Emmitt Smith has won the Super Bowl three times, been named an All-Pro six times, and played in the Pro Bowl eight times. He led the league in rushing four times, scored the most touchdowns on the ground three times, was the Offensive Rookie of the Year, was the Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl, and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And as the NFL’s all-time rushing king, he holds the most important record in the sport.

Smith is one of the Cowboys’ most decorated players, but he almost reached many of those career milestones while playing for the Miami Dolphins.

On a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast, Smith, who is now 53, talked with Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark, and Fred Taylor. And as he set the record straight about his famous two-game absence to start the 1993 season, he also talked about how close he came to leaving Dallas after only his third year as a professional.

The Cowboys had just won Super Bowl XXVII by beating the Buffalo Bills 52–17. This was a huge change for the team, which had been the worst in football just four years before.

Smith had been an important part. The Florida player was taken in the first round of the draft. In 1990, he was named Offensive Rookie of the Year, and in 1991, he led the league in rushing. The next year, he led the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. This helped the Cowboys win the Lombardi Trophy in Pasadena.

But when training camp started for the 1993 season, Smith was nowhere to be found. And the team that won the Super Bowl last year started the regular season with a fourth-round rookie running back named Derrick Lassic.

Most people think that Smith was holding out for a bigger paycheck from the Dallas front office, but Smith was quick to set the record straight about what really happened.

“I didn’t hold out,” Smith said in response. “Holding out means breaking a contract because you want more money. The end of my contract came. I had done what I had to do.”

Smith went on to say that his original four-year rookie contract had changed to a three-year deal in his very first season. Smith says that after the three years were up after the Super Bowl loss, he became a restricted free agent. Since this was the case, any other team could have made him an offer that the Cowboys could have matched.

The rushing champion for two years in a row is shocked to say that he didn’t get a single offer.

“When I become a restricted free agent,” he said, “I have 30 days to talk with 20 or so teams about coming to play for them. And no one offered me anything.”

So, Smith says, he took care of things himself.

“I called Don Shula myself and told him I wanted to come to Miami and play for the Dolphins. I knew that Dan Marino didn’t have a running game because I knew him. And I said, “I want to come help you win a championship, or help Dan win a championship, or whatever.” Bring me back to Florida.’ He said, “Well, I don’t know if I can make that offer, because if I do make this offer and you don’t come, all my other players will see what I put on the table for you, and it will mess up my chemistry.” I told him, “Just put something on the table that Jerry Jones can’t beat.” ‘I can’t do that,’ he said.

Smith said that he and his parents went to Pensacola to watch the Cowboys’ first two games of the 1993 season.

“It was killing me at home,” he told her.

After losing to Washington and Buffalo in the first two games of the season, it was clear to the Cowboys that they needed Smith back on the team.

“And then my phone started ringing,” he said with a laugh.

Soon after that, Smith was on a plane and then at the Joneses’ house to talk about a deal. Dallas gave Smith a new deal that made him the highest-paid running back in the NFL at the time.

Smith says that the story that has been told about him for all these years makes him look like the bad guy.

“That’s how the media twists it,” he said next. “The news made it sound like I was holding out, so people think I was. No, I was making a deal. It’s not the same as ‘holdout.’ “Holdout” makes it sound like I didn’t do what I was already supposed to do. But I had kept my end of the deal. I had nothing left to do but get a new contract.”

In Week 3, Smith was back on the team. The Cowboys won the next seven games and ended the season with a 12-4 record. Smith still led the league in rushing yards with 1,486 at the end of the season for the third year in a row. Smith famously dislocated his shoulder in the last game of the regular season, which was against New York. He still played, though, and helped Dallas win the division. The Cowboys went on to win Super Bowl XXVIII, and Smith was named the most valuable player of both the Super Bowl and the league.

Smith would keep playing as a Cowboy for another nine years. He was one of the most popular and successful of them all.

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