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NFL's greatest tailbacks all agree: Workload is catching up to Emmitt

By Bart Hubbuch

The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- Emmitt Smith isn't much for history.

More concerned with ending a dismal slump that seems to have the entire NFL wondering if he is washed up at age 28, the Cowboys' running back says he has no time or use for the greats who have played the position before him.

"I don't even look at the guys who were before me in terms of productivity on the football field, how many years they lasted or how many carries they had," Smith said.

That's too bad, because they're certainly looking at him. And at least three of the top running backs in NFL history -- all of them members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- are concerned by what they see.

Walter Payton, the league's all-time leading rusher, sees an Emmitt Smith whose natural decline has been accelerated by an aging, ineffective offensive line.

Tony Dorsett sees an Emmitt Smith who is showing the inevitable wear and tear of an eye-popping 3,164 combined "touches" -- carries and receptions -- in less than eight NFL seasons.

And Earl Campbell sees an Emmitt Smith who long since has ceased to fool any defense he faces on a given Sunday.

"You see some hesitancy," said Dorsett, the former Cowboy who stands third on the NFL's career rushing list with 12,739 yards. "He's not attacking the line of scrimmage. Maybe he's a little unsure of some of the people who are blocking for him or of the blocking scheme. All I know is that there is some uncertainty there."

Signs of Smith's decline are obvious, and not just to the greats who played the position long before him.

Less than two seasons after setting an NFL record with 25 rushing touchdowns, Smith has not reached the end zone in seven consecutive regular-season games, dating to a victory over Washington last Thanksgiving. It is the longest scoring drought of his eight-year career.

Smith's 3.7-yard average per carry last season was a career low, and his 4.1 average this season is the third worst. He has never scored fewer than nine touchdowns in one season as a pro, but reaching that mark seems like an impossible task this year.

Are Smith's best days behind him? Or is he being held back by an offensive line with a overmatched center in Clay Shiver, a 37-year-old left tackle in Mark Tuinei and a 35-year-old left guard in Nate Newton?

It's a combination of both, if you ask Payton, Dorsett and Campbell. But his line is doing him no favors.

"Those holes aren't there as much this year, and people have figured out Emmitt's game," said Campbell, who romped for 9,407 career yards. "They've figured it out just like they did mine, just like they did Walter Payton's and just like they did Jim Brown's. When that happens, you start looking kind of bad. They're making Emmitt look bad."

Campbell is perhaps the best -- and most ominous -- comparison. A physical runner like Smith, he was forced to retire prematurely at age 29 in 1985 after carrying the ball 2,187 times in seven seasons with the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.

That bit of history should worry the Cowboys, because Smith already has 251 more carries than Campbell did in his entire career. In fact, Smith's 2,756 carries in eight seasons (including post-season) are just 1,082 fewer than Payton's all-time record, which was compiled over nearly twice as many seasons.

"He's lost maybe a tiny fraction, but that's all it takes," said Payton, who had 16,726 yards with the Chicago Bears from 1975-87. "That's sometimes the difference between breaking a play and not breaking a play when you're a running back in the NFL."

Smith's workload boggles the mind of Dorsett, who could only shake his head upon realizing that he had nearly 1,000 fewer carries than Smith after eight seasons with the Cowboys.

"There's no question Emmitt's workload has been the heaviest of any back in NFL history," he said. "That's a lot of carries. The first thought in my mind would be, yes, it's having a negative effect."

Negative as in robbing Smith of his initial burst and his famed ability to make defenders miss in the open field. It no longer takes a gang of tacklers to bring him down because -- shockingly -- a mere grab of one ankle seems to be doing the trick.

It's also no surprise to Payton, Dorsett or Campbell that Smith, although healthy so far this season, is coming off his most injury-plagued year in 1996. At various times, he suffered a sprained left knee, a sprained right ankle, a bruised neck and a bruised back. In the off-season, Smith had bone fragments removed from his right ankle.

Those are sure signs that the days when Smith could carry the Cowboys on his back are over, Payton said.

"From now on, how good Emmitt is will depend on how good his offensive line is," he said. "After 2,700 carries, he's going to need some help where he might not have needed it a couple of years ago."

That's a big part of the problem, according to the greats who say they watch Smith often enough to take notice. Unanimously, they doubt the Cowboys' current offensive line can allow him to regain his past glory.

As far as they're concerned, Dallas' line is simply too old on one side, a shadow of itself on the other and too inexperienced in the middle. Pro Bowl right guard Larry Allen is considered the lone exception.

"That offensive line is not carrying the load it did the previous eight years," Dorsett said. "The big, gigantic holes just aren't there any more."

The element of surprise, if it ever existed, also is long gone from the Cowboys' once-vaunted running game, Smith's predecessors insist.

As a result, simplicity stacks the deck against him.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what the Cowboys are going to do, so teams are just stacking the line with eight-man fronts and waiting on him," Payton said. "The man isn't getting a chance. It's not fun to watch, to be honest with you."

That's why all three greats applaud the Cowboys for finally living up to their promise of using backup running back Sherman Williams to spell Smith more frequently.

"That's just being smart," Campbell said. "Emmitt doesn't need the ball 30 times a game any more. Those days are over now. I just hope Emmitt is man enough to realize that and accept it."

But as quickly as Payton, Dorsett and Campbell note the increasing abundance of flaws in Smith's game, they are just as quick to defend him. All three say they are Emmitt Smith fans and scoff at any Cowboys fans who criticize him.

Actually, all three claim to be disgusted by the treatment they sense him receiving from the media and from fans who seem to have forgotten the three Super Bowl victories he figured in so prominently.

"I feel for the man," Dorsett said. "He's been the mailman for the Cowboys and for the city of Dallas for eight years, and for him to be torn down like he is a shame. It's an injustice. I'd take the guy on my team any time."

Having experienced first-hand from 1977-87 the often white-hot heat of playing for the Cowboys, Dorsett practically spits out his contempt for Dallas followers who want to abandon Smith.

"Success spoils people, especially Cowboys' fans in Dallas, Texas," he said. "It can be one of the best places in the world to play and one of the worst. The fans have become so accustomed to having one of the best franchises of all time. So when things aren't going well, the Cowboys get torn down instead of rallied around. Emmitt Smith is getting torn down now, and that's a shame."

Payton said Cowboys fans -- and perhaps the Cowboys themselves -- don't realize how good they have it in Smith.

"If the people in Dallas are disappointed in Emmitt, there are 29 other teams who would take him a heartbeat," he said. "The people down there are spoiled. They take him for granted. The man's earned the right to have four or five bad games after all the great games he's had."

(c) 1997, The Dallas Morning News.

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