August 22, 2022 • 12 mins
Legendary Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith remembers what it was like to make his iconic Sports Illustrated covers and describes how the present-day Cowboys can return to the glory days.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get started, please rate and review our show
that helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, what a tree we have Cowboys Hall of
Famer Emmitt Smith, who joins me to tell stories about
the first time he was an s I, his iconic
cover shoot from the pool in his backyard, and frankly,
(00:23):
how he ruined my childhood fun conversation with a legend.
I'm your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I
Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. Ammt Smith. Welcome
(00:43):
to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Thanks for doing this. Thank you guys.
Are you doing today? Doing excellent? So a couple of
I guess it was a couple of weeks ago, maybe
even a month ago. Now, you and I and Jerry
Rice and Dick Buccas did something similar for Twitter spaces.
But I want to want to run one of the
similar questions past you. You have Grace the cover of
Sports Illustrated many many times, but one of the most
(01:04):
iconic covers in Sports Illustrated history. I mean, you were
at the height of your powers, and so you are
in a pool, your pool, lounging on a float, just
looking cool as hell and it has become one of
the most reference covers in history. And I just wonder
what you remember about that and how that came about.
Obviously it was at the height of my career. We
(01:25):
may have just been coming off of our first or
second Super Bowl at that time. So and the blessing
of being knowns cover Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated at the
time was one of the biggest publications around, and every
every athlete wanted to be on the cover. And so
especially after you won a Super Bowl or led the
league in russ and it's something like of that nature,
(01:46):
it became an honor. And so Sports Illustrated wanted to
come out and shoot me doing an all season just
doing things around my house and so forth, just absolutely
just chilling our day in the life, if you will,
just archiving that way with the interview. And so they
wanted me to get into the pool, which I did,
and I happened to be on the floating and the
(02:08):
guy happened to go up top to the second story
just shoot down and he said, oh, this is a
look cool. Let me go up here and do this.
So he went upstairs at up top and starts shooting
down into the pool. I'm just floating around the pool,
my lit floating on and just relaxing, and there was
there's a shot. He got the shot he wanted. He
got the money shot. He got the money shot. I
think you're under selling it a little bit though, because
you're saying that you were just floating around in the pool.
(02:30):
It's one of the coolest things. I mean, it was.
It was too cool. I would imagine that your teammates
probably had something to say about this. Other people in
the league probably had something to say about it. I
bet you get asked about it a lot. Still here
we are talking about it. You know, I really don't
get asked a lot about it. But it was such
a cool shot that, like you said that earlier, it
became one of the most I don't know why it
(02:52):
is one of the most talked about the covers, but
it is an icond of photo for me. Is one
that questioned me out there in a totally different light,
showed me relaxing and a more soft decide of me.
But it was like to swim suiting the issue from me.
So it definitely was. And now you also have new
(03:12):
s I n F T S. We had Jerry Rice
on to talk about this previously. You're part of that
project as well, along with a whole host of just
like bold faced Names, shock me A Hamdwaine Gretzky, Michael Phelps.
Talk to us a little bit about that, why you
wanted to be involved in it, and what you think
about the new s I n f T S Well.
N f T S is becoming as such a popular
(03:33):
discussion around sports memorabilia collectible markets as well as the
digital markets. So when the opportunity presented itself and the
idea the concept came together with Sports Illustrated, it was
a natural fit because obviously they wanted to utilize the
cover of the Sports Illustrator that you saw and that
you talked about in reference earlier, but they wanted to
(03:55):
have an action shot of me doing something as well,
So it was a combination of both. It's kind of
cool to see how they were gonna put it together,
and so with jarr Rance and Big Buckets, as you mentioned,
as just a few of us launching that thing, the
n f T out it makes sense. Gave me an
opportunity to be a part of something with fans alike
can actually buy into it and get shares of it
(04:17):
as well, so I'm pretty cool with it. Yeah, I'm
I'm still a little fuzzy on like the actual imaginations
of n f T s. But I have seen yours
and Jerry showed me his and they seem pretty cool.
So it's it's exciting to have you guys involved in that.
