Big dance: Emmitt in Final Four
10/25/06 08:07 PM
By ED BARK
Rugged all-time NFL leading rusher Emmitt Smith has shimmied, shook, waltzed and paso doble'd himself into the playoffs of TV's hottest reality show. Wanna crack wise about it?
"If someone came up to me and said, 'Real men don't dance,' I'm going to say to them, 'Real men try to do things that they think they cannot do," he declared on Wednesday night's Dancing with the Stars' results show. "That's the difference between another man and a real man."
Men still dominate the Final Four after overmatched Jerry Springer finally went down for the count in a bottom-two faceoff with the lone remaining woman contestant, Monique Coleman.
"Thank you for having me and thank you for letting me go home," said Jerry. Alas, he takes the show's cutest pro partner, Kym Johnson, with him.
Emmitt, whose Tuesday night waltz was dubbed "lovely jubbly" by judge Len Goodman, made an even bigger impression with his jiggly wiggly mambo. It scored a 29, good enough to be picked as the encore dance of the week. Only Bruno Tonioli's 9 kept Emmitt and Cheryl from a perfect 30. Even sunny Rachael Ray was pissed after witnessing it in person.
"That mambo. He got so ripped off," she said. "He shoulda gotten three perfect scores."
Emmitt and partner Cheryl Burke, who teamed with the last edition's winner, Drew Lachey, will be dancing two numbers per show from now until November's finale. His strategy, he says, is to "take care of my business, try to bring the best entertainment value that I can bring."
Some of his former Cowboy teammates should now suck it up and cheer him on from the live show's peanut gallery. Where's Troy? Where's Michael? Where's Moose? Where's Deion? Hell, where's Dale Hellestrae?
Speaking of Dales, Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen is so soured on the current Cowboys that he might as well cover this thing the rest of the way through. After all, Emmitt is playing for Belo8's current home team, the ABC network. And his latter day athleticism is a throwback to sports at its purest, which is what Dale says he loves.
"Every week we try to come out and give a performance that's worthy of a good score," Emmitt said.
His last three opponents are Monique, Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence. That's not exactly the San Francisco 49ers in their prime. But these days Emmitt'll take it.