By Sal Maiorana
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

ORCHARD PARK - When the Dallas Cowboys decided at the end of the 2002 season that they no longer could keep highly paid star running back Emmitt Smith on their roster, Smith shook owner Jerry Jones' hand and accepted the business decision like the true professional that he is.

His had been a storied career, one that saw him surpass Walter Payton to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher; set the record for rushing touchdowns; and win three Super Bowls, four rushing titles, one league MVP award and one Super Bowl MVP award.

During the 13 years he wore the lone star on his helmet he gained 1,000 yards rushing in an NFL-record 11 consecutive seasons, and the two years he failed to crack 1,000 he missed by 63 yards in his rookie year and by 25 yards in his swan song season of 2002.

There was nothing left to do, nothing left to achieve, and the majority of football followers expected Emmitt - a no-doubt-about-it first ballot Hall of Famer - to ride off into the sunset and spend his Sunday afternoons being grossly overpaid to sit behind a desk on the set of one of the network pregame shows.

There was one guy who thought that course of action was a complete crock: Emmitt Smith.

"I knew I still had a whole lot of football left in me and it was just a matter of having an opportunity to go and show it," Smith said the other day during a conference call with western New York media.

Just because the Cowboys couldn't afford him on their salary cap didn't mean he was finished as a player, and the star-starved, victory-challenged Arizona Cardinals were more than willing to give Smith the opportunity to further his magnificent career.

Smith, who will lead the Cardinals into Buffalo Sunday for a match against the Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium, jumped at the chance, and after an injury-plagued 2003 when he rushed for just 256 yards and at times appeared to be washed up, Smith has bounced back with a vengeance in 2004.

Last week the 35-year-old produced his second 100-yard rushing game of the season and 78th of his career to break another record previously held by Payton. In six games he has 459 yards, a 4.2 average per carry and five touchdowns. By comparison, Buffalo's tandem of Willis McGahee and Travis Henry have combined for 539 yards, 3.6 yards per carry and zero touchdowns.

"I don't look back and regret anything that I've done," said Smith, whose only other appearance in Buffalo came in 1996. "I think I've made the right decisions in terms of coming to this organization. The way I see it, this organization has one direction to go and that's up. So I feel comfortable with the decision I made."

Just as there were doubters about Smith's decision to keep playing, there were just as many who questioned why he chose to go to Arizona where Sun Devil Stadium is typically two-thirds empty on game day and the Cardinals have been perpetual losers, making the playoffs just once in the last 21 years.

"I'm very proud to be out here in Arizona," said Smith, who comes into Sunday's game with 17,877 yards.

"I'm loving the city and I'm having fun with my teammates. We're trying to win games and we're playing very hard. That part I'm happy about. And that's what you want. You want to be in a happy environment and a competitive environment with everybody trying to do the same thing and that's win games."

Bills safety Izell Reese, who was Smith's teammate in Dallas from 1998-2001, has a particularly keen viewpoint about the man.

"It's hard to believe that at the position he plays he's still as productive as he is," Reese said. "Playing with him and seeing how hard he works and his determination and his drive, if any back is capable of doing it, it would be Emmitt."

What makes Smith special, Reese said, is that he has never possessed the all-world skills of a Payton or a Barry Sanders or an O.J. Simpson, but in the end, look who's sitting atop the all-time rushing list.

Return to Bengals front page...