College Football

EJ Smith Signing With Stanford Was Aided by Some Advice From His Hall-of-Fame Father

The Jesuit back is the No. 1 RB in The Dallas Morning News’ top 100 rankings

NBC 5 Sports

Jesuit’s EJ Smith has dealt with outside expectations for a long time. That’ll happen when you’re the son of NFL Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith, the league’s all-time leading rusher.

About a year ago, EJ asked his Dad about it: “How do you deal with this … this pressure?” Emmitt recalled. “This pressure of everybody wanting you do to this and having these expectations?”

There was more to this scene, but there was one major takeaway from it, one that was especially relevant on Wednesday. Emmitt told his son he has to focus on his own expectations and tune out the outside noise, “because they’re going to have expectations that you are never, ever, ever going to meet.”

Read more from NBC 5's media partner The Dallas Morning News.

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