So you've got that project going on. And then, as
we said here, this is a podcast, so most people
won't be able to see it, but there will be
a video element. But you're sitting in front of a
(04:38):
stack of pancakes and a cup of iye hoop. I
would assume there's coffee in there, but I haven't seen
what's inside. What kind of content is in there? Uh,
tell us about what's going on with I hop oh man,
I'm working with and up is announcing his brand new
rewards program with the International Bank of Pancakes, which means
every five dollars at you going to the just being
(05:00):
five dollars, you get a pan corn and the pain
corns can toll them to the number paining corns. We
can come into a hab and eat free me get
a free meal, and so for conversational purposes, business purposes,
if you love breakfast food, if you love other kind
of food, I have had everything that that you need
is twenty four hours and the food is very good.
(05:21):
So I like my pancakes pretty plain. I take a
three stack or two stack, get my eggs fried or
scrambled on the side with cheese. I get my my
hash browns and my bacon extra crispy, and some sausages
on the top of that with it. I mean, it
is what it is, and you're making me hungry. Yeah. Hey,
this has been in front of me for a couple
(05:42):
of hours. I've been smelling the syrup on this thing
pretty pretty much. I'm about to get about to tear
into it a minute, but it's been saying you gotta
get in there. Yeah, you're gonna have to get some freshmanes.
I assume too, because you and I are doing this
together now and we've become friends as a result, that
you'll be sending me some pancakes. No, I wouldn't be,
you know, pancakes, but I will be sitting you a
gift card. Gets that will all right? You and I
(06:05):
will go and we'll spend the gift card. Alright. So,
so we've been having this conversation. I feel like we're
making some headway here. But I told you at the beginning,
before we started that I had a confession for you.
So I'm gonna run this past you. So during those
years when you're lounging in the pool and you're running
all over the league literally and you're winning super Bowls,
not singular, but three super Bowls, you're at the height
of your powers. You're playing exceptionally. At the same time
(06:28):
that that's happening, I was a kid and I was
growing up in a city watching this happen, and the
city I was growing up in right behind me, next
to my Jerry Rice signed football. I'm gonna show you
as a Philadelphia Eagles football Yeah, Emt Smith. I wanted
to tell you. I've been thinking a lot about this
over the years, but I want to forgive you for
ruining my childhood because it was tough as a Philadelphia
(06:51):
Eagles fan to watch you guys and the Cowboys dominate
the Eagles so thoroughly. Well, you know what, Your apology
is accepted. Now you're supposed to apologize to me, you really,
I mean it was tough. Your apology is accepted because
you have accepted me now and you called them this
freak and it's hard to become Philadelphian free of a Philadelphia.
(07:15):
So thank you. Then, I appreciate you recognizing my talent.
That's been something set apart from which you guys had
on your team. So it's all good. I feel like
this is like a peace summit. We should have met
in a neutral country or something while we're here. Last
one for you, Uh, it's been a while since the
Cowboys have experienced the kind of success that you experienced
(07:37):
while you're there. Yeah, you're making a face of me
the same page on this one. Tell me what's going
on with your Cowboys and what you expect from them
this season. First and foremost, our Dallas Cowboys has never
been anglet never, but even in the last twenty years,
I think we've had some very talented football players and
very talented teams. The things that has but me the most,
(08:00):
and if you look back over the years, I think
the consistency of what we are seeing, we have consistently
made mistakes, consistently beat ourselves, consistently put ourselves behind a ball,
and not developed the momentum that we need to establish
in order to build upon something or established the foundation
(08:20):
to build upon and keep building upon it until we
can't do it any longer. I think that's the difference
between the last twenty some years versus the first ten
years of my career with the Lads Cowboys. We came
out of the eighties and we was one in fifteen
and eighty nine with Jimmy coming in at the first
first year, and then we went seven and nine in
(08:42):
my rookie year, and after that we went on a run.
We built a team inside out. We built a team
that was focused. We built a team that was dedicated
and committed to the mission, and the organization was starting
to grow. We had very talented football players, but those
talented football players played together as brothers and arms, and
(09:05):
we executed to the Hodge level. We did not make
a lot of mistakes. We did not beat ourselves with
small tikie tag cling. These We had guys that can
count on the man to his right and the man
on his left. We were not out so listening to
become superstars. We was out auditioning to become champions and
(09:29):
dominant champions over and over and over again. We didn't
have to deal with social media. We didn't have to
deal with all those kind of things, but we had
to deal with other elements, elements amongst ourselves and elements
that things that were out of our control as well.
