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Living up to the name of a legend is no easy task, and no matter where EJ Smith goes on a football field, he is looked at a little differently than the rest.
That’s because the Texas A&M running back, who hopes to be drafted later this month, is the son of Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.
Smith worked primarily as a backup in college, but at the very least, he worked out with his father’s former Dallas Cowboys earlier this month.
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Texas A&M Aggies running back EJ Smith runs with the ball during the game against the Miami Hurricanes at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas on December 20, 2025. (Jérôme Miron/Imagn Images)
But there was a time in high school, the Hall of Famer said, when his son began to feel the pressure to live up to his father.
“He came to me one day, he asked me the question: ‘How can I handle all the pressure?’ And I wondered what kind of pressure he was under. He said, ‘Just the pressure of living up to what everyone expects and everything else,'” Smith recalled in a recent interview with PK Press Club Digital.
“And I explained it pretty simply. I just asked the one basic question. I said, ‘What is everyone saying?’ “Everyone expected me to be this and everyone expected me to be that, to do this and that.” I said, “What are your expectations?” Are your expectations different from what they want for you? » And he said, “No.” I said, “Where’s the pressure?”
“Here’s the thing: You have to run your race and you have to ignore what other people say. Because you have all the abilities that you have, you have to be yourself. And you have to work on being yourself and work on what you have to do to perfect your craft. Just go play the game. Put your blinders on. Run your race. You love the Kentucky Derby horses. And then when the blinders come off, you might look up one day and find yourself in the damn Super Bowl. You never know.
Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed hands off the ball to running back EJ Smith during the first half against Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida on September 14, 2024. (Matt Pendleton/Imagn Images)
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“But stay the course, ignore all the noise because it’s noise. And they’re not playing. They’re trying to put their business and their expectations on you. But if their expectations are different from yours, it doesn’t matter. Just meet whatever expectations you’re trying to meet. Everything else doesn’t matter.”
Smith said he and EJ talk about “everything under the sun,” making it clear that his main role in life is to be a father. It is for this reason, along with other personal experiences, that he joined Narcan’s Ready to Rescue initiative to end overdoses during the current opioid epidemic.
Smith’s sister-in-law had “a few overdose episodes” while taking painkillers for chemotherapy to treat colon cancer. Smith also noted that his former teammates have had issues with opioids and that his friends have even lost children. Although the circumstances are unfortunate, the recent partnership is a natural fit for Smith.
“I think that’s what makes this way of talking about it so natural. There’s dealing with someone you’ve lost, or even growing up and seeing cousins, getting addicted to hard drugs and then watching them come off of them, going through this whole process of not understanding that there are mechanisms for people to reach out for help,” Smith said, adding his concern over the “rampant” spread of the fentanyl.
“Anyone is susceptible to being caught in something at any time and anywhere, without even realizing it. And so when that happens, you want to make sure that the people closest to you or around you have access to something like Narcan nasal spray.
January 30, 1994; Atlanta, Georgia; FILE PHOTO; Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith (22) before facing the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XVIII at the Georgia Dome. (James D. Smith/USA TODAY Sports)
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The Smith family, of course, is hoping for some good news during the draft. But Smith still has one more piece of advice for his son on how to handle the pressure of waiting for a call.
“I told him on draft day, go play golf, go hang out, don’t even watch the damn TV,” he said. “Let your agent call you and say, ‘Hey man, we got something.’ Don’t even worry about draft day. »
