Emmitt Smith on the Cowboys keeping Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott's future
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz is joined by the former Dallas Cowboys running back on Radio Row at Super Bowl LVIII to discuss the Cowboys’ decision to retain Mike McCarthy as their head coach and the viability of Dak Prescott as the team's long-term solution at QB. Emmitt joined Yahoo Sports on behalf of NARCAN nasal spray.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
JASON FITZ: Hanging out with Emmitt Smith Hall of Famer joining us on behalf of Narcan. We'll get to Narcan in a minute because I think it's incredible. And I want to talk to you about it.
EMMITT SMITH: OK.
JASON FITZ: But first, we've got to play a game. What's in the Cards. We're going to play high or low.
EMMITT SMITH: OK, OK.
JASON FITZ: I'll flip over a card. You tell me the next one, is it going to be higher or lower.
EMMITT SMITH: OK.
JASON FITZ: You get it right, you get an easy question. You get it wrong, you get a hard one. Are you ready?
EMMITT SMITH: Yeah.
JASON FITZ: All right, let's see what the first card out of the gate is. It's a three. He gets a three out of the gate.
EMMITT SMITH: Higher.
JASON FITZ: He's going to go higher. Now, that's a shocker here. The next-- oh, we got a fuzzy. It's a two coming up next. If you right now we're running the Dallas Cowboys, would you have brought Mike McCarthy back?
EMMITT SMITH: If I was running the Cowboys, I don't know if I would have. I was so hurt and dejected from the loss. I could not believe what I was watching, what I was seeing. Me personally, I don't know if I would have.
JASON FITZ: How do you fix that? Like in the locker room, with the organization, how do you put that behind you? And how do you get it right?
EMMITT SMITH: Well, one, you've got to have hard conversations with the players. Players have got to understand, there is a level of expectations not only for them, because they have it for themselves as well now-- don't get me wrong when I say this. Players have a level of expectation for themselves and their performance level, but not just individually. I need everybody to form as a team, perform at a level that's respectable. Do not allow your honor to be disrespected the way they got bounced out of the playoffs.
To me, we had a couple of moments this year that really was a reflection upon either the lack of leadership, the lack of commitment from each other, and the lack of understanding that you just cannot put that star on the side of your helmet and walk on the football field and expect other teams to roll over. Everybody's going to gear up to bust you in your mouth. If we didn't learn that against the 49ers early in the season and learn-- we fought back against the Eagles and all that. All that was great signs. But we didn't finish.
JASON FITZ: All right, higher or lower on the nine?
EMMITT SMITH: I'm gonna go higher.
JASON FITZ: He's going higher. Oh, it's lower. He gets another tough one. All right, we went from coach to quarterback. Is Dak Prescott the long-term answer, in your mind, for the Dallas Cowboys?
EMMITT SMITH: I think he's the best answer that we have right now, which makes him the long-term answer for us. I can't think of no one else out there that I would want to go get that would replace Dak Prescott and the things that we've already started building with him.
JASON FITZ: All right, so you're joining us on behalf of Narcan, which is incredible.
EMMITT SMITH: Yes.
JASON FITZ: Tell everybody what you're doing.
EMMITT SMITH: Yeah, I'm here with Emergent and Narcan. The nasal spray itself is the product that we're talking about. And it's there to-- we're here to spread more awareness around the opioid overdoses and the epidemics. And so what we're trying to do is encourage people to go out and buy a can of Narcan nasal spray. Have it on you or in your house, in your first aid kit, just in case you run into an opioid situation.
Opioid situations can be pills. It can be fentanyl. It can be anything. We don't know what the situation might call for. But one thing it will call for, if you walk up on someone that's unresponsive, is something like this to potentially bring these people back. And so we're trying to preserve life.