Cowboys legend and all-time NFL rushing king Emmitt Smith sat down with Cowboys Wire recently while he was out on tour with Ready to Rescue, an initiative that takes him to college campuses across the country to speak with young people about opioid awareness and the dangers of accidental overdose. Smith is an ambassador for NARCAN, a life-saving nasal spray that can be easily administered by anyone during an emergency situation.
In Part 1 of our conversation, Smith shared his perspective on the unique bonds that develop inside an NFL locker room and how the 2025 Cowboys can come back together and battle on after the tragic loss of teammate Marshawn Kneeland. In our Part 2 follow-up, he discussed the struggles he sees as a fan when he’s watched the current Cowboys defense under first-year coordinator Matt Eberflus.
In this final Part 3, Smith looks back on the record-setting day that capped his Hall of Fame career, and he shares the surprising feelings he was really experiencing as he etched his name forever in the all-time history books.
It’s been 23 years since Emmitt Smith broke what is generally considered the greatest individual record in football. October 27 was the anniversary of the day that an 11-yard scamper during the fourth quarter of a game the Cowboys would lose brought the entire NFL to a standstill to recognize what had just been accomplished.
But Smith admits he found himself consumed that day not by thoughts of what he had just done, but by those who weren’t there with him for the crowning achievement.
Chicago Bears legend Walter Payton ended his career in 1988 having amassed 16,726 rushing yards, the most to that point by an NFL ballcarrier. Smith was a sophomore at Florida at the time. Twenty-seven months after Payton hung up his cleats, the Cowboys selected Smith in the first round of 1990’s draft. In September of that year, Smith’s pursuit of Payton’s record- a goal he famously set for himself well in advance and kept in his wallet as a constant reminder- began forgettably, with a second-quarter carry versus the San Diego Chargers that gained a single yard.
Fast-forward 12 incredibly productive seasons. Smith had been to eight Pro Bowls in the interim. Named a first-team All-Pro four times. Led the league in rushing four times and in rushing touchdowns three times. He had been named the league MVP. He had three Super Bowl rings, had been named MVP in one of those games, too, and was inextricably linked to one of the greatest dynasties the sport had ever witnessed as one of its most important contributors.
Yet when that 2002 season started, Smith’s Cowboys were a shell of their former selves. Coming off back-to-back 5-11 campaigns, little was expected of head coach Dave Campo’s crew…
Except that Smith would be chasing history. He was sitting at 16,187 rushing yards- just 539 away from tying Payton- when the Cowboys opened Week 1.
Everyone knew the record would soon be within reach. Networks tracked his yardage and updated an on-screen “Countdown to Sweetness” with each carry. Interviewers wanted weekly updates on how Smith was feeling and when he guessed he’d hit the milestone.
The yards added up, one handoff at a time. The dizzying attention grew by the week. Smith’s usual intensity seemed to harden even further as the 34-year-old sat on the bench between possessions, waiting his turn to inch ever closer to the achievement he had chased since he was just 21.
All the while, the Cowboys limped along to an uninspiring 3-4 mark over the season’s first seven games.
Over two decades later, Smith recalled what was going through his mind during that surreal run to football immortality.
“I think even [I] myself had a level of expectation of getting it done,” Smith told Cowboys Wire. “I think the weight that was on me was the way that we were playing football and not being as good of a football team as we once were. That was a year where [quarterbacks] Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson and our team was nowhere near the caliber of football team that I had previously came from and the players that was there.
“I think the weight that I was feeling and the pressures- not the pressure, but the weight– that I was feeling was thinking about who I thought would be on the football field with me that year. I didn’t have [Michael] Irvin. I didn’t have Daryl Johnston. I didn’t have Troy Aikman. I didn’t have Jay Novacek, nor Nate Newton, nor any of that Great Wall of Dallas that I once had. I had Larry Allen with me and I had a few others. Darren Woodson on the opposite side, you know, and Roy Williams on the opposite side. Had a few guys over there, but it was such a different, different team, different coaching, all of that. And so to me it was like, man, I cannot believe we have fallen to this place where where we are an average football team.
