Tag: cowboys history

Ex-Cowboys CB Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones raising children of fallen teammate

From @ToddBrock24f7: Once best known for his off-the-field troubles, Jones is now teaching the children of a late college teammate not to follow his lead.

Adam “Pacman” Jones was for many years the league’s go-to example of what not to do.

But the short-lived Cowboy, once the “NFL poster boy for bad behavior,” hasn’t turned just his own life around. Along the way, he’s also made the difference for a fallen teammate’s family, as detailed in a thoughtful piece for The Athletic by Zak Keefer.

Jones, now 39, has been raising the two sons of Chris Henry as his own for a couple years. Jones and Henry had been close friends while playing together at West Virginia; Henry died in 2009, during his fifth season in the league.

Chris Jr. is a straight-A student and though he won’t even graduate high school until 2026, he’s already received offers to play college ball at some of the nation’s top programs- Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, and USC, as well as West Virginia. He is thought to be a lock as a top-10 draft pick whenever he declares.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a kid track the deep ball like him,” Jones told Keefer. “He’s more skilled than me and his dad were at his age.”

Chris’s younger brother DeMarcus is a budding basketball talent who will start high school in the fall.

And the boys’ legal guardian is the man who was once called “nothing but a disaster off the field” by the man who drafted him into the NFL and had at one point been suspended for 22 out of a possible 28 games.

Jones is well aware of the irony.

“I’ll be damned if these kids make the same mistakes I did,” he says.

The sixth overall pick in the 2005 draft, Jones held out for most of his rookie training camp in a contract dispute, with the Titans worried right from the jump about non-football incidents while he was in college. He had a breakout second season, but behind the scenes, Tennessee was already ready to sever all ties, thanks to a continued downward spiral of legal troubles.

Jones had been arrested multiple times since turning pro; his sheet included everything from felony vandalism and obstruction of justice to probation violations and assault. The league finally suspended Jones for the 2007 season; it was the first time in nearly a half-century that a player was suspended for an offense other than substance abuse.

In spring 2008, news broke that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were trading for the cornerback and return specialist even before he had even been reinstated. The deal went through, and Dallas got Jones for just a fourth-round draft pick.

Having previously brought aboard Terrell Owens and Tank Johnson, the Cowboys were no stranger to reclamation projects. The Jones trade terms even included contingencies that would change the Titans’ compensation if he were to be suspended or arrested again while a Cowboy.

The club threw considerable resources at trying to help him make the most of his second chance in Dallas. Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders pledged their personal guidance; even Hall of Famer Jim Brown wanted to offer his support to the troubled Jones. The bad boy’s path to football redemption with America’s Team was a major plotline on that summer’s edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks series.

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Over the first six games of the 2008 season, Jones delivered promising results: 25 tackles, six passes defended, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries.

But then an altercation at a Dallas hotel resulted in another suspension, this time for six games. Jones would appear in just three more contests as a Cowboy.

Jones suffered a neck injury in his first game back from injury. There were stories of Jones getting into physical altercations with the security personnel the Cowboys had assigned to him. But even more troubling was the discovery by the Dallas front office that Jones had been involved in a 2007 Las Vegas shooting that left a man paralyzed. The Cowboys officially cut Jones early in the 2009 offseason.

Jones made a return to the NFL in 2010 with the Bengals. This time, it clicked. He was named a first-team All-Pro in 2014, made the Pro Bowl in 2015, and lasted eight total seasons in Cincinnati.

He retired from the league in 2019 after a final season with the Broncos.

Jones had kept in touch with Henry’s wife and children over the years. Shortly after hanging up his own cleats, Jones and his wife invited the family to move into their Cincinnati home with them. There was no fanfare. His former coaches and teammates only found out from other people. Jones didn’t even want The Athletic story written.

He admits now he was diagnosed as bipolar in 2015 but refused medication until he retired from football because he didn’t want it affecting his play. One can only imagine how the undiagnosed condition had contributed to his infamous transgressions over his early career.

