Monday, September 2, 1996

Emmitt Smith is rushing toward Walter Payton's mark
By Ed Werder
The Dallas Morning News
(September 2, 1996)

CHICAGO - The problem with being Emmitt Smith is that you are so often compared to him.

As a four-time NFL rushing champion, a three-time Super Bowl winner, a former Super Bowl Most Valuable Player and now the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, Smith confronts only one challenge more withering than the constant pressure to measure up to his own remarkably high standards.

The rushing totals he has compiled in his first six professional seasons have positioned him for a possible run at Chicago Bears Hall-of-Famer Walter Payton, the NFL career rushing leader with 16,726 yards and Smith's childhood idol.

Smith keeps a written list of individual and team goals. So he has crunched the numbers and considered his prospects for overtaking Payton.

"What I've done the last five or six years really means nothing," Smith said. "What I do in the next five or six years is what really counts."

Payton will be watching from the Soldier Field sideline Monday night as Smith begins his seventh season leading the defending Super Bowl champion Cowboys against the Bears. As if to remind him of perils that must be overcome, Smith will be playing with a sprained left knee, the first time he has started the season with an injury.

Smith has played 93 regular-season games with the Cowboys and is ahead of Payton at the same point in their careers. Smith has 8,956 yards, compared to Payton's 93-game total of 8,673 yards. But Jim Brown and Eric Dickerson each had more than 10,000 yards at that point and finished far behind Payton in career rushing yardage.

"Emmitt has two things going against him and two things going for him," Payton said. "He has a good offensive line blocking for him, and his own tremendous ability, drive and motivation. The things he has going against him are that Dallas is a great team and everybody wants to beat Dallas bad, and they know that they have to stop Emmitt Smith. He is the challenge that motivates opposing teams to play.

"But barring injuries and a revamping of the offensive line - if Mr. Money Pockets (Jerry Jones) doesn't run out of money to buy more players - Emmitt will do it."

If he maintains his current average of 1,493 yards per season, Smith will have the 7,771 yards necessary to surpass Payton six seasons from now.

But Smith will be challenged by more than inspired defenders. He must withstand the threatening forces of time: the potential of playing with a diminishing supporting cast; the injury menace that comes with a heavy work; and the inevitable and painful decline of his abilities. Payton stands as a monument to durability as much as a testament to ability.

Payton's trademark was his consistency. He started every game for 12 straight years, averaging 1,480 yards per season the first six years and 1,186 the last six.

"My whole deal was if I didn't improve, I hadn't learned anything or helped my team," he said.
"Every year and each game you have to be productive and in position physically and mentally to succeed. But one of the things you can't teach or train, anticipate and control is time. You can't control how long you play."

Cowboys running backs coach Joe Brodsky has preached for years for Smith to research the maniacal off-season conditioning program that protected Payton from injury and propelled him to consistent improvement.

Smith is fiercely competitive and has recently taken greater measures to strengthen his problematic hamstrings. But he also spent the off-season playing golf and won acclaim for returning to the University of Florida for his degree.

"I want to be recognized as the best, and I want to prove I'm the best," Smith said. "I want to prove that I'm worth everything that has been given to me."

Smith, 27, has only recently proved himself the premier running back of his generation. Jones rewarded him with an eight-year, $42.5 million contract in the off-season.

He averaged averaged 1,404 yards through his first three years, inflating his season average to 1,581 yards the past three years.

Smith has absorbed much punishment in compiling those numbers. He has a powerful lower body, tremendous balance and the instincts to locate cracks in defenses. But his running style could be a problem.

Detroit's Barry Sanders is more similar to Payton, who had the speed to run outside and the shiftiness that often kept him from heavy contact. When his rare speed and uncommon grace could not protect him from harm, Payton defended himself with a stiff arm.

Smith is more likely to break tackles than dance around them. He almost never leaves the field when the Cowboys have the ball, and he is best around the goal-line, where the noise is loudest and the hits are hardest.

"He needs to avoid taking a lot of hits," Payton said. "Tell him to take a look at those Earl Campbell films."

Smith also might fade because he has been overworked. While he came into the league one season after Sanders, Smith has carried only 67 fewer times.

Therefore, Smith has practically condensed seven seasons into six. And that does not include his 279 playoff carries, which is almost another full season.

Smith and the Cowboys have won three of the past four Super Bowls. That represents another potential difference between Smith and Payton.

Smith has spent the first half of his career playing with some of the most talented teams the league has known. The five offensive linemen in front of him and the fullback leading him into the defense have made the Pro Bowl. He will not play with better Dallas teams.

Payton played behind horrible Bears teams early in his career and waited until his 11th season for a Super Bowl ring. But Mike Ditka developed the Bears into a powerful team and allowed Payton to finish strong.

"As the team improved and my skills started to deteriorate, it wasn't as noticeable," Payton said.
Smith may not be so fortunate. He has gained most of his yardage behind the left side of his offensive line. A Cowboys team without salary-cap room soon must replace those players. Center Ray Donaldson is 37, left tackle Mark Tuinei 35 and left guard Nate Newton 33.

But Payton considers Smith a likely, and a worthy, successor to his place as the most prolific running back in NFL history.

"Emmitt is a class guy in every shape, form and fashion," Payton said. "You don't worry about him doing or saying the wrong things, being in the wrong place. That is a football player. My numbers are nothing. He will go past that. That is the type of player he is."

(c) 1996, Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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