Original subtitles

We all are imperfect people.

And each of us have at least two of us in all of us.

That person you show everybody and that person that you never show anybody.

You recognize it in everybody. It's just more clear for some than others. You

know what I mean?

I had

a routine.

After you win the Super Bowl, before the next season starts, you get about a

month.

And that month, you cut loose for half another time.

And the end of that, March 5th, was the big party.

And my birthday happens to fall March 5th.

We're over there. We're having a great time.

They had police go in and see what's going on in the room.

And then they came and knocked on the door, and I didn't want to let them in.

Really, you don't have to let them in your room.

But they pulled the gun.

It was time to let him in. They were like, open the door. I said, no, we're

good, buddy.

He said, open the door right now.

Serious allegations of cocaine possession and discussion of cocaine

by Dallas Cowboys star receiver Michael Irvin. Tonight, public defender Marty

Griffin continues his special report, Tarnished Star.

Tonight, our hidden camera videotape reveal a man on the brink of self

-destruction.

That's how it all started.

That's how it all came out.

And then there is the so -called White House, secret house in Valley Ranch

Cowboy players brought drugs and partied with countless women.

You know, I knew that we had a lot of players that weren't choir boys, but I

didn't know some of the activity that ended up getting him in trouble.

March 4th incident in which police found Irvin, former teammate Alfredo Roberts,

and two female companions in an Irvin, Texas motel room. Police say they

discovered drug paraphernalia, some sex toys, along with substantial amounts of

marijuana and cocaine.

One bag contained the largest chunk of crack cocaine he had ever seen. The DA's

office says it has questions for Irvin.

I was concerned for my buddy, my friend, my brother.

What does this mean for him and his career?

Poor. Money. Drug and sex orgies. Out of control partying. That house was crazy.

I would divorce him. I wouldn't put up with this. If you are a Dallas cowboy in

this part of the country, you can get away with murder.

Michael Irvin is the leader of that football team, and I hope I'm wrong

this. I fear he hasn't hit bottom yet personally.

Michael, he needed the escape.

He played so hard. He played so on the edge. He needed to unwind dangerously.

And the whole culture was rotten to its core.

It was a terrible situation. But Michael's got a cap of 10 lives, 11

Michael survived a lot.

Dude, come on, man.

I'm using analysis. You have a nice car, but you're running out of gas, dog. You

can't look at that tank and see that you're down there on E. Like, come on,

The more we talk about that, the more we make it live.

To all a good night, and may God bless.

Michael Irvin is very well my favorite player of my time.

What makes him be as substantive as he is is

the fact he, plays and lives at the level he lives.

This thing serves me so well on the football field, this mammalian brain.

But once I walk away, it's a whole different thing.

You know, when I leave the field, I'm still that dude.

Because of some of his decisions, he had become vulnerable.

He has my back. I have his back.

Certainly that was the case in a dicey situation like this where you know the

eye was on him.

Dallas has one central district attorney's office.

It's an office that has a reputation.

I've been there three years, and I was in it to win it.

I was a part of the prosecution team.

Mike Gillette was my boss, and we were trying to prove that the crack cocaine

belonged to Michael Irvin.

Jerry set up a meeting between Mike Gillette and I.

Michael Irvin came in with his lawyers, and there was a negotiation about what

we can do with this.

We've got this evidence.

This is how much time you could be looking at.

And there may be an opportunity for plea bargaining after that.

But Mike Gillette was trying to say that I brought the drugs.

I said, I didn't bring the drugs.

Just being honest.

I said, I'm not telling you that I've never brung anything.

I'm just telling you this time exactly what happened. I'm just telling you the

truth.

He said, let me tell you what the truth is.

He said, the truth is what I make it in the courtroom.

He said, and personally, I think you're a piece of shit.

And you've used your fame and your money to take advantage of these poor white

girls.

And I'm going to fillet you like a fish and leave you in the alley.

His exact words.

Shock waves in Dallas as Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin is indicted on

counts of drug possession.

He faces one charge of marijuana possession and a charge of cocaine

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Michael, do you have anything to say about the charge? I told you that.

When you get finished with this, somebody's going to pay me millions of

to catch a football.

And your little sharp ass gonna be broke and stuck down here no matter what.

