C
Cr122
Guest
Emmitt Smith gets gold jacket: 'I'm going home where I belong'
12:06 AM CDT on Saturday, August 7, 2010
By TODD ARCHER
CANTON, Ohio - The Nitschke Luncheon is held the Friday of every Hall of Fame weekend. It's where the current Hall of Famers welcome the incoming class and remind them just how exclusive the club is and what it means.
As is the ritual, new players could not speak at the private event, so Emmitt Smith listened.
He looked around the room and saw some of the greatest players ever. And he saw some faces he's known for years, closer to some maybe than others, but bonded by the uniform.
Troy Aikman was there. So were Roger Staubach, Bob Lilly and Mel Renfro.
"To see them, I mean, I'm going home," Smith said at a news conference later in the day. "I'm going home with the rest of the Cowboys, and I feel like it's a place where I belong."
With 18,355 yards, Smith is the NFL's all-time leading rusher. He was an eight-time Pro Bowl pick. He led the NFL in rushing four times. Nobody has more rushing touchdowns (164). He won three Super Bowls in the 1990s.
On Friday night, Smith was given his gold jacket at a public dinner. Today, he officially takes his place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Right now I'm pretty much laid-back, getting tired," Smith said. "I've been rolling, but it is what it is. This is a lot more than what I truly expected."
Smith said he needed to make tweaks to his speech, especially after listening to the Hall of Famers. And the guest list for the after-party is at more than 500.
"You got folks driving up saying, 'Hey, man, I'm driving up for the event, but can I come to your party?'" Smith said. "They don't know that every head count is costing money, so I've got to cut it off at some point."
As Smith talked Friday, he was joined under a big white tent by his classmates: Jerry Rice , Russ Grimm, John Randle , Rickey Jackson, Dick LeBeau and Floyd Little . They became a team of sorts when their selection was announced the day before Super Bowl XLIV.
They were division foes (Grimm), conference opponents (Jackson, Randle), NFC championship contenders (Rice), Super Bowl opponents (LeBeau as Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator in Super Bowl XXX) and one who played the same position (Little).
Smith, Rice, Jackson and Randle were teammates before, too, at the 1994 Pro Bowl.
"We've been talking, exchanging e-mails and cellphone numbers," Randle said. "We text each other. I think over the years the bond will get closer. Right now everybody is caught up in the hoopla and the stuff that's going on, so we haven't had the chance to really bond."
They'll get the chance next summer when they attend the Nitschke Luncheon and actually get to speak.
"The one bond we have in common is the simple fact that we shared the same love for the same sport," Smith said. "We sacrificed and separated ourselves to the point where we earned the right to be here. . . . Ronnie Lott said it best: Listen to the spirit of the players, not the message, because it's the spirit that they're coming from."
12:06 AM CDT on Saturday, August 7, 2010
By TODD ARCHER
CANTON, Ohio - The Nitschke Luncheon is held the Friday of every Hall of Fame weekend. It's where the current Hall of Famers welcome the incoming class and remind them just how exclusive the club is and what it means.
As is the ritual, new players could not speak at the private event, so Emmitt Smith listened.
He looked around the room and saw some of the greatest players ever. And he saw some faces he's known for years, closer to some maybe than others, but bonded by the uniform.
Troy Aikman was there. So were Roger Staubach, Bob Lilly and Mel Renfro.
"To see them, I mean, I'm going home," Smith said at a news conference later in the day. "I'm going home with the rest of the Cowboys, and I feel like it's a place where I belong."
With 18,355 yards, Smith is the NFL's all-time leading rusher. He was an eight-time Pro Bowl pick. He led the NFL in rushing four times. Nobody has more rushing touchdowns (164). He won three Super Bowls in the 1990s.
On Friday night, Smith was given his gold jacket at a public dinner. Today, he officially takes his place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
"Right now I'm pretty much laid-back, getting tired," Smith said. "I've been rolling, but it is what it is. This is a lot more than what I truly expected."
Smith said he needed to make tweaks to his speech, especially after listening to the Hall of Famers. And the guest list for the after-party is at more than 500.
"You got folks driving up saying, 'Hey, man, I'm driving up for the event, but can I come to your party?'" Smith said. "They don't know that every head count is costing money, so I've got to cut it off at some point."
As Smith talked Friday, he was joined under a big white tent by his classmates: Jerry Rice , Russ Grimm, John Randle , Rickey Jackson, Dick LeBeau and Floyd Little . They became a team of sorts when their selection was announced the day before Super Bowl XLIV.
They were division foes (Grimm), conference opponents (Jackson, Randle), NFC championship contenders (Rice), Super Bowl opponents (LeBeau as Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator in Super Bowl XXX) and one who played the same position (Little).
Smith, Rice, Jackson and Randle were teammates before, too, at the 1994 Pro Bowl.
"We've been talking, exchanging e-mails and cellphone numbers," Randle said. "We text each other. I think over the years the bond will get closer. Right now everybody is caught up in the hoopla and the stuff that's going on, so we haven't had the chance to really bond."
They'll get the chance next summer when they attend the Nitschke Luncheon and actually get to speak.
"The one bond we have in common is the simple fact that we shared the same love for the same sport," Smith said. "We sacrificed and separated ourselves to the point where we earned the right to be here. . . . Ronnie Lott said it best: Listen to the spirit of the players, not the message, because it's the spirit that they're coming from."