American football · announced contract, 1993
Emmitt Smith’s 1993 contract, and what a holdout tells you
Emmitt Smith’s holdout at the start of the 1993 season ended with a four-year contract reported at $13.6 million, described at the time as the largest for a running back in the league. The figure comes from the reporting of the settlement, not from a filing, and the negotiation around it happens to be one of the best-documented pay disputes of its era.
- Four-year contract agreed in September 1993
- $13.6m
The deal that ended a two-game holdout and, as reported at the time, made him the highest-paid running back in the league. Announced and reported; not filed.
A holdout produces an unusual amount of public information
Most contract negotiations are invisible. A holdout is the exception: the player is absent, the games are lost, and both sides brief the press. The 1993 dispute was covered daily by national newspapers, with figures attributed to each side, and the settlement was reported the day it was reached.
That is still reporting rather than filing, but it is reporting of a particular quality, contemporaneous, contested, and published by outlets with competing sources. A figure that survives that process sits on firmer ground than a number that appeared once in a wire story.
What the reporting cannot supply is the contract’s structure: how much was signing bonus, how much base salary, what was guaranteed and what was not. Those terms determine what a player actually receives, and they were not published.
What the league record documents instead
The statistical record for this career is exceptionally complete, because it is exactly what leagues keep: rushing yards, attempts, touchdowns, games played, and the career rushing record he holds. Those counts are maintained by the league from the official game records, and they are published.
It is worth noting how the two kinds of record diverge in reliability. The yards-per-carry figure for a game in 1993 is documented to a decimal. The amount he was paid for that season is known only because reporters were told.
| Number | Kept by | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Career rushing record | The league, from official game records | Documented |
| Championship and MVP honours | The league | Documented |
| $13.6m contract, 1993 | Reported at the settlement | Reported |
| Contract structure and guarantees | Not published | Unknown |
| Career earnings total | Compiled from reports | Compilation |
Why the page stops short of a wealth figure
A player who retired in 2004 has had two decades of income, tax, investment and spending since, none of it public. Business interests and broadcasting work are private arrangements. Any total presented as his present-day wealth is an estimate, and the estimates on offer differ from one another by wide margins.
This page gives the documented parts and names them: the reported contract, the league’s own records, and the published rules of the era. The reasoning behind the omission is the same for every subject here.
Questions readers send
How much was Emmitt Smith’s 1993 contract worth?
It was reported at $13.6 million over four years when the holdout was settled in September 1993, and described at the time as the largest deal for a running back in the league.
Is the figure documented?
It is reported rather than filed. NFL contracts are not public documents; this figure comes from contemporaneous coverage of the settlement by outlets with sources on both sides.
Which numbers from this career are kept by the league itself?
The competition record: the career rushing record, championship and award honours, and the game-by-game statistics the league maintains.
What does the $13.6 million figure leave out?
Its structure. The reporting gave a total and a term, but not how much was signing bonus, how much base salary, what was guaranteed and what was not. Those terms determine what a player actually receives, and they were never published. A holdout settlement is unusually well reported; even so, the reporting stops at the headline number.
Where these figures are published
- 01 Dallas Cowboys contract announcement, September 1993, The four-year contract reported at $13.6 million ending the holdout National sports pages of 16–17 September 1993
- 02 NFL and NFL Players Association, The rookie wage scale, minimum salaries by credited season, and the rules every contract must fit inside Collective bargaining agreement of 15 March 2020, as executed
More in this register
All of them- Bob Whitfield Not published Drafted in 1992, before rookie pay was scaled
- Deion Sanders $54m Coaching contract approved in public session, five years
- Diego Maradona £6.9m The 1984 Napoli fee, a world record at the time
- Itumeleng Khune Not disclosed No club or league publishes his pay
- Lawrence Taylor Not published No contract from his era is a public document
- Memphis Depay €16m Fee Lyon announced for the January 2017 transfer