And then he said, I'll show you tomorrow what it is when you get here.

And that's why I put on the neat coat and the shades.

You want to show me up?

Let me show you.

Now as I walk.

Michael Irvin, the man in the full -length mink.

It was 95 degrees, but the mink was needed.

Michael Irvin clasped his hands behind his back, looked directly at the jury,

and softly answered the judge's question.

Not guilty.

With that, his trial on drug charges officially got underway today.

Andrew Kramer was courtside in Dallas for the opening statements.

It was 105 degrees Tuesday in Dallas, but things were really heating up in the

courtroom. It's 1996.

It's one year after the circus, the debacle that was O .J. in Los Angeles,

exposed America to court TV.

And it made the lawyers and the judges central characters in the drama.

I can't discuss anything right now.

The Michael Irvin case became a gigantic story that superseded sport.

Everywhere in the country today, we heard people talking about the Michael

story. Superstar and local hero Michael Irvin. Michael Irvin. Michael Irvin.

Michael Irvin.

ESPN, CNN, ABC, CBS, nearly all the letters of the broadcast alphabet are

represented here now.

I was the judge in Michael Irvin's case.

The evidence that was found in this case and the possession stemmed from the

narcotics and items that were found that night at the residence inn.

Two officers testify today they enter the motel room because they could

smell marijuana smoke.

So we found marijuana and crack cocaine chipped on a plate.

Prosecutors showed the jury blown up pictures of Michael Irvin's fingerprint.

Fingerprints an expert says he lifted off plates that had cocaine residue.

And then a golf ball -sized piece of crack cocaine.

In Texas, we didn't put up with that stuff.

People were doing life sentences for possession of marijuana.

So you can imagine how they dealt with cocaine.

But one of the strippers, Angela Back, said that it was hers.

And that was critical.

So now we need to prove that it was not Angela Beck's cocaine and that it was

Michael Irvin's cocaine.

As we were building Arcade, we were interviewing people who had some

relationship with Michael Irvin. And one of my recollections is how many

strippers I talked to.

They could talk about how he liked to do things.

I've interviewed about seven different strippers.

And Rochelle Smith, I interviewed her a lot of times.

Rochelle Smith was friends with Angela Beck and had had numerous sojourns

with Michael Irvin and Beck.

And they would go to places exactly like this hotel where they went to.

And while she was not with the hotel that night, she could talk about...

normal scope of habit.

And we were going to have her testify in front of the jury, which was going to

be extremely damaging.

So one night, Michael gives me a call and says, hey, can you come down, meet

at Cowboy Sports Cafe, and bring some stuff to detect wires and stuff.

I'm like, okay.

So I grab a wand and stuff and show up down there.

We're off to, you know, go meet Rochelle Smith.

We need to talk to her.

So we show up at this apartment.

He goes, make sure she doesn't wear any wires.

One or down.

That's not good enough.

So, okay, you know, getting undressed type of thing.

Okay, then she gets undressed.

Obviously doesn't have anything on her. She goes into the room with Michael, and

they're in there for, I don't know, 45 minutes or so, going back and forth.

And I hear Michael yelling at her.

Why did they call you in or what are you going to say?

I'm thinking to myself, this sounds like it's tampering with a witness or

something. I'm like, this isn't going to end well.

And it kind of got me worried because he's not acting like he normally acts.

Usually he's friends with everybody, always smiling.

I got that really big laugh.

I'm like, man, this is like the normal Michael that I know.

You know, things like this.

Tear apart a team.

It tears apart an organization.

The visibility of the situation was very high, but I was concerned about

everything about it as far as him individually.

I'm afraid that he's going to hurt himself here.

Now, as the trial went on, during the course of one of these hearings...

The doors open to the courtroom and in come FBI.

Not come in, run in.

And they said, we need to get you out of here.

There's a death threat in the building.

Automatically, I thought it was me.

I mean, it wasn't about me.

It was about Michael Irvin.

Bizarre is probably the best word for what has been going on today, a strange

case that involves all kinds of twists and turns. In fact, we're still not

completely sure of all the specifics involved here.

I was in a courtroom.

Somebody came in and said something to the judge. He said, uh, just arrested

Johnny Hernandez, police officer, on an attempt murder for hire.