Today, Jones remains involved with league happenings as one of the hosts of the I Am Athlete podcast and as an analyst for The Pat McAfee Show; it was Jones who broke the story last week of Deion Sanders needing emergency surgery due to blood clots in this groin. He is part of a group of ex-players- including Terrell Owens- starting the Beach Football League.

But he also has other business interests, including the gym he started in the suburbs of Cincinnati. Former teammates often bring their sons for week-long bootcamps. And he runs a demanding year-round workout regimen for Chris Jr. and DeMarcus, intent on helping them make the most of their first opportunity so that they’ll never need a second or third.

It’s a lesson Pacman Jones can uniquely teach.

“Visit the past,” he tells the kids- his own as well as Henry’s- “but don’t stay in the past.”

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4 Cowboys players plus a coach make all-time 7th round NFL draft team

From @ToddBrock24f7 | Remember these legendary Cowboys’ names- all 7th-rounders- when the pickings seem slim on Saturday of draft weekend.

Draft watchers know the seventh round is when things tend to get wacky. A left-footed punter? Sure, it’s the seventh round. The lacrosse player from the tiny school no one’s ever heard of with the insane 40 time whose great-great-grandfather once played for the Pottsville Maroons? Why not?… and let’s have the pick announced by a rollerskating penguin while we’re at it. Heck, these days, the last guy taken in the seventh is actually called “Mr. Irrelevant” for the rest of his life.

But as we were all reminded watching Brock Purdy last season, there is considerable talent to be mined in the seventh round. After all, as recently as 1991, the draft featured 12 full rounds of selections; prospects taken in the seventh were considered mid-rounders.

Just to prove that the seventh round shouldn’t be an afterthought for NFL squads next weekend in Kansas City, longtime Cowboys reporter Rick Gosselin went back through the archives to assemble the All-Time Seventh-Round NFL Draft Team.

Led by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, the team is studded with star playmakers like Bo Jackson, Jamal Anderson, and Shannon Sharpe. And that’s just the offense.

The Cowboys are exceptionally well-represented on a stacked roster that not one of today’s top teams would ever consider irrelevant. Remember these names when the picking seem slim on Saturday afternoon of draft weekend.

Emmitt Smith recalls facing Cowboys as opponent: ‘I broke down in tears’

The all-time rushing king recently remembered the difficult day in 2003 when he returned to Dallas wearing another team’s uniform. | From @ToddBrock24f7

There’s a wardrobe change coming for a new batch of NFL players as the annual roster churn of free agency will once again send longtime stars to new teams to either continue or close out their pro careers in unfamiliar uniforms.

It’s hit the Cowboys both coming and going over the years. It was certainly strange for die-hard fans to see the likes of onetime foes Eddie George, Randall Cunningham, and Terrell Owens don the star. It was even more painful when hometown heroes like Tony Dorsett, DeMarcus Ware, and Jason Witten sought greener pastures in colors other than silver and blue.

It creates awkward visuals and often uncomfortable feelings for everyone involved. Even the player in question can find himself in serious conflict, according to one Cowboys legend who lived it.

On a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast, Emmitt Smith shared what it was like to play briefly for the Cardinals. That, of course, came after 13 seasons with the Cowboys that saw him help build a dynasty, win three Super Bowls, become the sport’s all-time leading rusher, and cement his place as one of the franchise’s most beloved personalities.

“I gave it everything I had,” Smith said of his two-year stint with Arizona that started in 2003.

The Cardinals had just drafted wideout Anquan Boldin. Marcel Shipp, Damien Anderson, and Josh Scobey were in the team’s backfield. Adrian Wilson, Leonard Davis, and Josh McCown were there. Larry Fitzgerald would join them the next season.

They all made an impression on Smith, but it was the seasoned superstar Smith who left a bigger mark.

