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By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
In 2006, Daryl Johnston watched Troy Aikman get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A year later, he watched Michael Irvin.
Memories flooded his mind as he watched his former teammates, wearing the traditional gold jackets, earn football's highest honor: the victories small and big for the years they wore a Cowboys uniform. The moments in the locker room that no one ever saw. The effort both players put in while they made it look so easy for so long.
"There was a sense of pride with Troy and Michael there," Johnston said.
But this year's trip to Canton, Ohio, to see Emmitt Smith become the 12th Cowboys enshrined will be a little different for Johnston.
There is a special relationship between tailback and fullback. How many hours did they spend together in a film room? The weight room? On the sidelines? On the team charters? Buses? Team meals?
For 10 years they were teammates, forming the best tailback-fullback duo in the NFL as the Cowboys won three Super Bowls in four years.
The aches he feels to this day from the 10 years he served as Smith's lead blocker will wash away.
"There's a uniqueness to it because of the relationship we had," Johnston said. "We were a lot closer. We sat together in team meetings and individual meetings. Obviously the chemistry we had on the field, it's just different because of what we shared as teammates."
What Johnston meant to his success is not lost on Smith. The hits Smith was able to avoid in becoming the NFL's all-time leading rusher came in large part because Johnston (6-2, 242) absorbed them for him. He debated long and hard to have Johnston serve as his presenter before deciding to go with owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
Asked in an early July interview session about Johnston's role in his success, Smith paused and his eyes welled with tears and his voice cracked.
"Daryl means the world," said Smith, who wiped away tears as he spoke. "This is what I love about sports and football. Everybody on that field makes a sacrifice for somebody, if not everybody. We all have the same goals in mind. And that is to win games. And winning pretty much at all costs. When you learn how to train together and prepare together, you understand the man to your right and the man to your left has gone through the fire with you. Daryl Johnston sacrificed so much by leading his head in there to take on big guys like Eric Hill, big linebackers like Tracy Simien of Kansas City. Big guys bigger than him.
"We both liked battling and taking on giants. I understand what he sacrificed for me, and I have no words for it."
Only one time in their 10 years together did they miss the same game because of injury (Nov. 14, 1999, vs. Green Bay). Smith missed only three games because of injuries from 1990-99. Johnston missed 25, 10 in 1997 and 15 in 1999 because of a neck injury that ultimately led to his retirement.
In the games they played together, Smith carried the ball 2,539 times for 11,090 yards. On those numbers alone, Smith would be 19th among the NFL's all-time leading rushers, just behind O.J. Simpson, who had 11,236 yards.
Four times in their first six years together, Smith led the NFL in rushing. Three times he led the league in rushing touchdowns, carries and yards per game. One time he led in yards per carry. Smith went to the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons. Johnston went twice (1993, '94).
For all of Smith's great runs Johnston can remember, it was one of Smith's worst games – Dec. 6, 1998, at New Orleans when Smith had 6 yards on 15 carries – that showed Johnston how much appreciation the tailback had for his blockers.
"We were awful," Johnston said. "They kicked our butts up front, and after the game everybody wanted to talk to Emmitt about what went wrong, and he had a right to throw us under the bus. We didn't do a good job, but he said, 'New Orleans played well, but I've got to find a way to make more yards. There were more yards to make, and I didn't get the job done.' When you block for a guy that takes that approach, you want to make sure there's clear lanes and he's not pressed."
That poor production was abnormal. Smith had 55 100-yard rushing games in his time with Johnston as the lead blocker, 24 without him.
"I always asked him why he went there," Johnston said of Smith's decisions when they reviewed game film. "I never told him to do anything. I wanted to know why he'd cut back and ask him what he was looking at. It was amazing. My hand was at 5 [yards] and his toes were at 7 so there's almost less than 2 yards separating us and what we see can be completely different. It got me to hesitate coming out of my stance to get my eyes focused on what he's looking at."
Helping hand
Emmitt Smith had 78 career 100-yard rushing games, and 55 came with Daryl Johnston in the lineup.
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