“That was more of a weight than anything else. I wasn’t concerning myself whether or not I had the capability or my line was good enough to to get to wherever I need to get to. It was a mixture of all of those things.”
Over the first six games of 2002, Smith churned out yards in decent, steady increments: 67, 59, 52, 58, 70, and 59 yards. In Week 7 in Arizona, Smith saw the most carries to that point in the season. His 22 attempts earned him 82 yards, putting his total at 16,634 as the Cowboys went back home to Dallas for a home contest versus Seattle.
Smith needed just 92 yards to tie Payton, and with back-to-back road games next on the schedule, it was clear that the gameplan would be to feed Smith the ball early and often, to let him break the record before a capacity Texas Stadium crowd.
Equipment managers and Smith had made careful plans for the moment. Smith changed jerseys at each quarter so that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the Hall of Fame, Smith’s charity organization, and Smith himself would all come away with a game-worn souvenir from the historic day.
And with 9:28 to go in the fourth quarter, needing 10 yards, Smith took a handoff from Hutchinson and plowed through a hole left by left tackle Flozell Adams. Though he was nearly tripped up after a five-yard gain, Smith somehow maintained his balance and hurled himself forward for an additional six.
By just one yard, the all-time rushing record changed hands, and the game was halted to commemorate the moment.
Those few minutes of hugs and handshakes with family, friends, and fans have stayed with Smith all these years.
“I’ve never had, all my years of playing football, never had the game actually stop to give me or an individual five minutes to just go and enjoy himself through this moment,” he explained. “That was weird for me, but it was exciting and exhilarating at the same time.”
But Smith, now 56, says it was his former teammates from the dynasty years who made the biggest impression that day: not because they were there, but because they weren’t in uniform alongside him in the huddle.
“To be able to see Daryl Johnston on the sideline the day that I broke the record and Michael on the sideline, whom I didn’t even know was there at the game. Those were, like, fulfilling moments,” Smith said, “because those are the people that I always envisioned that would be with me on that day, and they earned the right to be there, and they earned the right to to hand me that ball, and they earned the right to be there to celebrate and lift me up, whatever they wanted to do. But to see them on the sideline in street clothes made it a surreal moment, and to see them start to leave the game through retirement and so forth made it also a surreal moment. And so it was a great moment, but there was a whole lot of stuff that came along with it.”
Smith, oddly, would lose a yard on his next carry once the game resumed, technically putting him back in a tie with Payton and forcing him to re-claim the record for good on a 14-yard pickup a few snaps later. He ended the day with 109 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, his most of the season.
The Cowboys went on to lose that day by a 17-14 score. The team would struggle to a third straight 5-11 finish that year, and Campo would be fired as head coach.
Those are not the details that immediately come to mind when remembering that record-breaking day, but they can be haunting to an ultra-competitive spirit like Smith.
“Yeah, you had a great career,” he said, “but some things that stand out a lot more than the performances of greatness that just jump out at you. And that was one of those things that when you sit back, when I sat back and reflected over that year, leading up to that moment, it was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy. We are not a good team. We’re not a good team. I’m doing a great thing, and I’m not even on a great team.’ So it’s mixed emotions there because, yes, you want to celebrate yourself and the accomplishment of it all, but it’s like, damn, we lost. How can you celebrate in a loss? I mean, it just felt awkward and strange.”
Even more awkward and strange was seeing Smith in an Arizona Cardinals uniform to start the very next season. New Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells released Smith upon his hiring in Dallas, opting to build a younger rushing attack. Smith would play two seasons with the Cardinals, seeing time in 25 more games as a pro. The 1,193 rushing yards he added in Arizona gave him a total of 18,355 when he retired. It’s a mark that, given the state of today’s pass-heavy NFL, may never be broken.
Smith has now held the record for longer than he spent chasing Payton to get it.
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