Emmitt Smith, Former NFL Running Back

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Alrighty, welcome back in and this is that Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. Now joining me, one of the greatest running backs of all time and every time he joins us at the Super Bowl, he brings us some tequila and I still have this tequila in my apartment in New York City and I'm slowly drinking it because it's so damn delicious.

He, of course, is the great Pro Football Hall of Famer in Emmitt Smith. Emmitt, great to see you again. How you been? I'm good. I'm good. How about yourself? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

Appreciate you jumping on board with us. Let me start you out with the Cowboys. So, it was one of those seasons again. Great regular season and then come postseason time, they just can't get the job done but it didn't happen in the division round, didn't happen in the conference championship game to lose against the Packers.

Just how do you process it all these weeks later? Well, I process it in the context of being extremely disappointed because I did not see a team that I truly believe had the capabilities of not only beating the Packers but also had the ability to even make it to the NFC Championship game. But our play that particular day was just not even close to the level of expectations, not only for myself but probably for the guys too. And I don't know why but our team looked unprepared.

And now we've seen this multiple times. Like, you go back against the Niners three years ago, the first time they lost to San Francisco in the playoffs. McCarthy even said it before the start of the game that they weren't, or after the game, they weren't ready to go.

Same thing happened a few years later. I know what you've said in the last 24 hours about Mike McCarthy, but that is mystifying to me why they bring him back as the head football coach and what appears to be kind of a lame duck year on the final year of his contract. Well, at the end of the day, it is his job to get his team ready to go.

Yeah. And if you know that you made a mistake a couple years ago against the Niners, why wouldn't you put more emphasis on not doing the same thing and changing it and making it work for you this time when you're back in the playoffs? I mean, I mean, those things right there should not happen.

It should not happen. If you're going to get beat, get beat doing, being your best, being at your best or even giving. It didn't even look like we gave the right effort.

And so we, we tried things, but it just didn't happen. Everybody knew exactly what was going on on the football field. The Packers came in and it just made us look bad. It was embarrassing. It was definitely embarrassing.

That's what it is. And I know that you are someone that loves this organization. You want to see this organization do best, but man, it's been the same old, same old the last few years. Emmitt Smith here with us, who should be like, let's say you were making the hire. You had Belichick available. You had Pete Carroll available. Mike Vrabel was available too. Who do you think should be coaching this team this upcoming year? I probably would have given Mike Vrabel a try.

I probably would have. Um, younger, younger coach had had success up in Tennessee. Um, we probably have better, better players than what Tennessee. Absolutely.

And, um, and so I think that overall we would have had a number of the pieces of the puzzle in place for him to come in and lead these young men. I'll take it a step further, right? Dak has one year left on the contract. I know it's an enormous cap hit, but Emmitt Smith, do you think they should just let this ride out and then see how this year goes before even potentially entertaining a contract? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I would, uh, if we don't have to move anything right now, we don't have to do a whole lot.

I would just keep things as they are. I don't think we need to be, Dak is going to be our long-term guy. I think we're committed to him, have been committed to him and, and now we have to see who's staying completely through. And it's not necessarily Dak is not capable of it. Uh, oftentimes coordinators have a chance to make a player look good as well as look bad. And so, but Dak has to take on the responsibility of understanding game situations and not playing to those situations. Um, the prime example I can give, even though Mike McCarthy comes in and wanted to throw the ball against Detroit with less than two minutes left in the game or three minutes left in the game, three straight times, then on the third time, you don't throw it out of bounds. You don't throw an incomplete pass.

You keep the ball in play and you take a knee or get sacked or whatever you got to do, run with it, but you keep the clock moving because the clock is your friend. Do you think this team is mentally tough enough with what they've been through? I think that's, that's been the biggest problem. I think physically we got everything that we can do and we quality from a physical standpoint, but mentally, I don't think we're there. Because when they lose, it's like, you shouldn't really say anything when you lose to continue to add legs to the story. And it seems like there's just not an accountability within the organization for the shortcomings that have happened in the post season.

No one is stepping up and taking on the responsibility of playing piss poor football, especially at the wrong time. Absolutely. You spend all this off season training and everything else, going through training camp to get to the place where now you made it to the playoff, where you want to be at, and you lay an egg like that, it doesn't, doesn't register with me.

Oh, look at this. Adrian Peterson, Emmitt Smith connected together. We'll see Adrian Peterson later on the show. That was a pretty quick, a pretty cool moment right there.

And that's what happens all the time. We were talking to Joe Montana the other day, Drew Brees walks by. So pretty neat stuff here on Radio Row.

