Christopher - On the Field with Emmitt Smith

Copyright 1997 by Matthew F. Christopher

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First eBook Edition: December 2009

ISBN: 978-0-316-09522-8

One evening when Emmitt Smith III was a baby, his father, Emmitt Jr., and his mother, Mary, were relaxing in the living room of the family home. Suddenly, they heard a loud thump in the next room.

They looked at each other, then jumped to their feet. The noise had come from young Emmitts room, where he was taking a nap in his crib. His parents were worried that something awful had happened.

As they raced toward the door, Emmitt Smith III came toddling through the doorway, a triumphant little smile on his face. He was only nine months old but had already learned how to climb out of his crib and walk. Not many nine-month-old babies can even walk.

But thats Emmitt Smith for you. He has always done what others have thought was impossible. In fact, he has made a career out of it.

From the time he was a young boy, Emmitt wanted to play pro football for the Dallas Cowboys. By focusing on his goal and working hard, Emmitt kept improving and finally achieved his dream.

At nearly every stage of Emmitts football career, someone always questioned whether he could succeed at the next level. People were always saying he was too short, too slow, or too something to keep playing well.

That never stopped Emmitt. He simply remained focused on his goal. And each time he reached a goal, he would set his sights on another one. When he began playing football in high school, his first goal was to make the starting lineup. He did, and so he set new goalseventually becoming one of the best high school running backs in history and earning a college scholarship.

The same strategy served Emmitt well at the University of Florida. He began his career on the bench but soon became a Heisman Trophy candidate and one of the best running backs in college football. When he joined the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, he continued to set goals for himself. Now he is the best running back in pro football and one of the greatest football players of all time!

When Emmitt was a baby, his parents thought he might become a football player. Only a few days after he started walking, he started running! Each time his parents came toward him with their arms outstretched, Emmitt just laughed and ran away. Even then, he was hard to catch.

He loved football from the moment he first set eyes on the game. Before Emmitt celebrated his first birthday, his mother noticed that the only time he seemed to settle down and stay quiet was when there was a football game on television. So every time a game came on, she placed Emmitt in a windup swing in front of the TV. Emmitt would stare at the screen for hours, enthralled, as if he were studying each play.

I remember it before anything else, Emmitt once told a reporter, sitting there watching, wanting to play. Its my earliest memory. Before anything else, there was football.

The game of football has always been important to the Smith family. Emmitts father was a star defensive back at Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida, a city of about 60,000 in the Florida panhandle. He received some interest from a few big-time colleges that wanted to offer him a scholarship to play football.

But Emmitt Jr. injured his knees in high school. The scholarships never materialized, so instead of enrolling in a large four-year school, he attended a two-year junior college.

But in his very first season, his mother, Erma Lee, became ill and had to be confined to a wheelchair. His father, Emmitt Sr., already worked long and hard as a laborer at a factory. He needed someone to help take care of Erma Lee.

Emmitt Jr. volunteered. As Erma Lees only child, he knew she needed him. Although athletics were important to him, his family was even more important. He set aside his dream of attending college and playing sports. He quit school and took a job as a bus driver for the city of Pensacola. Emmitt Sr. and Emmitt Jr. arranged to work different shifts so someone was always at home with Erma Lee.

A few years later, Emmitt Jr. married. He and his wife, Mary, settled in a small house in a housing project only a few blocks away from his parents.

The young couple soon had a daughter, Marsha. Then, on May 15, 1969, they had a little boy they named Emmitt III, after his father and grandfather. The Smiths later had three more children, all boys: Erik, Emory, and Emil.

The Smiths werent rich, but Emmitts father worked hard to support the family. Although they didnt have a lot of possessions, there was plenty of love to go around.

As the oldest of four brothers, Emmitt had many playmates. The four brothers got together with their cousins almost every day to ride bikes and play in nearby parks. One of Emmitts favorite games was football.

Mary Smith didnt mind that her boys enjoyed playing outside, but she didnt care for the dirty pants and shirts they came home in after playing football. So after the boys left home to play, they would take off their pants and shirts, turn them inside out, and put them back on to play. Then, before they returned home, they would turn their clothes right side out again so all the dirt was on the inside. That way, they thought, their mother wouldnt know they had been playing football.

Mary soon figured out their ruse, but she didnt make Emmitt or his brothers stop playing football. She knew the game was their favorite sport.

Every time an NFL game was on television, Emmitt dropped everything to watch. The Dallas Cowboys were his favorite team. His favorite players were Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach and running back Tony Dorsett. When Emmitt played football on the sandlots, he usually pretended he was one of those two players.

When Emmitt was eight years old, his family moved from the projects into their own home a few blocks away. His grandparents lived right next door.

He loved being close to his grandmother and grandfather. Sometimes, Emmitt even stayed overnight to help take care of Erma Lee. Although she couldnt walk, she set a good example for Emmitt, who remembers that she was the strongest person I knew. Despite her illness, she was never sad or pessimistic. Instead, she had a smile for everyone and always encouraged Emmitt to do his best.

He usually did. Emmitts mother made sure all her children studied hard and went to church every Sunday morning. Emmitt enjoyed the singing that took place at every service, but when the minister started giving his sermon, Emmitt and his brothers sometimes became antsy and started acting up. The only way Mary could keep them in line was to whisper, If you boys behave, you can all play football when we get home. That was usually enough to ensure the boys good behavior.

In 1975, Emmitt became eligible to play organized football in the local Mini-Mite league. Emmitts father wasnt eager for him to play. His own old football injuries made him worry for his son. He didnt want Emmitt to get hurt.

But Emmitt wanted to play football more than anything else in the world. He pestered his mother every day to let him play. Mary Smith knew how much it meant to him and finally convinced her husband to allow their son to play. Emmitt was thrilled.