Smith Is Confident He’ll Play Against The 49ers On Sunday

The owner of the NFL’s most famous left hamstring predicted Tuesday he will play in Sunday’s NFC title game at San Francisco.

“I will be out there. I think I will be out there. I’m feeling pretty good,” Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith said between treatment sessions for the hamstring he hurt Dec. 19 and reinjured on his seventh carry in the first quarter of the 35-9 playoff victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

But can Smith be effective against the 49ers - especially after three weeks off didn’t prevent another injury? And if he plays, how long can he play without injuring it again?

“My goal is to make it through an entire game. I feel like I’ve got a chance to get back on the field and be effective,” Smith said. “I think it will happen, but some folks have to realize that a hamstring is definitely a muscle that generates a lot of power for an athlete, and when you are pressing off that muscle, it can give at some point in time. Even a healthy hamstring can give.

“It’s not like I’m running a 10K or anything… . I’m actually stopping and starting up again and cutting and doing all the things I need to do on the football field, which … can restrain my hamstring.”

Warning for Young

Steve Young ran wild against the Cowboys in the regular season. The defending Super Bowl champions say they’ll punish him if he tries it again.

Young, the 49ers quarterback, threw touchdown passes of 57 and 13 yards and scored on a 1-yard run. But it was his scrambles and bootleg runs for 60 yards that frustrated and confused Dallas in a 21-14 victory for the 49ers in Candlestick Park.

End Charles Haley, who won two Super Bowl rings with the 49ers, was humbled and embarrassed.

“I saw that bootleg play a million times in practice when I was with the 49ers,” Haley said. “They won’t fool me with it any more. I should have been ready for it back in October. I will be ready for it Sunday.”

“The last time we treated him like

a quarterback,” strong safety James Washington said. “This time, we’ll treat him like a running back. If he doesn’t slide when he’s supposed to he’s going to get connected.”

Turf survives rain

A late afternoon break after nearly a week of rain gave groundskeepers a chance to lift the tarps and begin preparing the Candlestick Park turf for Sunday’s game.

While the 49ers flew to Phoenix to find a dry practice field, the grounds crew took advantage of several hours of clear skies that spawned a rainbow over San Francisco Bay.

Sixteen workers wrapped in yellow rain slickers struggled in heavy wind to drain and roll up the seven tarps covering the field since last weekend’s game against Chicago.

The field they discovered below was in surprisingly good shape. There were muddy spots between the hash marks, and the sidelines have become small lakes, but most of the field was not too waterlogged.

The break in the weather was not expected to last long. Another strong storm was expected to hit today and periods of heavy rain were forecast through Friday, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.

No Vermeil deal?

The Philadelphia Eagles deny former coach Dick Vermeil broke off negotiations with owner Jeffrey Lurie, who wants him to become the next coach and general manager.

A report on KYW-TV, an NBC affiliate, quoted unidentified sources, who said Vermeil had chosen to remain in his job as a television commentator with ABC.

“Not to my knowledge,” Eagles spokesman Ron Howard said.

The report quoted sources who said Vermeil wanted more money than Lurie was offering.

Rams may want Zampese

Ernie Zampese reportedly is in line to become coach of the Los Angeles Rams, a hiring that would make him the third prominent Dallas Cowboys assistant to take a head coaching job in the last two years.

However, the Cowboys and Rams said Tuesday there’s no truth to the broadcast reports that Zampese has had contact with the Rams about succeeding Chuck Knox, who was fired Monday.

“I’ve had no contact from the Rams and I would remind everyone of the tampering rules,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.

Zampese is off-limits until Dallas’ season is over.