7. December 25, 1995: Emmitt’s Christmas coronation
The 1995 regular season finale took place on Christmas night. The Cowboys were in Arizona to take on the Cardinals, and there was electricity in the desert air. A Hollywood film crew was set up inside Sun Devil Stadium, ready to capture actual NFL game footage to use in an upcoming movie called Jerry Maguire.
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. would play a fictitious Cardinals player, and the crew planned to intersperse carefully-choreographed close-up shots of him on the field with real footage of the actual Cowboys-Cardinals tilt in the final film.
On this night, Christmas night, in 1995, the Rod Tidwell scenes from Jerry Maguire are filmed during Cowboys-Cardinals MNF game. pic.twitter.com/7T5ljlDk21
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 25, 2017
But it was Emmitt Smith who ended up being the real star of the show that night.
In the Cowboys’ 37-13 win, Smith tallied just 68 yards and a lone score on 24 carries. But that one touchdown was historic. It marked Smith’s 25th rushing touchdown of the 1995 season, a new NFL record at the time. It also made Smith the fastest in league history to reach 100 career touchdowns.
The 68-yard total was a rather pedestrian effort by Emmitt’s normal measure, but it was enough to secure Smith’s fourth rushing title. He remains one of only six men to lead the league in rushing that many times.
His 1,773 rushing yards that season were the most Smith would ever amass in a single season and broke Tony Dorsett’s club record for best season by a Cowboys running back.