get in the playoffs and win a championship.' Everybody was sitting there, looking at him. He's the all-time leading rusher. You're going to listen to what he has to say."
Off the field, the early reviews aren't so dramatic. Cardinals fans fed a steady diet of wait 'til next year haven't stormed the ticket windows to see a player they would wildly cheer when their beloved Dallas team came to town. Season renewals are down and season ticket sales are stagnant. Fewer than 25,000 turned out at Sun Devil Stadium for the two preseason games.
"Coming off the season we had last year, it didn't surprise us," says Mike Bidwill, Cardinals vice president. "We didn't sign him necessarily to have an immediate impact at the gate. We signed him to win football games, which will have an impact at the gate."
And Smith kept a low profile in preseason. That changes Friday with the debut of a weekly 30-minute TV show: The Emmitt Zone.
Smith hosts the lifestyle magazine show that will give viewers a look inside his world on and off the field. "It's not just about sports, it's about life," says Werner Scott, president and CEO of Advantage Marketing Group. "This is a guy looking to do special things in life."
Smith also will be heard regularly on radio during morning and afternoon drive-time shows. The multimedia blitz is a new marketing tool for Smith, but he's more pumped about his new team.
"People say, 'Well, the Cardinals this, the Cardinals that.' But there are miracles every year in sports, so my thing is, how come a miracle can't happen to us?" he asks.
"I see a new day here. With all the changes that have been made, the attitude ... sometimes it takes just a little bit of dough to make a biscuit. Sometimes the right attitude, the right chemistry, the right mix, the right direction can turn a team around quickly."
Not to mention the right socks.
