The Underrated Greatness Of Emmitt Smith - Part 7
Here is how the holdout started:
To make a long story short, Jerry Jones tried to pull a fast one and lowball Emmitt on a contract offer, and then Emmitt got angry and started looking at other options. For Emmitt's first move, he and his agent Richard Howell set up a meeting with the Miami Dolphins, but head coach Don Shula was convinced that the meeting was a ploy to force the Cowboys' hand, so he cancelled the meeting. After that, Emmitt and his agent contacted every other team in the league, offering them the chance to sign a 24-year old running back going into his prime, and nobody bit. There was a feeling around the league that Jerry would make Emmitt the franchise player and match the offer, so there were no offers. One GM even told Richard Howell that they would offer Emmitt $4 million a year, but there was no point because he knew Jerry Jones would match the offer. I remember Richard Howell saying back then that if Emmitt didn't get signed by the 3rd game of the season, that it wouldn't get done. He also said that he thought Emmitt would sit out the whole season and then things would open up in 1994, and then some other teams would come around.
On May 14, 1993 Jerry Jones made Emmitt what he said was his "final take-it-or-leave-it offer", which was a ridiculously insulting contract WITHOUT a signing bonus and incentives that had annual salaries of $2 million, $2.2 million, $2.2 million, and $2.5 million. Then Jerry told Richard Howell "That's all you'll get, not a penny more." When Emmitt turned down the offer, Jerry Jones took offense to it and called Richard Howell a greed-obsessed agent out to take advantage of a client, which was hypocrisy in its highest form. How could Jerry Jones call somebody else greedy when he had just raised ticket prices for the upcoming season by 23%, then a few weeks later arranged an under-the-table deal that would give him 20% of every piece of Apex One-produced Cowboys apparel sold by JCPenny. That agreement went squarely against the NFL's CBA, and was rooted in greed.
The more the holdout progressed, the more arrogant Jerry got and the more determined he was to handle this situation on his terms. Here are a couple of quotes from Jerry to support that:
"I'd walk across Texas for five dollars."
"Emmitt Smith is a luxury, not a necessity for the Cowboys."
Let me attempt to put this in perspective:
In 3 years Emmitt Smith was instrumental in turning the Cowboys into a Super Bowl champion from a 1-15 team. How much is that worth? He also made 3 Pro Bowls, won consecutive rushing titles, and became the first running back to lead the NFL in rushing and win the Super Bowl in the same season. How much is that worth? Emmitt Smith was the dominant player on the field at EVERY level he played on. How much was that worth? The dominant player on the field wanted to be paid like the dominant player on the field, or else he wouldn't be on the field. It's one thing for a player to not perform to the standards of his contract, but it was the exact opposite for Emmitt in 1993.....he outplayed his contract. He was supposed to earn a base salary of around $500,000 in 1993, but realistically how could you expect a man that was the workhorse on a Super Bowl-winning team and leading the NFL in rushing 2 years in a row to settle for a salary that doesn't line up with his impact on the field and worth to the team?
In the 1993 NFL draft, the Cowboys selected Derrick Lassic in the 4th round as an insurance policy and to be Emmitt's backup. He didn't have a lot of expectations put on him, but as the preseason went on and Emmitt's holdout no closer to ending, he became the starting running back for the Cowboys. It was also a long season for Lassic, who spent most of it as Jimmy Johnson's target, and he came to strongly resent the head coach. The local media was hard on him as well.
Check out what Ed Werder wrote in the August 20, 1993 edition of the Dallas Morning News:
This is what Derrick Lassic is not:
He is not the first running back to win the league rushing title and the Super Bowl championship in the same season. He is not the Cowboys' running back with the chance to win three successive NFL rushing crowns. He is not the player who set Cowboys records for yards and touchdowns in a season last year. He is not the player who is missing training camp for the second time in four seasons.
Derrick Lassic is not Emmitt Smith.
Derrick Lassic was innocent in this whole situation, but he paid a significant price. In his first game as a pro (against the Redskins), he actually played well, gaining 75 yards on 16 carries against one of the league's better defenses. He blocked adequately for Troy Aikman, ran precise routes, and did what he was told. But the Cowboys' offensive line wasn't blocking with the intensity or the efficiency as the year before. The whole situation was unfair to Derrick Lassic.
On September 4, Richard Howell called Jerry Jones to ask for a trade to a team that would pay Emmitt what he wanted, and Jerry told him that it was totally out of the question. Two days later, the Cowboys lost 35-16 to the Redskins on opening day, and that's when things got real. At first glance, it looked like the Cowboys without Emmitt were just a mediocre team, but the truth was much deeper than that. The real underlying issue was the shattered team morale. While Emmitt stayed away, Jerry spoke openly and eagerly about renegotiating Troy Aikman's contract, which still had 2 years left on it, as well as a couple of other key players.
After being manhandled by the Redskins on opening day, the bottom fell out in Week 2, when the Buffalo Bills beat the Cowboys 13-10 in a rematch of Super Bowl XXVII, thanks to a game-saving interception by Matt Darby. It also didn't help that Lin Elliott missed 2 field goals (he was cut 2 days later), and Derrick Lassic gained 52 yards on 19 carries and fumbled twice. Even the fans were agitated at that point, which was obvious by the signs they were holding up across the stadium, urging Jerry to sign Emmitt. The other memorable moment from that day was Charles Haley storming into the locker room after the game and screaming "We'll never win with this rookie!!", then slamming his helmet into the wall. It wasn't Derrick Lassic's fault that Emmitt was still unsigned, but to him it felt that way. It's one thing for the fans not to show class, but it had to cut him to the core to hear a teammate say something like that. He only heard it from person, but he couldn't help but wonder what everybody else was thinking.