“What I appreciated about them,” Smith continued, “they were great teammates. They soaked it up like a sponge. They wanted to know what it was like. They’d see me show up at five o’clock in the morning to go work out. I’d been there by myself, and they come in about 6:30 or 7, like, ‘Dude, why are you here so early?’ ‘This is what I do.’ They’d see me in practice running 40, 50 yards down the field and jogging back: ‘Dude, why are you running so far?’ ‘I’m preparing myself for the game. [When] I get in the open, I want to take it to the house. This is the way we work.’ And they started doing it. And that part was awesome.”

Returning to face his old squad, however, was decidedly less so, the Hall of Famer admits.

The Cowboys hosted the Cardinals in Week 5 of Smith’s first season with Arizona. Smith would return to the very field where he broke Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record, less than 12 months after the fact.

Even almost 30 years later, Smith’s voice took on a very different tone as he told the story to podcast hosts Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark, and Fred Taylor.

“We rode down on that bus,” Smith, now 52, recalled. “First time I went into Texas Stadium in a bus. On a visiting bus. Got off the bus, walked into the visitors locker room, saw my Cardinals uniform. And I looked around. I felt out of place. For the first time ever, felt out of place. I sat down at my locker, looked at that uniform again. I stood up, and I’d come to realize. I said this out loud: ‘I’m not supposed to be here. This is not my room.’ I broke down in tears and cried for 45 minutes before we played that game. I mean, boo-hooed. Cried like a sobbing baby. And my teammates didn’t know what to do. I had to get myself together and go on a football field and play a game.”

Whether it was Smith’s emotions or a fired-up Cowboys defense or a combination of the two, Smith’s homecoming did not last long. Smith was swarmed early and often by Dallas defenders- led by La’Roi Glover, Dat Nguyen, Ebenezer Ekuban, and Dexter Coakley.

Smith had minus-one yard on six carries, leaving the game early in the second quarter after suffering a sprained shoulder on a big hit from a certain ascending Cowboys safety.

“Roy Williams knocked the living crap out of me; I’m going to slap him the next time I see him,” Smith remembered with a laugh.

The Cardinals lost 24-7 that day. For Smith, it marked the first time in his illustrious NFL career that he ended a game with negative yardage. Smith would go on to play 20 more games wearing Cardinal red, despite it never feeling quite right.

“We go through stuff,” he explained. “And I went through a heartbreaking moment, knowing that this is not where I’m supposed to be. This is not where God placed me. This is not what he wanted for me. He wanted me to be with the ‘Boys and do what I do with the ‘Boys. But he also had a different plan, and I had to accept that plan. That plan was to transition out and help others as I leave the game and leave them with something that they can go with.”

The lessons Smith helped impart did stick with his Cardinals teammates, even after he went unsigned by the club following the 2004 season.

Five years later, Arizona made it to their only Super Bowl. Many of the young Cardinals players that Smith had mentored in 2002 and 2003 credited him with helping them get there.

Smith eventually signed a one-day contract with the Cowboys before announcing his retirement from the game, but there was nothing quite like seeing Smith at Texas Stadium that one time in enemy colors.

“Having that moment gave me a chance to have closure,” he said.

With free agency about to kick off once again, that moment will come for a new group of players this season.

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Emmitt Smith nearly left Cowboys after first Super Bowl to play for Dolphins

For years, the popular narrative has been that Smith held out to start the 1993 season; the all-time rushing king set the record straight. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Emmitt Smith is a three-time Super Bowl champ, a six-time All-Pro, and an eight-time Pro Bowler. He led the league in rushing four different seasons, led in rushing touchdowns three times, was Offensive Rookie of the Year, was a Super Bowl MVP, and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he owns the most consequential record in the sport as the NFL’s all-time rushing king.

Smith is one of the most decorated players in Cowboys history… yet he very nearly achieved many of those career milestones wearing a Miami Dolphins uniform.

Smith, now 53, sat down with Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark, and Fred Taylor on a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast. And as he set the story straight about his infamous two-game absence to start the 1993 season, he also revealed how close he came to leaving Dallas after just his third season as a pro.

