NFL great Emmitt Smith shared stories about life lessons, relationships with former Cowboys players and coaches, connections to football players from Arkansas and even his contest-winning run on “Dancing with the Stars” during his appearance Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Smith was one of the main cogs in the Dallas Cowboys’ historic 1990s run that saw the franchise earn three Super Bowl titles. The future record-setting running back was taken in the first round of the 1990 draft by Dallas, and 20 years later, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is the NFL record holder in three categories: rushing yards (18,355), rushing attempts (4,409) and rushing touchdowns (164). Smith played 15 seasons in the NFL, all but two of them (at the end of his career) with Dallas, and he drew a standing-room-only crowd to the DoubleTree Hotel for week No. 2 of the club’s 2026 lineup.
AY Media Group is the media sponsor for the club.
Smith shared anecdotes about former players from Arkansas. He said he and his brother visited with former Razorback and standout NFL back Peyton Hillis in a Pensacola hospital in 2023 after Hillis was injured while helping rescue his son and niece from drowning at a local beach. Pensacola is Smith’s hometown. Hillis reportedly suffered damage to his lungs and kidneys and spent several weeks recuperating at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, where Smith himself was born.
Smith was a teammate of former Little Rock Central standout receiver Reggie Swinton, a Cowboys standout returner in the early 2000s.
“He would have been one of the guys I could’ve counted on to make plays if he had gotten on the field [as a receiver],” Smith said, adding that the Murray State product didn’t see the field on offense because of the high-dollar free agents the Cowboys had picked up at the position and were forced to play. Another Arkansan, former Jacksonville High and Henderson State standout Robert Thomas, was blocking for Smith when the latter broke Walter Peyton’s rushing record. Thomas, whom Smith called “Red Rock,” was converted from linebacker to fullback by the Cowboys. Bazzel had a photo displayed of Thomas lifting Smith up on the field after he broke the record.
Photo courtesy of Little Rock Touchdown Club.
“He could do a number of different things and took advantage,” Smith said.
Smith also dished on the life lessons provided by football. Once Smith entered high school at Pensacola Escambia, a previously losing program that Smith led to two state titles, it was clear where his football future lay. But he longed to play on both sides of the ball. Because of depth issues, he finally got to do so in his senior year at Escambia. Once he became a Florida Gator, though, that was out of the question. Smith said once he arrived in Gainesville, he asked his coach, Galen Hall, for the same opportunity. Hall’s response: “Son, if I put you in on that side of the ball, they’re gonna fire me.”
The Cowboys had been losing when they drafted Smith. It was the second year of Jerry Jones’ tenure as owner, and the native Arkansan and former national-champion Hog was receiving criticism for his handling of the transition, which included the firing of legendary coach Tom Landry.
“Sometimes, you just gotta change the culture,” Smith said.
Smith credited much of his approach to his high school coach, Dwight Thomas, who implored his players to write down their goals, both for the team and themselves. Smith said Thomas would ask his players each day if they had done everything in their power to get better that day.
“If you stop asking yourself that question, that’s when the growing stops,” Smith said. “Winning changes culture. People want to be associated with winning, but there’s much responsibility that comes with it.”
In order to lead, he added, one has to learn how to follow first.
“But follow the right leaders,” he said. “That worked for me on every level — high school, college, pros, even ‘Dancing with the Stars.'”
Smith dished on his former coach, Jimmy Johnson, and former teammates, fellow Hall of Fame players Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, each of whom played for opposing teams against Florida during Smith’s freshman year. Irvin was a star receiver for the Miami Hurricanes, who opened the 1987 season with a 31-4 win (yes, 4) over the Gators, and Florida closed the season with a 20-16 Aloha Bowl loss to UCLA and its star quarterback, Aikman. Johnson, a teammate of Jones’ on the 1964 Arkansas title team, was a national championship coach at Miami and led the Cowboys to two Super Bowl wins in the ’90s before launching a long and successful career as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports. [Dallas’ third Super Bowl win of the decade came under another former Hog, Barry Switzer, but Johnson is credited with placing the team in a position to win another title.]
