Emmitt Smith hails 44-year-old Tom Brady; the quarterback spent two decades with the New England Patriots, winning six Super Bowls, before moving to Tampa Bay and leading the Bucs to a championship in his first season with the team in front of a home crowd
Tuesday 12 April 2022 23:13, UK
Emmitt Smith says Tom Brady still has tools in his arsenal that younger rivals don't, after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said his heart was still on the field.
The seven-time Super Bowl winner announced last month he was coming out of retirement just six weeks after hanging up his cleats.
While Smith said he left the league in 2005 "completely satisfied" with a record 18,355 rushing yards across 15 seasons, he understood why 44-year-old Brady was lured back.
"It's kind of hard to walk away when you are that elite. He is taking care of his body, his mind. He's still sharp, still throws the ball well, still has arm strength," Smith said.
"(He has) a lot of things that a lot of young quarterbacks don't have these days.
"So yeah, it's kind of hard to walk away from the game when you've been involved with this business a long time."
A master of reinvention since he retired from the NFL, Smith most recently bought into NASCAR team Jesse Iwuji Motorsports and said would "love" to consider buying into an NFL franchise someday.
"Stacking up chips and putting them in the right place is important in order to make that happen," said Smith, who helped secure three Super Bowl titles for the Dallas Cowboys.
"A lot of folks have aspirations and dreams of owning teams, owning organizations, growing a big organization, becoming successful and doing it the way that they want to do it.
"And for me, I want to take all the excuses off the table when that opportunity presents itself."
