Life After Football for Emmitt Smith

Nov. 21, 2006 — -- People are now getting a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what Emmitt Smith is thinking in his second life -- and of the master plan behind it.

On Nov. 15, after 10 weeks of competition, Smith, 37, and his partner, Cheryl Burke, 22, were announced as the winners of a show that has become a cultural phenomenon -- "Dancing With the Stars."

But why was a man who made history as the all-time leading rusher in the National Football League, and who earned multimillion-dollar paychecks in his career, taking on a challenge that could have changed his image as a sports icon?

Burke is a professional dancer who trained Smith in ballroom dancing. She recalled one of his few conditions: no Spandex dance tights.

"So, we never put him in the Spandex," she said, "but he did get used to those high-heeled shoes."

As for equipment that was similar to what he'd worn as a football player: "kneepads," Smith said.

"When I'm doing a dance where I have to get onto the floor, I have to have some kneepads on -- because that floor does not feel comfortable at all."

His wife, Pat Smith, a former Miss Virginia, was skeptical at first of his decision to appear on the show.

"I said, 'Is this kind of like your need to be back in the public again?' And he laughed at me. And he said, 'Absolutely not.' It was totally a business decision from the beginning," she said.

What Smith described to his wife, Pat, was the nucleus of a plan that went far beyond the competition and was in his mind long before the dancing began.

It was also in keeping with how he had set goals throughout his life.

Before he played his first game as a rookie in the NFL, he wrote on paper one of his primary ambitions: to break the all-time NFL rushing record. And he did.

Playing 12 years with the Dallas Cowboys and two with the Arizona Cardinals, Smith rushed for more than 18,000 yards.

His teams won three Super Bowls, and Smith was the Most Valuable Player in one of them and the league MVP in 1993.