The Cowboys had just won Super Bowl XXVII, convincingly beating the Buffalo Bills 52-17, to complete a remarkable turnaround: from the worst team in football to world champions in four years.

Smith had been a key component. The first-round draft pick out of Florida won Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 1990, and then led the league in rushing in 1991. He led the NFL in rushing yards as well as rushing touchdowns the next year, en route to the Cowboys hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Pasadena.

But when 1993’s training camp rolled around, Smith was nowhere to be found. And the defending Super Bowl champs started the regular season with a fourth-round rookie named Derrick Lassic in the backfield.

The popularly-held version of the story is that Smith was holding out for a bigger paycheck from the Dallas front office, but Smith was quick to clarify what really happened.

“I didn’t hold out,” Smith corrected. “Holding out is when you have a contract, and you want more money. My contract was over. I had fulfilled my obligations.”

Smith went on to explain how his original four-year rookie contract had reverted to a three-year deal in his very first season. When the three years expired with that Super Bowl rout, Smith says he became a restricted free agent. As such, any other team could have made him an offer that the Cowboys would have had the opportunity to match.

Shockingly, the rushing champ for two years running says he didn’t receive a single offer.

“I get into restricted free agency,” he recalled, “I’ve got 30 days to negotiate with 20-some-odd teams to come play with them. And not one gave me an offer.”

So, Smith says, he 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. Because I knew Dan Marino didn’t have a running game. And I said, ‘I want to come help you, help Dan, whatever, get a championship. Bring me back to the state of 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’s going to mess up my chemistry.’ I said, ‘Just put something on the table that Jerry [Jones] says, “I cannot match it.”‘ He said, ‘I can’t do that.'”

Smith shared how he watched the Cowboys’ first two games of the 1993 season with his parents in Pensacola.

“It was killing me at home,” he said.

After starting the season 0-2 with losses to Washington and Buffalo, it was obvious to the Cowboys that they needed Smith back on the payroll.

“And then my phone started ringing,” he laughed.

Smith was on a plane shortly thereafter, and then at the bargaining table with the Joneses. Dallas gave Smith a new contract that made him the highest-paid running back in the NFL at the time.

But the narrative that has persisted for all these years, Smith says, instead paints him as the bad guy.

“That’s how the media twists it,” he continued. “The media twisted it as if I was holding out, and people think that I held out. No, I was negotiating. It’s a different term than ‘holdout.’ ‘Holdout’ seems like I withheld myself and my services that were already obligated. But I had fulfilled my deal. I didn’t have no more to do, except for get a new contract.”

Smith was back in the lineup for Week 3. The Cowboys won their next seven games and eventually finished the year 12-4. Smith still ended the season with 1,486 rushing yards to lead the league for a third consecutive year. The regular-season finale against New York saw Smith famously dislocate his shoulder but play on to help Dallas win the division. The Cowboys went on to win Super Bowl XXVIII; Smith was named the Super Bowl MVP and the league MVP.

Smith would play another nine years as a Cowboy, one of the most beloved and accomplished of them all.

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Cowboys’ Darren Woodson on wait for Hall of Fame: ‘At some point, it’s going to happen’

The wait for Woodson to get the call to Canton has lasted longer than the entire career that has unquestionably earned him the honor. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The wait is something Darren Woodson has grown used to.

Unfortunately, so is the disappointment.

For the 15th time since he became eligible in 2008, the Cowboys safety has watched another class of men he played with and against be welcomed to football immortality in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In seven of those years, his name was on the list of semifinalists and the case for his enshrinement was made in some secret room to the committee who holds the keys.

This year, for the first time ever, Woodson made it the finalist stage. He was one of 15 greats who had to go about their normal lives for the past couple weeks wondering- and waiting- for what’s become known as The Knock.

Woodson is still waiting.

His wait for The Knock has lasted longer than the entire playing career that has unquestionably earned him the right to hear it.

“Yeah, anytime you’re in a situation where you’re up for an award and you don’t win it… I’d be a fool and lying to you if I said I wasn’t disappointed,” Woodson said on Thursday after being passed over for inclusion in the Class of 2023.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m not broken by it.”

It would take a lot more than that to break the three-time Super Bowl champ.

The five-time Pro Bowler.

The four-time first-team All-Pro.

The Ring of Honor honoree.

The franchise’s all-time leading tackler.

The college linebacker who went on to redefine the safety position in the NFL.

When Cowboys defensive backfield coach Dave Campo visited Arizona State in 1992 to work out a cornerback named Phillippi Sparks, it was the Sun Devils’ undersized linebacker who really captured his attention.

“He’s running like crazy out there,” Campo said of Woodson. “He makes a tackle here or there, but Arizona State was so good on defense he didn’t have to make many tackles. But he was around the football all the time.”

Too small to be a pro linebacker? Probably. But Jimmy Johnson also wanted a big, strong safety who also had speed to help Dallas compete with the rest of the NFC East. So Campo put the 6-foot-2-inch, 218-pound Woodson through some DB drills.

“Footwork-wise, explosion and all those things… he was exactly what you’re looking for at that position,” Campo raved.

He promised Johnson that Woodson could start on every special teams unit from Day One and even have a shot at becoming the team’s dedicated nickel back.

The Cowboys used one of their Herschel Walker picks to select him in the second round of the draft.

Woodson started two games that fall, made the league’s All-Rookie team for his special teams play, and helped the Cowboys win the first of three Super Bowls in the 1990s.

He was in the starting lineup on opening day the following season, and the NFL had its first true “cover safety.”

“The nickel position is different,” Campo explained. “It’s tougher to play than the outside corner. The receivers in there are usually quicker and use the whole field to run away from you. That’s where Woodson separates himself from everyone else. He could line up and cover man-to-man with his speed, and was smart enough because of his safety work to understood zones. You don’t see that combination very often. He could handle anyone inside. There’s nobody he really had a problem with.”

Woodson ended his remarkable career with just 23 interceptions, never nabbing more than five in a season. But Dallas played so much man, it can be argued that’s only because he covered so well that he was rarely tested by opposing quarterbacks, even one-on-one against receivers like Andre Reed, Cris Carter, and Jerry Rice.

Hall of Famers all.

As longtime Cowboys writer Rick Gosselin points out:

“With the explosion of the passing game that has made three-receiver offensive sets staples, every team in the NFL now looks for safeties with the cover skills that Woodson brought to the Cowboys back in 1992. He was 30 years ahead of his time.”

Which only makes it harder to see so many defensive backs get gold jackets ahead of Woodson. Not all of them would seem to have a body of work that’s as stacked. One or two very recent inductees noticeably pale in comparison.

And yet, Woodson still waits.

“Going into this, my expectations were set on, ‘Hey, this is my first time on the floor,'” Woodson, now 53, said. “I’m not sure if anyone makes it the first time you get into the top 15 unless you’re a first-ballot guy. But I’m OK. I’ve got a lot of friends and family and tons of support here. I’m going to be fine.”

The fact that he got closer than ever before- only to get rejected again- and have it all happen right in his backyard of Phoenix adds to the travesty, in the eyes of many Cowboys faithful.

Just as the only team Woodson ever played for experienced in the 2022 postseason, making it one step further than last year is of little solace in the moment; it only delays the disappointment. Amplifies it.

But also just like the Cowboys have become accustomed to doing, Woodson is already looking ahead to the future.

With names like Andrew Luck, Julius Peppers, Antonio Gates, and Eric Berry headlining the list of those who will become Hall-of-Fame eligible next year, the Class of 2024 seems to be lacking in surefire first-ballot guys. That could help Woodson’s chances.

But it also requires yet another year of waiting.

“There’s an opportunity for me to continue in this process,” Woodson said, “and hopefully that opportunity is next year, the following year or whatever. I feel like, at some point, it’s going to happen. And I’m okay with that.”

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Cowboys look to break curse, record first playoff win in navy jerseys

Dallas is 0-3 in postseason games wearing navy-colored jerseys; they’ll pair them with white pants Monday, a combo that went 2-0 this year. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys will look to break a few streaks on Monday night if they can topple the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the playoffs. A win would mark the club’s first postseason victory since 2018 and their first tournament road win since the 1992 postseason.

But if the Cowboys can escape Tampa with a victory, it will be their first playoff win wearing navy-colored jerseys… ever.

The team has announced that they will wear their navy jerseys and white pants to face the Bucs. It’s the same combo they wore in Week 5’s 22-10 win over the Rams and Week 8’s 49-29 victory against Chicago. (On Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys did wear their throwback jerseys with white pants. While navy is the primary color, the “double-star” scheme on the shoulders makes those jerseys different than the regular navy set.)

The Cowboys first unveiled true navy-colored jerseys for the 1981 season. Prior to that, the team’s “road” jerseys were royal blue, and they were worn with the team’s regular light blue pants, and gray pants years before that.

The last on-the-field appearance for those uniforms (which many fans believed were cursed) was the 20-7 NFC Championship loss to Philadelphia in January 1981. The last postseason win in royal blue? The 1978 conference championship that put Roger Staubach & Co. in Super Bowl XXIII.

The Cowboys have played plenty of other road playoff games along the way: 11, to be exact. But thanks to the tendency of most teams to sport their colored jerseys in front of their home fans, the Cowboys were left to wear their traditional white-top set for those matchups.

Since switching to navy, Dallas has worn colored jerseys in three prior postseason games: 1982’s NFC title game loss to Washington, the 1996 divisional loss to Carolina, and 2003’s wild-card loss to, again, Carolina. All of those postseason losses came in grey pants.

As the home team, Tampa Bay got to select their jersey color for the upcoming Monday night contest. The Cowboys, forced into wearing colored jerseys, have opted to go with white pants rather than the silver pants they wore under navy in Weeks 3 and 18.

Using data compiled from The Gridiron Uniform Database, the Cowboys first used the navy-on-white pairing in 2017 and have worn it a total of eight times since then- including the two games earlier this season- but they’ve never before worn navy-on-white in a postseason game.

Their overall record in that uniform combo: 6-2.

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Dak Prescott passes Staubach on Cowboys’ passing list

Early in Week 10, Dak Prescott moved up the Cowboys record books, passing a Hall of Famer along the way. | From @CDBurnett7

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Seven seasons into his NFL career, quarterback Dak Prescott has skyrocketed up the Cowboys record books. Early in the Week 10 matchup in Lambeau Field, Prescott completed a 21-yard pass to wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, moving up the food chain in Dallas history.

The 22,705-yard career to this point for Prescott has been an impressive one and now he’s passed Roger Staubach for third in Cowboys career passing yards. The next milestone is far away, with Troy Aikman at 32,942 passing yards for Prescott to chase in the coming yards.

Former Cowboys WR Cole Beasley retiring after 2 games with Buccaneers

The 33-year-old finishes his 11-year NFL career 18th in Cowboys history in receiving yards; he’ll spend more time with family. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cole Beasley’s latest stint with an NFL team looks like it will turn out to be his last. The former Cowboys receiver and fan favorite signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the team’s Week 3 game; now he’s announcing his retirement from the NFL before Week 5.

NFL Network insiders Mike Garafolo and Tom Pelissero reported the news midday Wednesday after hearing from Beasley’s agent. “He is ready to be with his family after playing in 11 seasons and it’s time to be a full-time dad and husband,” Justin Turner told the network.

Beasley was brought on in Tampa at the urging of quarterback Tom Brady amid a plague of injuries at the club’s receiver position. Beasley, in his 11th pro season, caught four passes for 17 yards over his two games with the Buccaneers.

The 33-year-old will retire with 554 receptions over 151 game appearances with Dallas, Buffalo, and Tampa Bay. He amassed 5,726 receiving yards and scored 34 receiving touchdowns.

He played for Dallas from 2012 to 2018 and is currently 18th on the Cowboys’ list of all-time leading receivers with 3,271 yards. (Both Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb could pass him this season.) Beasley’s 23 receiving touchdowns in a Cowboys uniform place him 14th in franchise history.

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WATCH: Son of Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith breaks off 87-yard TD run for Stanford

E.J. Smith is expected to be one of the top running backs in the nation in 2022; he wasted no time in living up to that billing Saturday. | From @ToddBrock24f7

For a generation of fans, watching No. 22 take a seemingly futile up-the-gut run, bounce it to the outside, and suddenly streak down the field on a long touchdown score became a commonplace sight that helped define the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s.

History is repeating itself. Only now it’s happening in Palo Alto, California.

E.J. Smith, the 20-year-old son of Cowboys legend and NFL all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, is beginning his junior year at Stanford. After seeing almost no playing time as a freshman and only sparse backup duty as a sophomore, Smith is finally the starting ball carrier this fall in the Cardinal backfield.

And on the team’s very first offensive play of the 2022 season, Smith bore a striking resemblance to his Hall of Fame father.

Right down to the single raised finger as he crossed the goal line, that 87-yard scoring run is pure Emmitt Smith.

E.J. (Emmitt James IV)- who was born in Dallas and attended the local Jesuit College Prep for high school- finished Stanford’s 41-10 win over Colgate on Saturday with 11 carries, 118 yards, and a pair of touchdowns. He added five receptions for 37 yards, and even logged a 13-yard kick return.

The 6-foot, 210-pounder was named a breakout candidate for this college football season by Pro Football Focus and is on the Doak Walker Award watchlist. Stanford head coach David Shaw has called Smith “the total package” and predicted, “Over the next two years, he’ll be one of the best backs in America.”

Sounds a lot like Dear Old Dad.

He’s off to quite a start so far.

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Ernie Zampese, Cowboys OC for Super Bowl XXX win, passes away, age 86

The offensive genius was credited with designing the famed “Air Coryell” offense in San Diego, and eventually won a Super Bowl in Dallas. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Ernie Zampese, the longtime assistant coach who served as offensive coordinator in Dallas from 1994 to 1997 and then returned for a second stint with the team as a consultant, has passed away.

The 86-year-old spent nearly three decades on NFL coaching staffs, but his crowning achievement was helping to lead Troy Aikman and the 1995 Cowboys to a win over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX, the third championship in four years for the dynasty.

Aikman paid tribute to Zampese earlier Monday with a post on Instagram.

“Lost a good one today,” Aikman wrote. “Ernie Zampese was one of the brightest offensive minds in the history of the game – many of his offensive concepts are still being used to this day. He was my offensive coordinator in Dallas from 1994-’97. One of my most memorable moments was winning Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, AZ in 1995 and Ernie getting the Super Bowl ring that had alluded [sic] his HOF career. A friend and mentor to so many.”

Prior to joining the Cowboys, Zampese rose to prominence with the San Diego Chargers. While there, he helped create the famed “Air Coryell” offense for quarterback Dan Fouts, a prolific scheme that led the NFL in passing yards six times in his seven seasons with the team. (The year they didn’t lead the league, they finished second.)

Chargers head coach Don Coryell got most of the credit for the offense that bore his name, but even he called Zampese “the best offensive coach I know.”

Norv Turner, who had his own very successful run as Cowboys OC, echoed that sentiment.

Yet, for all his football brilliance, Zampese never helmed a team of his own, at any level of the sport.

“He had no real ambition to be a head coach,” Turner said, per Mortensen. “He just wanted to coach. He loved teaching, creativity, game plans.”

Just two months ago, Zampese was named a recipient of one of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural Awards of Excellence.

Zampese’s son Ken, currently the quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders, accepted that award in Canton over the summer on Ernie’s behalf. Ken was reportedly excused from the Commanders by Washington head coach Ron Rivera over the weekend to visit his ailing father.

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