The years are beginning to pile up for Emmitt Smith and add up for Troy Aikman

By Jean-Jacques Taylor / The Dallas Morning News

The names of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith are scrawled throughout NFL annals as a testament to their greatness on the football field.

Together, they have earned six Super Bowl rings, 12 Pro Bowl selections, two Super Bowl MVPs and one league MVP award.

Although each enters the 1997 season coming off their worst seasons in five years, Aikman and Smith find themselves at vastly different points in their careers.

At 28, Smith has reached an age where running backs traditionally start to decline. At 30, Aikman should be reaching his prime as a champioonship-winning quarterback.

Last season, Smith averaged a career-worst 3.7 yards per carry - the second-lowest of the 13 running backs who gained 1,000 yards - and failed to earn a Pro Bowl selection.

The debate over whose better, Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders died down last season as Smith finished eighth in rushing with 1,204 yards.

The question now is whether Smith remains the second-best running back considering backs such as Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis, Denver's Terrell Davis and Tennessee's Eddie George have been stamped as the next wave of stars.

"Yeah, I'm Number 2" Smith said. "Barry does more flashy things - things that cause a lot oooohhs and aaahhs - but what I do between the tackles and short-yardage and goal-line situations lends itself to productivity. I'm very proud of that."

Aikman, who passed for 3,126 yards last season, never has thrown the ball enough to set individual passing records like Denver's John Elway or Miami's Dan Marino, but three Super Bowl championships attest to his greatness.

And quarterbacks usually get better with age because coverages rarely confuse them. Experience makes them smarter and more efficient. Sixteen of the 31 Super Bowls have been won by quarterbacks 30 or older.

Aikman, signed through 2001, desperately wants to join Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw and San Francisco's Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to win four Super Bowls.

"If I were to play another five years and we haven't won another Super Bowl, then I would be extremely disappointed," he said. "I don't want to sit here and think the best years are behind me.

"I'd like to think we can continue to have success and compete for Super Bowls and win another one before I'm done."

Miserable year

Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman both were miserable last year.

The wealth. The fame. The success.

It meant little to them because the Cowboys failed to achieve the high standards they have set for themselves this decade.

Dallas won a record fifth NFC East championship last season, but failed to reach the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1991.

Only Smith truly knows the emotional and physical pain he experienced last season. Not his mother. Nor his teammates. Nor his best friend.

Smith wouldn't - maybe he couldn't - talk to them.

Though Smith gained more than 1,200 yards and scored 12 touchdowns last season, knee and ankle injuries limited his mobility and stopped him from exploding through arm tackles and dragging defenders into the end zone.

On Nov. 24, the Cowboys benched Smith in the fourth quarter of a loss to the New York Giants after he gained 18 yards on 11 carries.

The man who always had been the best running back, whether playing for Pensacola Escambia High School, the University of Florida or the Cowboys, and who enters the season ranked 12th all-time in rushing and sixth in touchdowns, found himself pondering the future.

"I'd go home and lie in my bed at night and I think about what in the world I'm doing, and it would almost bring tears to your eyes," said Smith , his voice softening. "Something is wrong and nobody's telling you what's wrong. They're just sticking you back out there on the ... practice field and sticking you back in the game.

"I just sucked it all in. I didn't really have anyone to talk to. I didn't have anyone I could bounce it off of and really let go. It was really miserable last year."

Aikman, a loner by nature, always has considered himself his best confidant in tough times.

"I had a good off-season. I got my mind away from football and evaluated the things that were important to me and decided if it was something that I wanted to continue to do," he said. "I'm excited and optimistic about this year or I wouldn't have come back because it wouldn't have been worth it. I can't go through two years like last year."

Distractions

Aikman's anguish came from the approach many of his teammates took to the game. The Cowboys' off-field distractions, which reached epidemic proportions last season, affected him.

The game he had loved since he was a boy in Henrietta, Okla., ceased to be fun. "It's too important to too many people to go through the motions and say, `If we win games that's fine, and if we don't, we don't,"' Aikman said. "You're not going to win every game, but I can't see not giving it everything you've got to try to be successful."

The quest for perfection drives Aikman to be the best, so it's easy to understand why he was so miserable last season.

The Cowboys averaged 16.7 points per game and finished 24th in the NFL in offense. He threw eight interceptions and only two touchdown passes in the last eight games. For the season, he had more interceptions (13) than touchdowns (12) for the first time since 1990.

