Lower Alabama or Pensacola, Florida is the hometown of Dallas Cowboys star Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.
“Pensacola and the Gulf Coast period has always been some of the most beautiful beaches in the entire country,” says Smith. “A lot of people didn’t notice that until the oil spill hit and that’s when people started to recognized how beautiful the Gulf Coast of Florida and the Alabama beaches really are. There’s a spot down down called Peg Leg Pete’s you need to go to. And another spot called Fish House.”
Smith, who now lives in Texas, says that growing up in the city was wonderful.
“Growing up in Pensacola for me was fun, it was nice. It was a very laid back city. It’s a military town because of the base, there are always pilots coming in and out of Pensacola so I would just say one of the biggest industries there was Armstrong and other was Champion… so from that standpoint I grew up thinking that my hometown was a small town.
My parents knew everybody, other parents knew my folks so you really couldn’t do anything. I knew a lot of people and I grew up with a lot of good folks.”
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Smith was not the only sports star who hails from Pensacola. He says the city is ripe with sports stars.
Most of my relatives are still there. But not only am I from there, Roy Jones, Jr. is from Pensacola, Trey Richardson is from Pensacola, Doug Baldwin who plays with the Seattle Seahawks on the championship team last year is from Pensacola. People from Florida just know how to do the thing. Pensacola has turned out some tremendous athletes. Don Sutton, the Hall of Fame [baseball] player. Then you start talking Bubba Washington, right over from Baghdad, across the water in Sarasota County, but part of the Pensacola area. As small as it is, Pensacola has turned out some tremendous athletes.”
As a former Cowboy, does Smith have plans to attend a Super Bowl?
“I’m going,” Smith says. “One thing about my boys, I can say this year, they look like a complete football team. This is the first time I’ve seen them like this since the Parcells era, to be honest with you. These boys are playing very good football right now and i’m so happy for them. To have this type of success I know what kind of sacrifice it takes. To see Tony Romo out there playing with fractured bones in his back, and Mark O’Meara running the football the way he’s running it, our defense is playing lights out flying around to the football.
It’s fun to watch them play. You see where the potential can lead this team and hopefully to the Super Bowl in Arizona. Me and my wife just got back from watching them in London and it was an absolute treat. You gotta pat these boys on the back. We been giving them hell the last couple of years so why not pat them on the back right now.”
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