Emmitt Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Position	Running Back
College	University of Florida
NFL Draft	1990, 1st round, 17th overall, Dallas Cowboys
Pro Career	15 seasons
NFL Rushing Yards	18,355 (NFL Record)

Emmitt James Smith III (b. May 15, 1969 in Pensacola, Florida) is a retired American football player, one of the most prolific running backs to ever play professional football.

In high school, Smith amassed 8804 rushing yards and scored 106 touchdowns. He starred at the University of Florida, where he joined Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.. While at UF he set 58 school records, including the single game rushing record in his very first start. He left Florida after his junior year with 3928 rushing yards and 36 touchdowns. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1990 and subsequently becoming an integral part of their three Super Bowl championship teams in four years following the 1992-93 and 1995 seasons. Smith led the NFL in rushing four times, was the league's MVP in 1993, was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII, and made eight Pro Bowls.

On February 27, 2003, Smith volunteered to be released by the Cowboys, rather than put owner Jerry Jones in the awkward position of cutting him to fit under the league's salary cap. He signed a two-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals on March 26. On February 3, 2005, at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida three days before Super Bowl XXXIX, he announced his retirement after fifteen seasons in the NFL.

Smith currently holds the NFL record in career rushing yards with 18,355 and is the only player in NFL history to rush for over 18,000 yards, breaking the previous record held by Walter Payton, on October 27, 2002. He also holds the record for consecutive seasons rushing for 1,000 or more yards, with eleven. He leads all running backs with 166 career touchdowns, second only to Jerry Rice for the overall record. His rushing yards, receiving yards(3,224) and fumble return yards(-15), gave him a total of 21,564 total combined net yards, ranking him 4th among all time NFL leaders at the time of his retirement. He married Patricia Southall, on April 22, 2000. Their son, Emmitt IV, was born on Smith's 33rd birthday.

In August 2005, Smith signed on to serve as a studio analyst on the NFL Network show, NFL Total Access.

On September 19th, 2005, at halftime of the Cowboys-Redskins game (broadcast on Monday Night Football), Smith was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor with his longtime teammates Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin.