A Big Change at a Young Age

When I played peewee football when I was about 10 years old, I was always the quarterback for my team. We played full padded tackle football in Florida, just as many other states do. I loved to play football more than anything else in my life. It was so fun scoring touchdowns, making big plays, having fans scream, I loved it. When I got to seventh grade I was almost too heavy to carry the football. You had to be less than 150 pounds or you couldn't carry the ball. My coach was a nice guy, he always helped me cut weight if I needed to. The night before games he would have me stay the night at his house to make sure I was eating right and not gaining too much weight. Later that year my coach decided to move me to running back, because I was bigger than most kids. At first I didn't like the thought of not being the quarterback, I was the leader of my team and I thought to lead them I had to play quarterback. Well, it turned out I loved playing running back. I had excellent vision, which today I still think is one of my best attributes. This was a big change for me, but a good one. By the time I was in eighth grade I weighed 180 pounds. I was way too heavy to carry the football, and too big to play in the peewee league. My middle school didn't have football, so I had to sit out all of the eighth grade year of football. This was tough for me, I really wanted to play, but I just couldn't. My coach knew how I felt and he was a good guy, so he let me help coach the running backs. I thought it would be weird coaching the kids my age, but nope, it wasn't at all. I still felt part of the team and couldn't wait to get to high school and play again. I started at running back all four years in high school. We weren't that good at all when we first started, our head coach had just come from a big school and wanted us to win the state championship. Each year our record improved and my senior year we went undefeated and won the state championship, one of the greatest days of my life.

The Big Decision

I had a big decision to make in my life. I had to decide where I was going to play college football. My high school fullback was right, he always told me that the letters from colleges would fly in soon, I just needed to be patient and they did. I had a lot of offers. I narrowed them down to Nebraska, Clemson, Florida State Auburn, and Florida. I took visits to all of these schools, all the people I met seemed friendly and honest. I liked all of these colleges but ended up narrowing it down to Auburn and Florida. It came down to the location of the colleges, I didn't want to be too far away from my mom and both colleges were no longer than 5 hours away. Also, I liked both of their coaching staffs. While I was still trying to make my decision I got to attend the Citrus Bowl where Auburn was playing USC, it was crazy, it was so packed and the fans were nuts! My mother of course wanted me to attend Florida, because it was closer than Auburn. My mother also liked the coaches from Florida too. Well, I wanted to make my mother happy, so in the final day that you had to decide where you were going to sign your letter of intent too I signed mine to Florida. I was now a Florida Gator, I like my decision and so did my parents. I couldn't wait to start.

A Glorious Day

The NFL draft is where dreams are made. It's also where they are derailed. My agent told me I would be going in the first round, he also told me I'd be making a million dollars a year. I could only hope so. On draft day of April 1990, I had no idea what team was going to take me. I had heard rumors that it could be Seattle, Tampa Bay, and a few other, but I wasn't for sure. I was one of thirty-eight college juniors coming out early, in addition to those juniors there are also all of the seniors as well. I didn't care where I went, I just wanted to be drafted somewhere where I could start as a rookie. Like many other college players about to go pro I had some question marks by my name. My "lack of breakaway speed" was the most knocked on. I felt this was silly. I always got to the end zone, did it really matter how many tenths of a second it took to get there? By April of 1990 I wasn't even thinking about the Cowboys drafting me. After they had sent a coach to watch me workout in college they never called, so I had no clue who was going to draft me. The night before the draft I stayed in my old bedroom at my parents house, I was a nervous wreck. I could barely sleep, even in my normal surroundings. On Sunday morning it was draft day, I watched it on ESPN from a friends house on Pensacola Beach, several family members were with me too. On the 16th pick in the draft the phone rang and I picked up, it was Jimmy Johnson, the Cowboys head coach, he said, " Emmitt how would you like to wear a star on your helmet?" I went crazy, I said Coach I'd love to wear that star! Then he said " alright then, were gonna trade up and draft you then." Then he hung up. I told my whole family and they all went crazy. Then five minutes later the Cowboys traded up form the 21st pick the the 17th and drafted me. I was now a Dallas Cowboy. One of the greatest days of my life.

Determination on a Big Stage

It happened in Giants stadium on Sunday, January 2, 1994. It was  a cold and tense afternoon of professional football. Just before half time I burst though a hole on the right, and 46 yards later a safety form the Giants slams me to the turf. I'm rolling around in pain. My shoulder is separated. I trotted off the field into tho locker room where the trainers could x-ray me. My shoulder was indeed separated and they told me they could put an ace rap over it and bandage it, then to cushion some of the blows they would also tape a knee pad over it. I said do it, do it now!  The trainers did it and told me it would hurt like hell when I got hit. I had to do it my team needed me and I had sat out the first two games of the season due to a contract dispute. I had 100 yards already and was on pace to claim the NFL rushing title which had never been claimed by a running back after missing two games. I was going to try my hardest to complete this task of mine. The pain was unbelievable when I got hit, it felt like someone was taking a sledge hammer to my chest and shoulder every time I was hit. I played through it though. An hour and a half later the game was over we had beat the Giants and became NFC Champions. On top of all of that I won the NFL Rushing Title. I ended up with 168 yards on 32 carries that game. In January I was named the NFL MVP, which was an astonishing award to receive. But of all the things that had happened, the best came in private, when my high school coach Dwight Thomas called me and told me "I watched the game on TV Emmitt, that was a courageous performance." I later went on to have the most rushing yards in NFL history with 18,355 yards. This is the most ever by any running back to ever play the game. It is an amazing accomplishment, I'm so proud. I then retired after the 2004 season. I now am married to my wife and we have four wonderful kids. I like to try new things so I tried dancing with the stars, it was a fun experience, and now I like to host youth football camps to teach younger kids about the game.

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