INVITED CELEBRITY CLASSIC

April 19, 2024

Emmitt Smith

Las Colinas Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How do you feel about your play today? You were actually ironically at 22 points and now you're at 23. What did you think about your play today?

EMMITT SMITH: I'm excited about my play today, and the reason why I'm excited about my play today, because this is the first time I've played golf in almost two months. A complete round of golf, and to play in a competitive environment like this on a golf course that we're playing on with the greens the way that they are, I'm ecstatic right now. I'm happy, because I shot an 84, which is a good number for me. It's respectable.

Q. How do you feel going into the weekend? A little bit tougher conditions maybe tomorrow --

EMMITT SMITH: I think it's going to be tough on everybody tomorrow, including the patrons, as well. It may be raining all day tomorrow, who knows. Tomorrow has its own set of challenges. I'm good. I'm enjoying the day.

Q. Why do you come back to this tournament?

EMMITT SMITH: I just like playing in tournaments like this. I like to get in between the ropes with other pros, and I like to compete, like to challenge myself and see how well I can maneuver the ball around. I think I'm a pretty decent golfer.

Like I said, I'm pretty proud of the way I played today. I missed a couple -- had a couple quick putts, had a three-putt on 18 when I should have had a par there, three-putted another green, missed about an eight-foot birdie putt slightly downhill sloping to the left a little bit. But all in all, I played good. Lost two balls on this hole over here. I mean, shoot, it hit the tree and the ball went in the water. Nothing you can do about that.

Q. You haven't played in two months because you opened a restaurant in Vegas --

EMMITT SMITH: I mean, I had the restaurant opening, had family, been speaking a lot, conducting business, trying to close bills, everything else, family, kids, you name it. Everything is on the list and nothing is off the list. Something must suffer when you're that busy, and for me it's my golf game.

Q. The Vegas thing, talk about that and how exciting it is.

EMMITT SMITH: It is exciting. The exciting part is I kind of equate it to being drafted. You get drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, everybody is excited for you, but the real work begins once you open the doors. Now it's about keeping the doors open. We'll be really excited when we're open in 10, 12, 13 years. That means we have a successful restaurant. It's one thing to have a grand opening and that's wonderful. That's nice. It's great, it's cool, everybody has a great time. But it ain't business just to have a grand opening. You can't have grand openings every day. So we've got to have business, and at some point that has to take over, and that's what we're moving toward right now.

Q. What are your thoughts on the cowboys right now and who do you think they should go after in the draft?

EMMITT SMITH: Well, I think they do need some more options. I don't know if they should go after somebody in the draft, especially high in the draft. They may not want to go after somebody high. There's other needs. I think we do have some quality guys that we can work with right now, which is fine. That has to improve now.

But still, you want to be able to have enough depth and enough arriving, especially in today's -- (indiscernible) ain't no more bell cows.

Q. Is there anybody in this draft that you really like?

EMMITT SMITH: I don't even know all the backs in the draft. I ain't paid attention to this. I haven't paid attention to nothing since the Super Bowl has been over. All I know is cowboys haven't signed a whole lot of free agents. That's all I know. That's all I know. That's it. Does that disappoint you?

Q. I know you were disappointed after the loss to Green Bay and to see they haven't done a lot to improve the team, what's your excitement level about next year? A lot of fans are frustrated.

EMMITT SMITH: I've got to wait until the draft is over to see what they do because they may go after some of the things that they lost or things that they need to shore up and they may feel good with some of the talent they actually have. I'm pausing as far as judgment goes until after the draft to see what kind of team they actually have.

Right now, I know people are talking about us because we haven't made any major moves in the free agency market, which is fine. Maybe we feel like we've got enough talent on the team to still be as solid as we need to be. But depth is always an important part.

So we'll see.

Q. The goal is to not be where you were, to get back to the Super Bowl --

EMMITT SMITH: That's always the goal.

Q. Do they have enough already without adding?

EMMITT SMITH: I don't know. I haven't evaluated any salary cap issues. I mean, it's not like I'm up there every day studying what's going on. That's why I said we'll wait and see what the draft looks like. We'll see. We'll see.

Q. (Indiscernible) first round?

EMMITT SMITH: I think there needs to be a complete realignment, a vision and expectations, not just on the business side but also on the football side. I think anytime you draft a player to come to the Dallas Cowboys, I shouldn't have to tell you what to expect. You should come in with this level of expectation that I'm going to be a part of a storied legacy, organization, and I have a chance to add to that story. If you're not looking at it from that perspective and you're not a big Cowboy lover like we all was back in our day, then you don't need to be a Cowboy.

Q. From your perspective, how was it playing with Michael Irvin and being in the Hall of Fame with him now?

EMMITT SMITH: Shoot, it was awesome to play with Irv. Irv is just a personality all by himself, but just to see the man work hard and compete hard and love hard, too, that's what he is. That's just who he is, and that in itself makes him lovable and likable because he's going to challenge you but yet he's going to love on you at the same time. That to me is a balance. That's why our team was so good, because think about it, they were 1 and 15 when Jerry bought them, and we built that thing in a four- or five-year time frame, and since that time frame, what are we building? Are we building up on the legacy, or are we allowing the legacy to be lost in the mix? We need to get back to legacy building. That's all I'm saying.