Aikman learned something about himself as the Cowboys struggled to win their fifth consecutive NFC East championship despite not scoring more than one touchdown in seven games.

"I tried to go out and compete as hard as I could each game, but it was frustrating," Aikman said. "If I learned anything last year, it's that I can't continue to play the game if it means just going through the motions and not having a commitment to win games."

So Aikman enters his ninth season looking to erase the bad memories and secure the Cowboys' place in history.

Attention to detail

To do that, the Cowboys can't be the same team that had more penalties than its opponents in 12 of 18 games.

"We weren't a team that paid attention to detail, and we weren't a disciplined football team," Aikman said. "There were too many mental mistakes. Guys couldn't get lined up right. We just didn't give ourselves a chance to win football games."

Offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese said he understands Aikman's frustration.

"Troy is a perfectionist, and that's what makes him great," Zampese said. "And when things aren't going right, he gets frustrated. He has all of the intangibles that you look for in a leader, and when you combine that with the physical talent, you end up with a great quarterback."

But it might not be fair to ask Smith or Aikman to be the same players they have been in the past because the offensive line isn't as good.

Left tackle Mark Tuinei and left guard Nate Newton are closer to 40 than 30. The center position - either John Flannery or Clay Shiver - probably won't produce a Pro Bowl performer for the first time since 1991.

Right guard Larry Allen is widely considered the league's best guard, but tackle Erik Williams isn't the dominant player he was before he injured his knee in a car accident three years ago that nearly killed him.

In the last five seasons, the Cowboys have a winning percentage of .729 (70-26). Much of their success has come from a physical offensive line that has pounded on defenses and worn them down in the fourth quarter.

But the Cowboys have won because they have been a balanced team. Last year, they didn't pass or run well.

"If we stay healthy on the offensive line," Smith said, "then I think it's fair to expect our offense to do what it has done in the past few years. We have too many talented guys to do what we did last year."

Aikman always has wondered what it would be like to be the focus of the offense. It could happen this year as the Cowboys try to ease Smith 's load.

Upgraded passing

Dallas spent the off-season upgrading the passing attack by hiring Jack Reilly as quarterbacks coach, signing free agent receiver Anthony Miller, a five-time Pro Bowl player, and drafting 6-7 tight end David LaFleur.

Those players, combined with Michael Irvin, should give Dallas its best passing attack since Aikman arrived. That means Aikman, who has thrown more than 16 touchdown passes only once, could be primed for a big season.

"You can have the greatest running back in the world, but you're only going to score 14 or 17 points if that's all you can do," Aikman said. "You have to make plays in the passing game and you have to convert third downs to have any success moving the football. Now, we think we can throw the football as well as anyone."

Smith , who had several bone chips removed from his ankle last January, knows this is a pivotal season in his career. He wants to silence the doubters who believe he already has played his best football.

The NFL is littered with terrific running backs whose careers nose-dived as they approached 30. Smith , who signed an eight-year, $42 million contract last year, does not want his name added to that list.

"I might plummet, too. Who knows? Nobody knows," Smith said. "I go out and do the best I can.

"At times people make it very difficult to enjoy the game, but I find a sense of peace out there on the football field because I'm doing what I love to do."

Rumors of demise

The whispers about Smith began last year as he ran out of bounds more frequently to avoid tacklers and his production near the goal line diminished.

Smith heard the critics, and their words stung.

"I try to put last year so far behind me because it cut me so deep last year," he said. "It cut me real deep.

"I don't know if it came from teammates or coaches, but at times I felt like a lot of fingers were pointed at me. They sat there and watched me go through all of this stuff, and nobody stepped up and said anything. That was the most disappointing thing."

Like many of his teammates, Aikman said Smith is a victim of his own success.

"I think Emmitt still has some good years in him," he said, "and that he'll be running like he did in '95 and before."

Television analyst John Madden said he isn't sure Smith can return to the form that has allowed him to win four rushing titles.

While Smith struggles to change public perception, Aikman said he looks forward to the future. After all, he has come a long way since 1-15 in 1989.

"I believed I'd win a Super Bowl before I got done playing for the Cowboys," he said. "I didn't know when it would happen, and I certainly didn't anticipate winning three. I've accomplished so much and the teams I have been on have accomplished so much prior to me turning 30. I feel like my best years are still ahead of me and I'm just starting to reach my prime."