Tuesday, August 13, 1996

What!? Giving credit where credit is due
By LANCE FLEMING
Reporter OnLine
(August 13, 1996)

IRVING - Never let it be said that this column doesn't ever give credit when it's due.
So today I come to praise Jerry Jones, not bury him, for doing the right thing Monday by opening up his pocketbook and giving a big chunk of it to Emmitt Smith.

Smith, the league's best running back, was finally compensated as such when he signed the second-richest contract in NFL history, a eight-year, $48 million pact, which includes a $15 million signing bonus.

Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman signed the largest deal in NFL history four seasons ago with his $50 million deal.

And, strange as it sounds, Smith deserves every penny of the $48 million. He's become the heart and soul of this team; the man that makes them go. He'll carry an even bigger burden during the early part of the season while Michael Irvin is serving a five-game suspension.

The deal means that, barring a blockbuster trade, Smith will end his career the way he started it: as a Cowboy.

"This contract gives me the chance to live a dream and finish my career as a Dallas Cowboy," Smith said. "I'm looking forward to the future of this team."

And we're now certain that Smith will be a part of that future after Monday's signing.
Jones did the right thing by getting this deal done now. Smith had one year left on his contract, but made it clear as early as last season that he didn't want to prolong contract negotiations through the 1996 season.

But as money kept being thrown at other players - Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith among others - the Cowboys kept losing room to manuever under the salary cap. Deion's deal ate up a huge chunk of salary cap room, and the question to both Jones and Smith was how Smith would fit into the salary structure.

Jones, though, promised at the Super Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. that he would take care of Emmitt, and that he would finish his career as a Cowboy.

"Things did look grim," Smith said. "But Jerry is a visionary when it comes to doing things to an extreme. If there is a loophole to be found, he'll find it. If there was a chance of keeping me, he was going to find it."

And Jones and the Cowboys did just that as they were able to keep Smith from testing his value on the free agent market.

Perhaps part of the reason this whole thing came about so quickly is because the contentiousness that has marked past Smith-Cowboys negotiations didn't play a role in these talks. Smith played a big part in that by going through a marketing firm to find a new agent who could best talk money with the Cowboys.

That man turned out to be Eugene Parker, the man who just so happened to negotiate Deion's seven-year, $35 million deal with the Cowboys. Parker replaced Richard Howell, who had held Smith out of training camp during his rookie season in 1990.

He then held the Cowboys hostage for the first two games of the 1993 season while negotiating what turned out to be a four-year, $14 million deal for Smith. But both of those contract negotiations were marked by bitter feelings on both sides, as well as harsh words thrown back and forth.

However, this deal was worked out quietly by Parker and Stephen Jones with input from Jerry Jones and Smith.

Smith, in fact, brought up the fact to the assembled media that most of them were probably surprised his contract signing was being announced Monday. But that's just the way he wanted it.

"I really appreciate the manner in which this deal was done," Smith said. "I know how difficult it is to be quiet, and it was hard for me to keep my mouth shut. But these negotiations really showed this an organization with class, no matter what anybody says."

They also proved that Jones will step up to the plate to keep the players he knows he must have in order to keep winning Super Bowls in the near future.

"In my opinion, Emmitt has no peer on the football field," Jones said. "He's challenging to be the best to ever play his position. One of my goals was that when Emmitt was no longer playing that he'd always be thought of with the blue star on his helmet."

And, thanks to some front-office manuevering, that will happen.

Stand up and take a bow, Jerry, you deserve it for this one.

Boy, that was hard.

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