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.

Picture found at: http://www.sportsfanlive.com/roller/lordstantheman/resource/76_emmitt-smith-houston.GIF.gif