Good News For Dallas: Smith Only Has A Sprain

Emmitt Smith got lucky.

He’ll just miss two to four weeks after spraining a knee and ankle in the Dallas Cowboys’ 20-3 exhibition loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday night.

He could possibly play in the Cowboys’ season opener at Chicago on Sept. 2.

“This is the best possible news,” trainer Jim Maurer said Sunday after Smith, who recently signed a $48 million contract, underwent an MRI. “His rehabilitation should take from two to four weeks. Our goal is for him to be in Chicago. It’s not an unrealistic goal.”

Maurer said Smith had a first-degree sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee and that his ankle was slightly swollen and bruised.

Smith, seeing his first action of the preseason, was injured when his teammate, 340-pound tackle Erik Williams, fell on him in the second quarter. Smith stayed down for almost 5 minutes before he walked unassisted to the sidelines.

“Emmitt felt a lot better after he learned the results of the MRI,” Maurer said. “There was just a mild stretching of the ligament. We have him on around-the-clock treatment.”

Smith sprained a right knee ligament last year but didn’t miss any games because of it.

“Emmitt has had a lot of different injuries, but he’s always healed fast and had favorable outcomes,” Maurer said.”You have to be patient with this injury.”

Cowboys coach Barry Switzer said: “This is really good news. He has a chance to play in the opener. We hope he can. We’ve really got some problems with our offense.”

Another offensive lineman went down against Denver. Tackle George Hegamin also sprained a medial collateral knee ligament, and it wasn’t certain when he would return to the lineup. Tackle Mark Tuinei is also out with a knee ligament sprain.

Switzer said second-year player Sherman Williams will substitute for Smith in the team’s final preseason game against Houston on Saturday in Orlando, Fla.

Tomczak asks for intervention

Pittsburgh’s quarterback search remains so unsettled, Mike Tomczak is relying on prayer.

Coach Bill Cowher, who has spent five weeks evaluating Tomczak, Jim Miller and Kordell Stewart, said it’s time to make his choice - right or wrong. He is convinced waiting any longer might be an even bigger mistake than choosing the wrong man.

What’s riding on his decision? Maybe only the entire season of a team that played in the Super Bowl only seven months ago.

“We probably looked like a team that’s been practicing with three quarterbacks,” Cowher said after an unimpressive 13-3 preseason victory Saturday over Tampa Bay. “I went into the locker room and it looked like we’d lost 30-0. The standards we’ve set are very high.”

Running back Erric Pegram, who has watched a leaderless offense labor to develop consistency or continuity, also said the Steelers can’t afford to delay the decision any longer.

“I think so. I think it’s time,” Pegram said. “We need to know who’s going to line up back there. I don’t know who it is, I’ll just wait like everybody else to see.”

Tomczak, Neil O’Donnell’s backup in 1994 and 1995 and now his heir-apparent, might have come closer to losing the job than winning it.

He threw one pass off a defensive lineman’s back and overthrew several others. And the TD drive he directed was saved only when Pegram alertly turned Tim Lester’s apparent drive-ending fumble into a 9-yard gain.

Tomczak’s numbers weren’t all that good - 6-for-12 for 71 yards, but neither were those of Miller (3-of-6, 14 yards) or Stewart (2-of-6, 32 yards), each of whom led second-half field-goal drives.

“I feel very confident,” said Tomczak, the only quarterback to make two preseason starts. “Obviously, I didn’t have a very sound performance. Offensively, we really sputtered out there a great deal.”

But he isn’t so confident he won’t ask for assistance.

“I think coach Cowher knows what’s best for this team, but when I go to church, I’ll be praying it’s me,” Tomczak said.

No talking allowed

A gag order was in effect at Redskin Park in Ashburn, Va., one day before coach Norv Turner will announce his starting quarterback.

“They just said they wanted to do it all tomorrow,” said Gus Frerotte, flashing a smile as he made his way upstairs from the locker room after a late afternoon practice.

Frerotte’s competition, Heath Shuler, also smiled as he walked by waiting reporters, saying that the “big man” had told him not to talk.

The “big man”, of course, is Turner, and he didn’t have much to say either. In a way, it didn’t seem to matter, because every question imaginable about the Heath-Gus battle has already been asked.

Turner will name his No. 1 quarterback at a morning news conference, a decision he hopes will end the see-saw tussle between the third-year players once and for all. He said both quarterbacks would be told before the announcement.