A Dallas police officer is linked to a murder -for -hire plot aimed at cowboy

star Michael Irvin.

Dallas police arrested one of their own yesterday, five -year veteran officer

Johnny Hernandez.

The officer wanted the hit to occur very, very soon. It was clear that he

Michael Irvin killed.

You've now gone from a drug trial involving Michael Irvin to a murder -for

plot on his life.

The news of the plot that killed the Cowboys receiver was shocking, certainly

Irvin's teammates.

That's unbelievable, man. It's truly ridiculous.

It's an eerie feeling, knowing that an individual was out there thinking about

something like that.

Bits and pieces about the person Johnny Hernandez are slowly beginning to

emerge. He was born in Denver, and that is where he met Rochelle Smith.

woman who he says is his common -law wife, the woman who also has had a

relationship with Michael Irvin.

Sources say Irvin threatened the policeman's fiancée, which infuriated

officer, and set a murder -for -hire plot in motion.

Johnny Hernandez pled guilty to trying to have Michael Irvin killed. He was

given six years in prison.

That day that that came out, it was around 5 or 6 in the afternoon.

I went to the facility to get a workout in. I see Michael

out there on the field.

He's in shorts and his cleats.

He's running 110s.

He's doing conditioning.

And he runs and...

crosses the goal line, and he does his signature like he would do when he

a touchdown. He holds the ball up. He's showing it to the crowd.

He's waving it, and then he spikes it, you know, this imaginary ball that's in

his hand. And I'm watching this, and I'm thinking, God, this guy just had a hit

on his life.

And then I walked out and gave him a big hug.

He just started laughing because he knew that I'd observed the whole thing.

I had guys that wanted to come down to the court. I was like, don't do that.

This is for me. I'll take this ride.

I'll do it by myself.

And don't come down there.

No, no, he can't.

He can't.

You were glad.

to see Troy sitting behind him and supporting him.

I didn't think it would mean as much as it did.

But, yeah, he showed up.

Yeah.

The time comes for Rochelle Smith to

testify.

The prosecution was looking to Rochelle Smith to document specific

instances of Michael Irvin partying.

What it was like being in those hotel rooms with sex, with drugs, the amount

drugs that were consumed that she witnessed firsthand.

And when Rochelle Smith took the stand,

At that point in time, the trial changed.

Testifying under immunity from the prosecution, a topless dancer leveled

seemingly bottomless delegation.

Richelle Smith testified that she and Michael Irvin rendezvoused on three

occasions in February at a Dallas hotel and shared cocaine and marijuana

provided by Irvin.

Smith said Irvin chopped up the cocaine into powder, and Irvin would smoke

cocaine -laced marijuana.

He also said it was always Irvin who brought the drug.

Smith testified that when Irvin police knocked at the door at an Irvin motel,

Irvin told her he tried to hide drug paraphernalia while the topless dancers

took plates loaded with Irvin's cocaine and flushed it down the toilet.

Smith spoke softly.

but powerfully, coming close to tears on at least one occasion, as she detailed

three meetings during which Irvin had her removed clothing, she says, to

she had no hidden microphones.

Smith, the girlfriend of the Dallas police officer accused of trying to hire

hitman to kill Irvin, says Irvin threatened to kill her.

My wife, she looked at me, she said, don't say a word.

God has already told me I am your wife and I am not going anywhere.

But you have to make your peace with God.

I don't think I've ever felt worse in my life.

Michael Urban knew what he was facing when Rochelle Smith got off that stand.

And it was going to hurt him. It was going to kill him.

He had nowhere to go, guilty of sin, reputation on the line, multimillion

-dollar contract.

If I were in Michael's position, looking at 20 years in the penitentiary, what

do I do?

You're on TV buying cocaine.

You've got a hit out on you.

Everything that has come down has come down against him.

I thought we were going to win.

A stunning development at the Michael Irvin drug trial today. The playmaker

scores a deal.

Very shocking to everyone in the courtroom. At about 2 this afternoon, it

announced Irvin made a plea bargain agreement with prosecutors.

It was his last day in court that proved to be the first time Irvin's wife and

his two children came to join him.

Irvin admitted no wrongdoing. Instead, he will plead no contest to felony

cocaine possession.

Irvin gets four years deferred probation.

