The Eagles have finally broken Emmitt Smith’s Cowboys spirit

[ASFN Admin]

Emmitt Smith will forever be known as a beloved Dallas Cowboys legend.

The Pro Football Hall of Famer is the NFL's all-time leading rusher and was arguably the centerpiece of their golden era in the early 1990s when they won three Super Bowl championships in four years. Given his luminary status with the franchise, you'd be unsurprised to learn how displeased Smith is about the Cowboys' lack of success since that time. In addition to their generally middling finishes year over year, the Cowboys are the only NFC team this century yet to appear in the NFC title game. At this point in time, no one's exactly sure when they're going to break that drought, either.

But in a recent appearance with WIP Radio, Smith admitted his Cowboys aren't the only NFL team putting him at his wits' end. He also mentioned the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, who have become one of the league's model organizations this century as a perennial contender. Quite frankly, Smith is tired of hearing about one of the Cowboys' long-time rivals having so much success and being so brash about it. Oh, brother.

More from WIP Radio:

"I’m sick of it," Smith said of the Eagles' success. "We have allowed others to nitpick at the star [the Cowboys' star] and make fun of the star and make fun of the star and that's what happens—now all of a sudden over the last 20 years, they [the Eagles] win two Super Bowls and they think they’re the best thing on the planet, and everywhere I go I hear, ‘Go Birds.’ I’m sick of hearing, ‘Go Birds.’ I’m always asking where are you going? You still got a long way to go to get to us.

That part bugs me, it bugs me because in my heart I truly believe our organization [the Cowboys] should be contending for an NFC Championship and even a Super Bowl at least once or twice every decade because every team recycles every decade. For us not to be there over the last 30 years is a crying shame."

Ah, but see this is where Smith sounds pretty delusional about the Eagles' place in the NFL. And I'm fairly certain it's mostly rooted in his Cowboys discontent.

First of all, the Eagles have won two Super Bowls in the last eight years, not 20. That's a big difference. Second of all, if we're talking about this century, the Eagles have averaged just about 10 wins per season since 2000, they have 17 playoff appearances in that time, and they've also been to the NFC title game eight times in that span.

That's right. The Eagles have been to the NFL's semifinals eight times since the Cowboys' last appearance. Philadelphia has blazed a trail as one of pro football's truly excellent franchises, while the Cowboys have floundered.

The Eagles don't have a long way to go to catch the Cowboys, Emmitt Smith. I would argue they already have.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Emmitt Smith is so flustered by massive gap between Eagles and Cowboys

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