SALT LAKE CITY — When Emmitt Smith took to the stage at RootsTech Saturday morning, he shared with the crowd how his life has come full circle from when he was a little boy growing up in Florida dreaming of playing in the NFL.

Smith has accomplished everything any football player could want. He’s a Hall of Fame football player who holds the NFL record for rushing yards, has three Super Bowl rings and that No. 22 jersey is retired.

His journey began when he was 7 years old, watching a football game on TV with his father and some of his friends. The game pitted the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints; there, Smith told his dad he wanted to play professional football and play for the Cowboys.

"You should have seen the look on my father’s face. I didn’t know if my dad wanted to laugh or if he wanted to cry," Smith recalled. "But he told me something very profound. He said ‘son, life is going to do things that you’re going to learn to overcome.’”

While he turned into arguably the greatest running back of all time, Smith said he actually wanted to play quarterback when he first played because quarterbacks received all of the attention and he also admired Roger Staubach. But when he played his first game behind center at 8 years old, he kept running and scoring.

“I would drop back to pass, roll out to the right, take off running for a touchdown. Drop back to pass, roll to the left, take off running for a touchdown. I did that the entire game and I don’t think I threw one pass,” he said, as the crowd laughed.

His quarterback career truly came to an end the following year when a coach told him he’d just be better off playing tailback. He said accepting a change he didn’t want to make helped him understand early that change is a good thing to endure in life.

He also told a story about another valuable lesson he learned from another coach. Following a win during his freshman year of high school, he was asked about the game by a reporter. After a series of answers involving “I,” the coach did a drill the following practice in which all the blockers stopped, leaving Smith vulnerable to an entire defense as he tried to run the ball. He said that the moment gave him the message loud and clear that success is a team effort.

Smith’s full circle moments started coming around as he went from high school to college and on to the NFL. At the end of his high school career, he was invited to attend Super Bowl XXI at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, which he went with a friend to see. There, he told his friend — much like he had told his father about the Cowboys — that one day he’d play a Super Bowl there.

He’d go on to play three seasons at the University of Florida before bolting for the 1990 NFL Draft amid coaching changes at the school. Smith said he thought he’d be a Top 10 pick, going to possibly to Tampa Bay or Seattle. When those teams went with other players, he started panicking as he thought he might not get drafted. He believed he might go to Atlanta, Green Bay or Pittsburgh. Dallas eventually traded picks with Pittsburgh and the Cowboys selected him with the No. 17 pick of the draft.

“Right then and there, I looked back at my history and I saw that kid sitting down on the floor, turning to his father and saying ‘one of these days I will play for the Cowboys,’” he said.

Less than three years later, he won a Super Bowl held at Pasadena, just as he promised. And the rest of his career was history. He was named to eight Pro Bowls, won an MVP title in 1993 and won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys. He ended his NFL career after the 2004 season with a record 18,355 rushing yards and 164 rushing touchdowns. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2010.

Ancestry, dancing and business

Smith didn’t just talk about his legendary success on the football field. He also opened up about his ancestry, his life as an entrepreneur after retirement and the story of how he reluctantly joined “Dancing With the Stars” — a show he went on to win.

Smith said his roots date back to Africa and that his ancestors arrived in America through the slave trade. During his search for one particular ancestor, his great-great-grandmother Mariah, whom he found in the slave owner’s records. In fact, the particular records were found in the owner's book No. 22 — the same number he famously wore on the gridiron many, many years later.

“For me, it was a revelation. It was a confirmation, also, that not only have I been predestined to go on to do the things I’ve been able to do, but it all began at a certain place,” he said. “It all began with this young woman with the strength of 1,000 people holding our family together.”

As for “Dancing With the Stars,” Smith said he was approached by the show’s producers for the first season in 2005. He turned down the offer and again for season two. He mulled the season three offer with his wife, who asked him why he wanted to do it.

"I said, well, one, I think I could dance better than (Hall of Fame wide receiver) Jerry Rice; two, I think it would be a great thing for my business," he said, adding that he didn't think he could dance very well either. He added his wife, Patricia, said she didn't want him to do it because he might embarrass her. Smith eventually accepted and went on to win the season.

So what is Smith up to these days? He’s a father of five and a businessman. His oldest son, EJ, recently accepted a scholarship to play football at Stanford.

At the same time he was learning football at age 11, a coach helped him learn blueprints and floor plans since he owned his own construction company. Smith opened his own construction company in 2010 and he’s also gone into the real estate industry since his football career ended.

He pondered back to where his family origins started to where he is now, telling the Salt Lake crowd something he said he teaches his children too.

“You can be whatever you want to be and who you want to be and do whatever you need to do in this country if you put your mind, your heart and soul into it,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy; you're going to have to work your behind off for it.”

Related topics