He pays a $10 ,000 fine.

I said, look, if it's your first offense, I'm going to place you on

I'm going to give you some restrictions and conditions.

You do that, we have no problem.

If you don't, then you're looking at up to 20 years in the penitentiary.

Michael has a chance to influence a lot of people by showing you can mess up,

your life's not over, and come on back.

I hope that's the way it works for Michael Irvin. We're happy it's over for

Hopefully you guys let it go now.

It's over with. Kill it. See y 'all later.

Just minutes ago, a remorseful Irvin spoke for the first time since the case

resolved.

I want to really apologize to the fans.

You know, I worked so hard to bring Super Bowls here.

And this last offseason is sad.

I am sorry for taking everybody through it.

There's no getting around it.

I was wrong.

I was wrong.

God bless everybody.

Thank you.

Well, according to Rochelle Smith, Michael Irvin told her that no matter

it got, once he scored a touchdown, fans would love him again. So how do Cowboy

fans feel about the playmaker following this plea bargain?

I liked him as a person. Now I think, since all this stuff came out, that I

can't really trust him.

Like if a normal person did it on the street, they'd go to jail for a long

I just think that it just goes to show what money can buy.

The end was so perplexing.

Michael Irvin gets probation and a $10 ,000 fine.

It's like, how in the heck did we do all of this, and this is what you're

offering? It was unheard of.

You've got the guy where you want him.

You have your foot on his neck.

Why are you reaching down and pulling back up?

It makes no sense to any experienced lawyer that you make the best offer.

When you are winning, nobody does that.

After

the

trial. The NFL has come down on Michael Irvin. Michael was suspended the first

five games of 1996.

And that's like, oh, my God. Like, that's the heart and soul of this darn

offense.

He brought that fire and that energy to our team, that intensity that was

required.

So, significant loss.

Yeah,

I'm trying to train, trying to keep my head together.

I said, man, we just did a skid in the playoff. I said, you know, we got it. We

got it. We'll win.

Michael came back, and they still made the playoffs.

The Cowboys are trying to score an early touchdown on the Panthers.

Aiden gets pulled in the door, and Irvin stays on his feet.

Urban stays down.

Michael Irvin leaving the field and headed into the tunnel. That is a live

picture of sprained right shoulder.

Reverse to Deion Sanders because the 30 -yard line has a block 45 to the 40.

Deion Sanders still down.

Just see.

Four guys hit him, and the first thing that hits the ground is his head.

You could see things just slowly but surely slipping away.

And not knowing what you ever regained, not only the confidence

team -wise, but that passion that you once had to be

dominant.

Even though they have won three of the last four Super Bowls after

the Michael Irving drug possession case, the Dallas Cowboys were never the same.

And I think you can really look back on his trial as being the seminal moment

when it started to collapse.

Unfortunately, After that third Super Bowl, a lot of the things that held the

team and the organization together were starting to leak away.

First of all, we were losing a lot

of good players, and we just weren't replacing them.

The Cowboys signed only seven free agents in the Switzer era. They lost 31.

That happens a lot of times to a team. They don't get the talent that they

should when they have room.

But we weren't drafting as good as we had been.

Those last four drafts produced only one Pro Bowl player with Jones calling the

shots. I just want to remind you, list for me in order the most important

positions on the defense.

I think they suffered at the draft table. In the salary cap world, your

picks have to hit.

and they weren't hitting with their draft picks.

When you're in the reload time, did you reload?

It's hard to understand just how hard it is.

Second and ten from the 47.

And Aikman gets sacked. The ball is loose.

I felt like Jerry, you know, he was learning the business on my time, you

for lack of a better way of saying it.

Well, Aikman had a confession last week. He said he had some bleeding in his

ears. He had earaches still.

This is one struggling football team. This kind of sums up the Dallas Cowboys

season. Running for their lives and falling down.

Their last road win was opening day.

What do you say to a team that's getting beat this bad?

You start to feel like you have to hold everything together.

That star has lost a lot of its luster since their Super Bowl championship.

The whole attitude here on this team is boys will be boys.

Barry had the mantra of win the game and win the party. But you're fueling a

culture that is raging out of control over the edge off the field. Another

of possible criminal misconduct.