Emmitt Smith drew a packed house to the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday. Photo by DeWaine Duncan
Johnson, who spoke to the club himself last year, sent a video message for Smith’s Little Rock appearance at Bazzel’s behest. Johnson said he never hesitated when the Cowboys found Smith available with the 17th pick of the ’90 draft.
“I’ve never coached a player who took more pride in his performance,” Johnson said.
Smith shared an anecdote about Johnson from his rookie season, in which Smith picked up a first down in situational drills during practice. Johnson refused to acknowledge the gain and replaced the ball. Later that day, the coach explained to the eager rookie that there were reasons why he did so that went far beyond Smith and that one play.
“Sometimes, it’s not about you,” Smith said. “Jimmy knew how to make us better, and that’s what he was doing. We knew we wouldn’t be in that position [to win] without that man leading the way.”
Smith added that Johnson set the foundation for modern Cowboys football and playfully asked the crowd — filled with guests whose football loyalty generally runs Razorbacks first, Cowboys second — “Have y’all won a Super Bowl since? That’s how simple it is. You’ve got to get back to the basics that got you there.”
Smith called Aikman an amazing person and player who was “committed, poised and focused” — “Without him, there’s no Michael, no me” — and credited Irvin with showing his teammates how to have fun while playing.
Smith praised Jones, with whom he has maintained a close connection, as a “calculated strategist” whose success speaks for itself. And he doesn’t do well with criticism of Jones as a “meddler.”
David Bazzel | Photo by DeWaine Duncan
“He’s the owner; it’s his squad,” he said. “You make a $140 million investment [to buy the Cowboys in ’89] into an organization that’s losing $1 million a month — that’s $12 million a year — are you gonna keep the same people? Something needed to change. This is a game of productivity, and things had to change.”
Smith said Jones could see things in the business that others couldn’t — “kind of like as a running back” — but noted that as great as the Dallas organization has been on the marketing side (Dallas is once again valued as the most valuable sports franchise in the world), “They gotta do it on the field.”
One should make an effort to be around people who are going places you want to go, Smith said, and that was Jones.
“He did things that transformed the whole entire league,” he said.
Jones, of course, is scheduled to appear at the club with former Arkansas Governor and President Bill Clinton on Oct. 12 to talk Razorbacks and football. That meeting will be held inside Simmons Bank Arena to accommodate the expected crowd.
Smith was a celebrity contestant on the third season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006, teamed with professional dance partner Cheryl Burke. Smith won, but only after a rocky start and being bested in the opening episode by former TV personality Jerry Springer, which motivated him to approach ballroom dancing the way he would break down plays and tendencies in football.
Photo by DeWaine Duncan
“You’ve got to be able to humble yourself so you can learn,” the uber-competitive Smith said. “I went back to amateur status — I was an amateur in this space. I took a football mentality back into the ballroom. No more four hours of practice a day, it was eight hours a day. We broke it down into 30-second intervals.”
Smith added that the key to his success on the show was finding pockets of opportunity to let his personality out.
“The more fun you have, the better you get. Commitment was the key,” he said.
Smith grew up in a working-class home with two working parents and five siblings. Family is the foundation for everything, he said. He credited his parents with instilling in their children a strong work ethic and faith, and shared that his late mother started a Tuesday night family prayer tradition over the phone that the extended family still practices today. He has five children and, as of April, a grandbaby.
“God says to release ’em into my hands,” Smith said of raising kids the right way.
When he’s asked what he believes to be his greatest accomplishment, Smith said he responds, “I haven’t seen it yet because my kids aren’t done.”
Feature Photo by DeWaine Duncan
READ ALSO: Silverfield Ready to Change Razorback Football Narrative