Alrighty. We got through all the Cowboys stuff. You know, I don't want to, it just, it's sad hearing you talk about the Cowboys right now because you projected with the team.

So let's talk about a happy moment then. One of my favorite moments from the NFL season was seeing Jimmy Johnson go into the ring of honor, you and Michael Ervin being there in person. That was just so awesome to see your guys' natural lation that you had for your football coach. You know, what you saw was natural and you said natural, and that's how players should feel about their coach. And when you think about how we feel about Jimmy and what we accomplished with Jimmy, then you parallel that to today's?

I don't see that. It's tough because the current player now, I think, I don't think the my way or the highway coach works anymore in football. So the new coach is kind of, you have to be a player's coach, but you can't be a doormat.

And that's what I think is the tough separation. Like Dan Campbell, player-coach, not a doormat. Mike Vrabel, player-coach, not a doormat.

And that's why I'm fascinated to see what happens with a guy like Belichick, who is my way or the highway, but he's won six Super Bowls if he does get a job moving forward. Because today's player does not fit with Belichick and that isn't a Belichick problem. It should be a way that we talk about players now.

Yeah, I think it's a way that we talk about players. Players are spoiled, players are selfish, and everything else. And they don't want to be told what to do all the time.

And let alone be pushed to work hard because they're already coming in thinking they're great. That's all I can say. I mean, that's what you're dealing with.

And you know what? I get a chance to talk to a lot of coaches, going back to Jimmy Johnson. It's so neat, the respect that all the current coaches have for Jimmy Johnson. He's kind of like turned into the godfather of coaching, that whenever someone gets a job, you need to go down, I think it's to Florida, to the Keys, and go fish with Jimmy Johnson a little bit. And you kind of have to earn your stripes with Coach Johnson.

I mean, here's the thing with Coach Johnson. I mean, here's the thing with players, too. Players have to trust their leadership. Players have to trust the coaches that they were playing for have their best interests at heart. No matter how hard they drive them, they see something in you that you don't see in yourself. And you have to believe that. And they have a way of bringing out the best in you if you trust the process. Some players can't even begin to get on the process.

They're already coming in, oh, this is who I am, and this is what I'm going to be, because they've been told that it was great the whole time. But at this level, a peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe, available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about?

It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know. Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world, and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game and the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please.

Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a totally different level and you need coaches to tell you the truth. You need coaches to help shape that talent into what they believe can be something great.

Now every coach is a great coach. They have some coaches out there that shouldn't even be coaching and they study the game, they understand the game, but they cannot motivate a player. And there's situations where coaches lose the trust of the team and they lose chemistry that way and that has happened many times. Whether it was Pete Carroll losing some of the chemistry up there in Seattle or whether it's someone else losing chemistry on the team. I mean, you got that.

Players have to be able to trust the relationship that they have with their coach. Tell me about what we're doing with the great tequila once again. Same thing. I mean, I've been working with Tequila Headedor for 13 years now, going on 14, and it's still the finest distilled tequila in the market. It's a winning tequila that doesn't let you down in the big spots. The antithesis of the Cowboys these days.

Exactly. I can count on my tequila a lot more than I can count on my boys winning the big one. So let's say we're sitting around and we're doing a few tequila shots, and I just so happen to have this poster here, and I say to you, do you ultimately believe in this relationship between Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift? You think they're one day going to get married? You know what? I hope so. Yeah, it's a fun story.

Because it's great to find people, to see people fall in love. Yeah. But here's the problem.

Yes. They both are so visible right now. Too many people are in their business, and they need to start setting boundaries in terms of who they are collectively, who they are individually, and who they need to allow into the circle.

Too many people in the circle. Well, here's the problem. So I live in New York City. Taylor Swift lives about like five to eight minutes from my apartment. You walk around the city, there's people around her house 24-7. Yeah. You're in the city, you're in the city, there's people around her house 24-7. Yeah. You can't hide if you are her, unfortunately. Well, that's part of the problem. That's part of the problem. Yeah. Not that she's asking for all this attention.

People are starving so much. To get a photo. To get a photo of somebody that's done great things. Yeah. And these folks don't really have true lives.

Yeah. The only life is to see somebody like that. Which she's an inspiring woman. She's an inspiring guy.

But they have lives to live, and people can't separate the public life nor the celebrity life. Always love talking to you. Appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Maybe one of these years your Cowboys will be here. Maybe.

Maybe. A Peanut Butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing. One retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort. Coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available H track all wheel drive and three row seating. My whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit hundayusa.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know.

Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game and the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.