Drug suspensions for Leon Lentz is second.

Shotay Carver and Clayton Holm. DUI arrests for Corey Fleming and Eric

When is enough enough?

Jerry Jones is not exercising the kind of management that the owner of a pro

football team ought to exercise.

And Barry Switzer said to us yesterday, I don't want to know what's going on.

You can only go so far until Rome is going to fall, right?

Was there ever a moment where it's like, can we clean this act up a little?

You know.

I didn't pay any attention to it.

We just had a job to do, and we went out.

Whoever's at practice that day, we're going to go out and work our ass off and

get ready to play the team we've got to play.

You think they're going to listen to the coach tell them, hey, don't do that

anymore? Bullshit.

I don't know if I asked you this. Did any of that trouble happen when Jimmy

the coach?

Are you saying that because I was head coach, this happened?

You ain't going to put this shit on me. It was my fault that all this happened

to me because it didn't.

Switzer was arrested after security officers found a loaded revolver in his

carry -on bag. Switzer says he placed the gun there at his home to keep it

from some kids and then forgot about it after packing his toiletries.

Switzer's Cowboys finished the year with five straight losses and a 6 -10

record, the club's worst mark since going 1 -15 back in 1989.

I told Jarrett in the season.

You said there are 500 coaches who can win this damn Super Bowl with this team.

I said, you know what?

You're going to have to fire my ass and find a head football coach to coach this

team because I'm out of here.

And it wasn't in a resignation way. It was just, that's in your best interest,

and that's in the best interest of the Cowboys. That's Barry Switzer.

He made a major contribution to the Cowboys.

It's not appreciated enough.

After spending the better part of the last three weeks analyzing and

our organization, we have come to the realization that we must chart a fresh

new path.

Jones met Steelers offensive coordinator Chan Gailey on Sunday. Four days later,

they're married.

Gailey to coach the Cowboys for five years or until the divorce.

After Michael was placed on probation,

Up to that point in time, he'd done everything he was supposed to do.

He was meeting with me weekly, urine tests.

Now, two years into the probation, he goes to training camp, and I get

a call that he was accused of an incident at the training center.

At training camp, we were getting haircuts.

It's like anything else, you know, you get a haircut on it.

Everett was a new guy coming over.

We had our rules and how we do things.

I tell you, I'm better than I'm next.

You know, to get a haircut and then, no, I'm next.

This is how we do things.

We're doing those things like that.

And somehow I kind of lost it, grabbed some scissors and, yeah, I'm going to

him.

And dude, let me tell you, they cut him here and...

So much blood came out.

It was.

They rushed him to the hospital. I went back to my room. I had blood all over my

shirt. I'm thinking, my God, I'm going to jail.

24 hours after that incident was reported to me, we got everyone in who

involved and talked to him.

No one talked.

Who said all that, you know, we're going to do to and say about that situation?

I'm not going to comment on it anymore. I don't know about that.

Now, I base my decisions on the evidence that I receive.

The evidence that I was receiving is nothing happened.

So we moved on.

Met with Everett. So I lost myself, brother. I'm so sorry. But, you know, he

down. I'll never forget. He said, Michael, you know.

I know you love your kids, man.

You almost took me for mine.

I was suddenly saying, you know, and he was right.

Had he not handled it the way he handled it, I was definitely going

to jail.

Michael and I, we are.

good friends, if you will.

And it's only natural because we bonded during some very sensitive times for us.

Jerry takes a real interest in his players.

You know, I tell you, there's no way I would be sitting here without Jerry.

And so I always told my clerk, whatever happens, I want to be right here.

I want to be right here with you.

right out to the end.

I wanted to ask you if you could put me in the moment of the last game you

played, your last play. My last game?

Your last game.

Man, I remember leaving the house that day. I was throwing the ball with my

little boy and messing around.

He was saying, one more, one more. And I said to him, son, when I get back,

we'll do one more. I got to go. He said, leave.

We thought that was another year. We were on our way.

Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on a damp, rainy, dismal day.

You look at the Cowboys' record of 3 -0 and you think about the fact that Chan

Gailey, as the head coach, has never lost to a team in this division, the NFC

East. It ought to be a pretty easy afternoon for Dallas, but that's not

the case when they come here. Not when they play the Eagles, especially here.