I remember Mike Ditka, who was a part of the NBC crew at that time, being Emmitt's biggest supporter from the media. He was adamant on the NBC Postgame show that day about the Cowboys signing Emmitt. I still remember this exact quote from him, "If the Cowboys don't want to go back to the Super Bowl, don't pay Emmitt Smith." That loss to Buffalo meant everything to the Cowboys, and I believe that was the only way they would get their whole team back. If they didn't lose that game, I don't think Emmitt would have been signed. On September 16, Jerry Jones broke down and signed Emmitt to a 4-year, $13.6 million contract, making him the highest paid running back in the NFL at that time. It made my day when I found out that Emmitt had signed the contract. I remember telling a few of my 8th grade classmates at school the next day, "It's on now, the Cowboys are going back to the Super Bowl!!" The Cowboys beat the Cardinals 17-10 in Emmitt's first game back. Even though he was a non factor (8 carries for 45 yards) in that game, with his return came hope, as well as a huge emotional lift that would carry the Cowboys for the rest of the season. Even though the Cowboys lost a few free agents from the year before, the only striking difference from the Super Bowl champion and 0-2 Cowboys was Emmitt.
I don't even want to imagine how the 1993 season would have turned out if Emmitt would have sat out the whole year like he threatened to. Him being out proved that he was the most important player on the team, and probably in the league. As much as Emmitt is penalized for the supporting cast he had, he was the key to the offense and to the team. He was the most indispensable out of The Triplets. The Cowboys won games without Troy Aikman, and he was as good as it gets at QB, and a perfect fit for the team. But Steve Beuerlein got them to the playoffs in 1991. Bernie Kosar won some games for them, and even finished off the 1993 NFC Championship after Troy left early with a concussion. Rodney Peete and Jason Garrett have even stepped in and carried the load at QB and the Cowboys won. They even won without Michael Irvin to stretch the defense, but they couldn't win without Emmitt, especially in 1993. The offensive line had some maulers on it - players who could flat out dominate a defense, but it takes a great running back to set up good blocks and take an offense to the next level. Once the Cowboys got Emmitt back, they were dangerous again. It took him much longer than it should have to get his new contract. Jerry Jones learned the hard way that you don't mess with your superstars. You might be able to cut a couple of corners, but that's not one of them. That was evident by the Cowboys starting the season 0-2, then signing Emmitt and never looking back. They won 7 straight before losing 2 in a row when Emmitt got injured and wasn't 100% for either game.
Once again, 1993 was Emmitt's best season because just about everything that made him who he is happened that year. That season defined the player he was and the legend he is today, as well as proving his value to the Cowboys. Here is the best way to sum it all up:
Before 1993, no team had ever lost the first 2 games of the season and went on to win a Super Bowl. After Emmitt ended his holdout, he was an every-week constant for the Cowboys. He gained more than 100 yards in total offense in 10 of his 13 starts. He touched the ball 355 times and only fumbled twice. He ran for 1,486 yards, becoming only the 4th player in NFL history to win 3 straight rushing titles, and the first player to win a rushing title after missing the first 2 games. He averaged 114.2 yards in his last 12 games of 1993. A full season with that average would have put him at 1,827 yards.
The Cowboys' staff worried sometimes that they were using Emmitt too much. Every time they made plans to rest him, a situation came up where they needed him. The was the case throughout his entire prime, not just 1993. The Cowboys finished the season with a 12-4 record. The reason they didn't finish 11-5 was because of Emmitt, who willed the team to a 16-13 overtime win in the season finale against the Giants after separating his shoulder in the 2nd quarter. Emmitt fought through obvious pain to run for 168 yards on 32 carries, and 10 catches for 61 yards and scored the Cowboys' only TD. He was the Cowboys' workhorse in overtime, leading to a game-winning field goal. In my opinion, this was the game that showed everybody that Emmitt was the most important player in the NFL. That was a game the Cowboys had to have because the outcome of that game meant the division title, a first round bye, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. How much harder would it be to get to the Super Bowl on the road? The Cowboys went on to win their 2nd straight Super Bowl, and Emmitt became the first running back to win the rushing title, NFL MVP, and Super Bowl all in the same season.
Emmitt could have broke the rushing record much earlier than he did. The biggest obstacles in his career, especially in his early years, were Jerry Jones the contract negotiator and David Shula the play-caller. Both of Emmitt's holdouts cost him hundreds, if not a couple thousand yards, or at least enough yards for him to have the record 2 years earlier. During Emmitt's rookie year David Shula had a hard time trying to fit him into the offense. He only had 8 carries in his first 2 games, and didn't get his first 20-carry or 100-yard game until Week 5 against the Bucs. In 1990, they didn't give Emmitt the ball until halfway through the season because they didn't know what they had. In 1993, Emmitt spent his first 2 games trying to get in shape. He got his rhythm in his 3rd game. After that, he and the Cowboys never looked back. Emmitt had other great years, but none like the one he had in 1993. That year was all about him.
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