But we were committed, and we were committed even when
Jimmy Johnson left. That's one reason why we won that
(09:52):
third in four years. So what I don't see is
the same type of mentality, if you will. I think
a lot of players, and I'm not just talking about
our Dallas Cowboys, I think the country itself has moved
and shift to this participation generation. Everybody get a participation trophy.
Nobody earned their right when you become a Dallas Cowboy.
(10:15):
You participate as a Dallas Cowboys history of the organization,
but you haven't earned the right to put your footstep
on the history of the Dallas Cowboys. I think these
players need to be focused on putting their hand prints
and their finger prints on the history of the Dallas
Cowboys organization. Therefore they can set themselves apart from the
(10:35):
nineties team versus the current teams. And so it's been
twenty some years. Trust me, everybody's gonna celebrate you and
pat you on the back once you get back to
that place of being a champion, including myself, because that's
what I won't for you anyway. But until you get
your discipline right, you're focusing your commitment right on the
job in front of you, you might not get it.
(10:58):
I'm not just talk about wanted to airs on some
of the whole entire team, including the coaching staff too. Yes,
Emmitt Smith, I love to hear you talk about what's
wrong with the Cowboys. That feels like a perfect way
to end this. As a Philadelphian, he's a Hall of Famer,
He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated many times,
and now he's been on Sports Illustrated Weekly. Emmett Smith,
despite you crushing my dreams as a kid, Thank you
(11:20):
for this. Are you welcome any time? Dream crusher? Thanks
for listening, and a reminder to please rate and review
the show that helps people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly
is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
(11:40):
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your
favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated, its best
stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This episode of
Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri, Jessica your Amoski,
and Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our
(12:01):
senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our
executive producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our
theme song is by Nolan Schneider and if You've stuck
around this long, we leave you with this. As I
was making an Eagles fan interview a Cowboys legend, this
feels like an HR complaint
Before we get started, please rate and review our show
that helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, what a tree we have Cowboys Hall of
Famer Emmitt Smith, who joins me to tell stories about
the first time he was an s I, his iconic
cover shoot from the pool in his backyard, and frankly,
(00:23):
how he ruined my childhood fun conversation with a legend.
I'm your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I
Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. Ammt Smith. Welcome
(00:43):
to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Thanks for doing this. Thank you guys.
Are you doing today? Doing excellent? So a couple of
I guess it was a couple of weeks ago, maybe
even a month ago. Now, you and I and Jerry
Rice and Dick Buccas did something similar for Twitter spaces.
But I want to want to run one of the
similar questions past you. You have Grace the cover of
Sports Illustrated many many times, but one of the most
(01:04):
iconic covers in Sports Illustrated history. I mean, you were
at the height of your powers, and so you are
in a pool, your pool, lounging on a float, just
looking cool as hell and it has become one of
the most reference covers in history. And I just wonder
what you remember about that and how that came about.
Obviously it was at the height of my career. We
(01:25):
may have just been coming off of our first or
second Super Bowl at that time. So and the blessing
of being knowns cover Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated at the
time was one of the biggest publications around, and every
every athlete wanted to be on the cover. And so
especially after you won a Super Bowl or led the
league in russ and it's something like of that nature,
(01:46):
it became an honor. And so Sports Illustrated wanted to
come out and shoot me doing an all season just
doing things around my house and so forth, just absolutely
just chilling our day in the life, if you will,
just archiving that way with the interview. And so they
wanted me to get into the pool, which I did,
and I happened to be on the floating and the
(02:08):
guy happened to go up top to the second story
just shoot down and he said, oh, this is a
look cool. Let me go up here and do this.
So he went upstairs at up top and starts shooting
down into the pool. I'm just floating around the pool,
my lit floating on and just relaxing, and there was
there's a shot. He got the shot he wanted. He
got the money shot. He got the money shot. I
think you're under selling it a little bit though, because
you're saying that you were just floating around in the pool.