I remember early in that game.

I'm going to run just a simple slant route. I've run it a million times.

I'm going to go late.

I'm going to beat them late.

So I go out, run a slant, catch the ball.

Picked up about eight. Bobby Taylor with Michael Irvin. He stays down.

He grabs me around the waist, but then as he let me down, my head jams into the

ground.

His head got twisted underneath against the artificial turf. This is just carpet

over cement is all this is.

I was laying on the floor looking up.

I remember kind of seeing the worry and concerns on everybody's face.

Which made me more scared, you know.

And I was thinking, oh my God.

They're bringing a gurney out right now. They're not going to move him. They're

not going to let him move.

I didn't quite see what happened.

And someone on the ground didn't know the severity of it.

Yeah, that was, you know, I remember it like it was yesterday.

There's a love for him that I don't have with many people.

Michael became like a big brother to me.

To see that happen, that's hard.

Players are all doing the one thing that they can, just pray that everything is

all right, that Michael Irvin is all right here.

We take a hit and get paralyzed.

You know it's a possibility.

And it's what you never want to happen.

I remember praying, man, God, please, God, please, just let me get up from

You know, you're offering everything.

Everything, I'll never do this, I'll never do this again, I'll never do that.

Just let me get up and walk again.

He was paralyzed.

He could not move.

I was with him in the ambulance.

We got Sandy's wife on the phone, and I put the phone to his ear as we went to

the hospital from the game.

He was letting her know, you know, I'm with him. I'm going to stay with him.

He was speaking to Sandy, and it was an emotional time.

And then I saw him do his fingers.

And I said, Michael, you're moving your finger.

I said, Sandy, he's moving his finger.

And a few days later, he got back complete feeling.

He was trying to put her mind to ease.

I will always remember that.

Michael Irvin was released from the Philadelphia hospital on Monday. Cowboys

trainer Jim Maurer called that outstanding news.

I had cervical stenosis.

It's a narrowing of my spinal column.

Any hit, the wrong hit, the wrong way, you can snap your spinal cord.

It was a very quiet and subdued Michael Irvin that walked into the locker room

at Valley Ranch on Wednesday.

You know, it's been a lot of times.

Been through a lot of things, and there's not many things scared me.

You know, I couldn't control my arms, and I couldn't control my legs, and I

more focused on that than anything.

I tried to find someone that could say I could still play, and basically I did.

I took that to my wife, and she was like, baby, we're going to be holding

breath with every moment.

You know, and then I just couldn't put them to it.

I'm going to tell you something.

If it wasn't Chan Gailey and if it was Jimmy Johnson and he was still here and

Noah Turner, I'd have got back on that field.

I'd have played again.

You know, if it was those guys.

Coming into the NFL 12 years ago, like I said, when I land here,

you know, I say, man, this is home.

This was home.

Dallas was home.

I never wanted to give my heart to any other fans other than the Dallas fans.

Because that's what they gave me.

Michael left, parts of me left.

That was hard.

And Deion went to the Redskins.

And then when Troy left, parts of me left.

Over the course of my career, I had had a couple of concussions.

But physically that last year, I was beat up pretty good.

My back was giving me some real issues. He takes a terrific job here. And we

asked him last night about the save his health. He said... If it were up to the

doctors, he probably would not be out here, but this is where he wants to be.

Over his career with the Cowboys, Boyd Aikman has had a total of nine

concussions, with four of those coming in just the last year and a half alone.

That's an alarming number, and it's the most in any span of time of his entire

career. Third and goal, Aikman rolling.

Looking and throws it away and takes a big hit.

Look at the impact Arrington has on that hit.

All right, Sam, it's official now. Troy Aikman has suffered another concussion.

Aikman is finished for the day. His terrible luck with head injuries

Sam, back to you. That was my last game.

I was mentally and physically exhausted.

But I left the Cowboys because I had worked so hard.

to gain the respect of the people I played with and the people I played

And I was at risk of losing all of that for decisions that I had no part in.

There was no disguising who was in charge.

And Jerry, he was transparent with me, I was transparent with him.

I had felt.

At the end, they're just...

There just wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel.

I didn't see anything that was being done that offered any hope.

You know, I joined the Cowboys back in 1989.

