One fun mental exercise that sports fans like to play is, “What if?” For example, “What if X athlete had played for Y team during their career?” is a common query when it comes to the best that each respective sport had to offer over the years.
Recently, Gator great and NFL Hall of Fame running back [autotag]Emmitt Smith[/autotag] made a guest appearance on “The Pivot” podcast with Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder, and told the gang about the time he almost became a member of the Miami Dolphins.
Coming off a campaign that saw him lead the league with 1,713 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground in 1992 plus an NFL title — good enough for third in the Most Valuable Player vote — Smith had difficulties seeing eye-to-eye with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on a new contract. Additionally, he had a month to pursue other offers but none materialized.
Then, one of the best to ever put on a helmet took matters into his own hands.
“I picked up the phone and called Don Shula myself and told him I wanted to come to Miami and play for Miami,” Smith said. “Because I knew Dan Marino didn’t have a running game.”
“I want to help you and help Dan get a championship,” Smith offered to Shula. “I said, ‘Bring me back to the state of Florida.’ He said, ‘Well, I don’t know if I could make that offer.’ He said, ‘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’s going to mess up my chemistry.’ ”
Smith’s response was he wanted Shula to “just put something on the table” that would make Cowboys owner Jerry Jones say, “I cannot match it.”
Still, Smith said, Shula wouldn’t budge: “I can’t do that.”
Smith was incredulous.
“I said to myself, ‘Really?’ ”
The rest, as they say, is history. Dan Marino and the Dolphins never got their ring while Smith went on to earn both the regular-season and Super Bowl MVP awards the next season, adding two more Lombardi Trophies to the Cowboys’ cabinet during his tenure. Marino only had a single 1,000-yard running back behind him in all his years in Miami — Karim Abdul-Jabbar, who had 1,116 yards in 1996.
Over his 15-year NFL career, Smith amassed NFL records with 18,355 yards rushing along with 164 touchdowns (19 in the postseason). He was the AP Rookie of the Year in 1990 and finished third in the MVP vote twice in addition to his 1993 award.
Makes one wonder what would have happened if Shula had obliged.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1368]
[mm-video type=video id=01gse5agk1vyyxhvp4h1 playlist_id=01eqbz250mdknqvm5z player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gse5agk1vyyxhvp4h1/01gse5agk1vyyxhvp4h1-2c138d7bb2195f064f6a8b073f8e58c5.jpg]
Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.