(02:30):
It's one of the coolest things. I mean, it was.
It was too cool. I would imagine that your teammates
probably had something to say about this. Other people in
the league probably had something to say about it. I
bet you get asked about it a lot. Still here
we are talking about it. You know, I really don't
get asked a lot about it. But it was such
a cool shot that, like you said that earlier, it
became one of the most I don't know why it
(02:52):
is one of the most talked about the covers, but
it is an icond of photo for me. Is one
that questioned me out there in a totally different light,
showed me relaxing and a more soft decide of me.
But it was like to swim suiting the issue from me.
So it definitely was. And now you also have new
(03:12):
s I n F T S. We had Jerry Rice
on to talk about this previously. You're part of that
project as well, along with a whole host of just
like bold faced Names, shock me A Hamdwaine Gretzky, Michael Phelps.
Talk to us a little bit about that, why you
wanted to be involved in it, and what you think
about the new s I n f T S Well.
N f T S is becoming as such a popular
(03:33):
discussion around sports memorabilia collectible markets as well as the
digital markets. So when the opportunity presented itself and the
idea the concept came together with Sports Illustrated, it was
a natural fit because obviously they wanted to utilize the
cover of the Sports Illustrator that you saw and that
you talked about in reference earlier, but they wanted to
(03:55):
have an action shot of me doing something as well,
So it was a combination of both. It's kind of
cool to see how they were gonna put it together,
and so with jarr Rance and Big Buckets, as you mentioned,
as just a few of us launching that thing, the
n f T out it makes sense. Gave me an
opportunity to be a part of something with fans alike
can actually buy into it and get shares of it
(04:17):
as well, so I'm pretty cool with it. Yeah, I'm
I'm still a little fuzzy on like the actual imaginations
of n f T s. But I have seen yours
and Jerry showed me his and they seem pretty cool.
So it's it's exciting to have you guys involved in that.
So you've got that project going on. And then, as
we said here, this is a podcast, so most people
won't be able to see it, but there will be
a video element. But you're sitting in front of a
(04:38):
stack of pancakes and a cup of iye hoop. I
would assume there's coffee in there, but I haven't seen
what's inside. What kind of content is in there? Uh,
tell us about what's going on with I hop oh man,
I'm working with and up is announcing his brand new
rewards program with the International Bank of Pancakes, which means
every five dollars at you going to the just being
(05:00):
five dollars, you get a pan corn and the pain
corns can toll them to the number paining corns. We
can come into a hab and eat free me get
a free meal, and so for conversational purposes, business purposes,
if you love breakfast food, if you love other kind
of food, I have had everything that that you need
is twenty four hours and the food is very good.
(05:21):
So I like my pancakes pretty plain. I take a
three stack or two stack, get my eggs fried or
scrambled on the side with cheese. I get my my
hash browns and my bacon extra crispy, and some sausages
on the top of that with it. I mean, it
is what it is, and you're making me hungry. Yeah. Hey,
this has been in front of me for a couple
(05:42):
of hours. I've been smelling the syrup on this thing
pretty pretty much. I'm about to get about to tear
into it a minute, but it's been saying you gotta
get in there. Yeah, you're gonna have to get some freshmanes.
I assume too, because you and I are doing this
together now and we've become friends as a result, that
you'll be sending me some pancakes. No, I wouldn't be,
you know, pancakes, but I will be sitting you a
gift card. Gets that will all right? You and I
(06:05):
will go and we'll spend the gift card. Alright. So,
so we've been having this conversation. I feel like we're
making some headway here. But I told you at the beginning,
before we started that I had a confession for you.
So I'm gonna run this past you. So during those
years when you're lounging in the pool and you're running
all over the league literally and you're winning super Bowls,
not singular, but three super Bowls, you're at the height
of your powers. You're playing exceptionally. At the same time
(06:28):
that that's happening, I was a kid and I was
growing up in a city watching this happen, and the
city I was growing up in right behind me, next
to my Jerry Rice signed football. I'm gonna show you
as a Philadelphia Eagles football Yeah, Emt Smith. I wanted
to tell you. I've been thinking a lot about this
over the years, but I want to forgive you for
ruining my childhood because it was tough as a Philadelphia
(06:51):
Eagles fan to watch you guys and the Cowboys dominate
the Eagles so thoroughly. Well, you know what, Your apology
is accepted. Now you're supposed to apologize to me, you really,
I mean it was tough. Your apology is accepted because
you have accepted me now and you called them this
freak and it's hard to become Philadelphian free of a Philadelphia.