Forgive me here because it's going to be a lot harder.

You watch it and you think that your time will never come.

And my time's come.

Today I announced my retirement from the National Football League and the Dallas

Cowboys.

It was 12 of the best years of my life.

The folks that I shared.

Blood, sweat, and tears with.

In the very beginning.

But no longer around.

And it's hard being the last of the Mohicans.

It's a cloudy 67 degree day at Texas Stadium.

You're going to see some second and third effort, I think, out of him today.

desperately wants this record. Not just any other son.

But I still had things I want to accomplish.

Hello.

How you doing this morning?

Woke up in great spirits, knowing that I needed 93 yards, I believe, to become

the NFL all -time leading rusher.

The same old me, baby.

It's not very often that we get a chance to look in at sports history, get a

feeling it might happen today.

You realize it only happens once a generation to the very best.

I'm in my 13th year, and it's the year that I had on my goal sheet to do it in.

I'm excited.

I'm calm.

I'm focused.

And I'm feeling like this has to be the day to do it.

Well, I think we're going to see history made this afternoon, Pat.

The one thing that has set Emmitt Smith apart, you talk about the great running

backs, the vision, the balance, a lot of the attributes, but the one thing.

has been Emmitt's durability.

He's only missed four games in history.

That's why he has put himself in this position to break this record this

afternoon.

I wanted it to be done in Texas Stadium.

So if there's a celebration, it's done there in front of the home crowd.

Before you know it, I'm out there in the fourth quarter with, and I can hear the

announcer counting down while I'm on the field.

Emmitt Smith.

has an all -time record of Walter Payton's in his sights.

The 10 yards now to break Walter Payton's all -time record.

Second and seven is Emmett Smith.

has just become the NFL's all -time leading record.

Congratulations, man. Thank you, man. I got

a chance to share that

moment with a lot of people.

Yeah, and I got to do it in the Cowboys' unit.

There's not many things in the world sweeter than that.

But I was thinking that when that happened, Troy

Aikman's going to pick up all my stunts.

Daryl Johnson's going to be the guy to lead me up the hole.

Touchdown!

And we all will celebrate together.

That's what I was thinking.

But as life would have it, things don't always work out the way

you think they do.

No.

After that season, Jerry and I decided that

It was time to go our separate ways.

You said we both agree that it's best for the future of this team to reach its

ultimate destination without me.

It was a hard day.

I knew it was hard for me.

And I didn't realize how hard it was for Jerry, though.

Walking back to the office after the press conference, it was difficult

of how much of a real...

personal feeling I had for him.

And so it was an emotional time.

Jerry was walking pretty quick.

And I was right on the side of him.

And I could see the teardrop from the man's eye.

And that's when I realized how much he appreciated what I'd done.

Arizona Cardinals have reached contract terms for a two -year period with Emmitt

Smith.

So Arizona Cardinals give me an opportunity, and I go out there in my

in Arizona.

We flew back to play the Cowboys at Texas Stadium.

One of the first times I ever came to a game on the bus.

Get off the bus.

and walk into the visitor's locker room.

I see my locker, East Smith 22, Cardinal jersey, and I'm just staring at

it.

And I say to myself, I'm in the wrong place.

And my teammates, my running back mates are sitting right beside me.

I'm bawling, crying like a baby.

I was supposed to be over there.

It broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

And I realized right then and there that I could not separate the game of

football from the Dallas Cowboys.

And when I finished my contract with the Cardinals, I signed for a single day

with Dallas.

I think that I've given everything that I can possibly give to the game on and

off the football field.

I think it's only fitting for me to leave the game and retire as a Dallas

Cowboy.

Troy Emmett, Michael,

Dion. Yeah, I was very emotional when those people.

started moving away from the team.

The Dallas Cowboys were the biggest brand in all of sports, and they never

returned to the rarefied air that they once held.

If you'd told me after the dynasty years, this team will never even sniff

championship game for the next 30 years, I would have laughed in your face.

This could have been one of the greatest dynasties of all time. No one knows

what could have been if Jimmy and Jerry subjugated their egos and just tried to

make it work. And I think that's what haunts both of them.

After we won that third Super Bowl, it would never have occurred to me that I

wouldn't get one in the numbers of years that have passed by.