Emmitt Smith recently threw an epic, week-long temper tantrum over the Dallas Cowboys' familiar futility.
Some news that might make him - and Cowboys fans? - a tad happier: His NFL all-time rushing record will never be broken.
"What they're living off of is what happened in the past, not what's going down right now,'' Smith angrily said of the current Cowboys during Super Bowl LVIII week in Las Vegas. "They're not establishing their own legacy, let alone building off of the legacy that was established."
Unless the football world gets turned upside down, Smith's legacy will outlive him. And a couple of NFL generations.
With the way running backs have been diminished and compartmentalized into specialists in a pass-first league, the record the Cowboys' running back broke and re-wrote 22 years ago is essentially unbreakable. After surpassing Walter Payton's record at Texas Stadium in 2002, Smith finished with 18,355 yards rushing.
On the NFL's all-time rushing list, the top 35 – and 74 of the best 76 – are retired.
The closest active runner is 30-year-old Derrick Henry (74th all-time), who is barely halfway to Emmitt at 9,502. Second-closest active? Former Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott, 28, is more than 10,000 yards behind.
Emmitt's record is up there with untouchable marks such as Byron Nelson's 13 PGA tournament wins in a single season, Nolan Ryan's 5,714 career strikeouts, Wayne Gretzky's 1,963 career assists and Cy Young's 749 complete games.
Deep breaths, Emmitt. Your team may be shaky, but your record is safe.
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