(07:15):
So thank you. Then, I appreciate you recognizing my talent.
That's been something set apart from which you guys had
on your team. So it's all good. I feel like
this is like a peace summit. We should have met
in a neutral country or something while we're here. Last
one for you, Uh, it's been a while since the
Cowboys have experienced the kind of success that you experienced
(07:37):
while you're there. Yeah, you're making a face of me
the same page on this one. Tell me what's going
on with your Cowboys and what you expect from them
this season. First and foremost, our Dallas Cowboys has never
been anglet never, but even in the last twenty years,
I think we've had some very talented football players and
very talented teams. The things that has but me the most,
(08:00):
and if you look back over the years, I think
the consistency of what we are seeing, we have consistently
made mistakes, consistently beat ourselves, consistently put ourselves behind a ball,
and not developed the momentum that we need to establish
in order to build upon something or established the foundation
(08:20):
to build upon and keep building upon it until we
can't do it any longer. I think that's the difference
between the last twenty some years versus the first ten
years of my career with the Lads Cowboys. We came
out of the eighties and we was one in fifteen
and eighty nine with Jimmy coming in at the first
first year, and then we went seven and nine in
(08:42):
my rookie year, and after that we went on a run.
We built a team inside out. We built a team
that was focused. We built a team that was dedicated
and committed to the mission, and the organization was starting
to grow. We had very talented football players, but those
talented football players played together as brothers and arms, and
(09:05):
we executed to the Hodge level. We did not make
a lot of mistakes. We did not beat ourselves with
small tikie tag cling. These We had guys that can
count on the man to his right and the man
on his left. We were not out so listening to
become superstars. We was out auditioning to become champions and
(09:29):
dominant champions over and over and over again. We didn't
have to deal with social media. We didn't have to
deal with all those kind of things, but we had
to deal with other elements, elements amongst ourselves and elements
that things that were out of our control as well.
But we were committed, and we were committed even when
Jimmy Johnson left. That's one reason why we won that
(09:52):
third in four years. So what I don't see is
the same type of mentality, if you will. I think
a lot of players, and I'm not just talking about
our Dallas Cowboys, I think the country itself has moved
and shift to this participation generation. Everybody get a participation trophy.
Nobody earned their right when you become a Dallas Cowboy.
(10:15):
You participate as a Dallas Cowboys history of the organization,
but you haven't earned the right to put your footstep
on the history of the Dallas Cowboys. I think these
players need to be focused on putting their hand prints
and their finger prints on the history of the Dallas
Cowboys organization. Therefore they can set themselves apart from the
(10:35):
nineties team versus the current teams. And so it's been
twenty some years. Trust me, everybody's gonna celebrate you and
pat you on the back once you get back to
that place of being a champion, including myself, because that's
what I won't for you anyway. But until you get
your discipline right, you're focusing your commitment right on the
job in front of you, you might not get it.
(10:58):
I'm not just talk about wanted to airs on some
of the whole entire team, including the coaching staff too. Yes,
Emmitt Smith, I love to hear you talk about what's
wrong with the Cowboys. That feels like a perfect way
to end this. As a Philadelphian, he's a Hall of Famer,
He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated many times,
and now he's been on Sports Illustrated Weekly. Emmett Smith,
despite you crushing my dreams as a kid, Thank you
(11:20):
for this. Are you welcome any time? Dream crusher? Thanks
for listening, and a reminder to please rate and review
the show that helps people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly
is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio.
(11:40):
For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your
favorite shows. And for more of Sports Illustrated, its best
stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com. This episode of
Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri, Jessica your Amoski,
and Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our
(12:01):
senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our
executive producers are Scott Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our
theme song is by Nolan Schneider and if You've stuck
around this long, we leave you with this. As I
was making an Eagles fan interview a Cowboys legend, this
feels like an HR complaint
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