Emmitt Smith has 4,409 career carries while running for 20 yards or more. If we include his time with the Cowboys, he becomes the all-time leader with 4,928 career rushes. That's right, Emmitt Smith is one of only three players in NFL history to have over 4,000 career carries - Eric Dickerson and AP Davis are the others.
In addition to being the all-time leading rusher in Cowboys history, Smith is also first in rushing attempts among current players - with around 150 more attempts than second place Matt Forte. Only Smith himself (469) has more 20-yard gains than Thomas (4,095).
A closer look at the top five shows that they're all running backs. The only other player to have even 1000 career rushes is Jerome Bettis (1034).
Bettis, Smith, and Thomas all played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, while Davis ran for 12,105 yards over 17 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys.
All four men are in the Hall of Fame. If you add in additional statistics such as touchdowns, it gets even more interesting.
Leaders in running yards throughout history He set the NFL record with 576 yards in 1932 and kept it for the rest of his career. Emmitt Smith has held the mark since 2002, when he broke Walter Payton's long-standing total. Before those two great runners, no one had ever topped 400 yards in a season from the position.
Payton finished with 4,097 yards from 1958 to 1987, while Smith has 4,105 yards from 1995 to 2003. Neither player spent all their careers with one team, but they did both do so with the Dallas Cowboys. They both retired after the 2004 season and have been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The longest-running back in NFL history is Thomas Jones of the Green Bay Packers. He started out as a rookie in 2005 and has not missed a game since - not even when he was injured - which means he has played in every single regular season game over eight seasons. His current contract expires after the 2013 season. If he continues to play well, the Packers might want to keep him around for another year or two because losing him would be hard to replace.
Last but not least, there is also Marshall Faulk of the Indianapolis Colts. He is one of only three players (the others are Eric Dickerson and Jamal Lewis) to score multiple touchdowns in a game while rushing and receiving.
Smith is one of just five NFL players to have over 10,000 running yards and 400 catches in his career. The other four players are Smith himself, Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Edgerrin James, and Michael Vick.
In addition to these five players, Jim Brown and Franco Harris also have over 10,000 rushing yards combined. However, they are not included on this list because they played in an era when most teams did not include a quarterback in their reckoning of career stats. If they were excluded from the running back category, there would be only five running backs with over 10,000 yards instead of six.
So, here are the only two running backs to have over 10,000 rushing yards: Alvin "Boobie" Walker and Thomas "Hitler" Scott. Both men played in the 1950s for the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, respectively.
Currently, Boobie Walker's son, Ray-Ray, is playing football at the University of Colorado. He has so far accumulated 2,928 all-purpose yards (1,523 rushing, 1,415 receiving).
DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart of the Carolina Panthers became the sixth 1,000-yard rushing pair and the first 1,100-yard rushing combo in 2009. The most recent players to accomplish the accomplishment are Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Mark Ingram, both of whom did it in 2019.
Dobbs set the single-season college football record for most running touchdowns by a quarterback with 27 in 2009, while also rushing for 1,192 yards.
Smith, Emmitt Emmitt Smith, who missed out on 1,000 yards as a rookie with the Dallas Cowboys in 1990, has the NFL record for consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. He did not miss a game during that span.
In fact, no player has ever missed a game while still posting multiple 1,000-yard seasons. The closest any player came was when Barry Sanders missed three games in 1999 but still managed to put up 1,760 total yards (a Detroit Lions record at the time).
After Smith, Thomas Jones of the Atlanta Falcons had the next best streak at four seasons. In 2005 and 2006 he recorded 3,500 yards from scrimmage (also a Lions record at the time).
Since then, no one has been able to match it. The longest current active streak is by LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles, who has consecutively posted 1000-yard seasons since 2010. He's currently ranked second behind Smith in career total yards from scrimmage (12,214).
Other players who have two or more consecutive 1000-yard seasons include: Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Terrell Davis, Frank Gore, Gerald Riggs, Jr., and Ricky Williams.
Brady is well-versed in statistics: He has 968 career running yards, falling 32 yards short of 1,000. Brady has 557 carries, averaging 1.7 yards per carry and scoring 17 running touchdowns. He has helped New England reach the playoffs every year since 2004 except for 2009 when he missed four games due to suspension.
In 2016, Brady led the NFL in passing with 4,577 yards while throwing 39 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He is the first player ever to top 40,000 career yards receiving.
Brady is also one of only three players with at least 20 years of experience in the NFL to have never been intercepted. The other two are Troy Polamalu and Manti Te'o.
He currently plays for the New England Patriots in the NFL. Brady and the Patriots will face off against Seattle's Doug Baldwin and the Seahawks in Week 14.
Here are more stats about Tom Brady: He was born on January 4th, 1973 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Brady attended The St. Paul's School in New Hampshire where he played football, ran track and threw the shot put. He went on to study management at Yale University where he played quarterback for the Bulldogs. After graduating in 1996, Brady entered the NFL as a undrafted free agent with the New York Jets.
He carried for 71 yards and caught eight receptions for 101 yards in the 49ers' 20-16 victory against Cincinnati in that Super Bowl, making him the first running back to record 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl. Rice also had two catches for 21 yards in Denver's 43-8 win over Seattle in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Rice became the third player in NFL history with at least five touchdowns passes and 10 or more touchdowns overall, joining Doug Williams (1998) and Peyton Manning (2012). He joined Frank Gifford as the only players with at least five touchdown passes and 10 or more rushing scores in the same season.
In four appearances in the Super Bowl, Rice has three touchdowns receptions and 111 yards receiving. He is one of six players with at least three touchdowns receptions in the Super Bowl and the only one with at least three touchdowns reception games in the playoffs (3x, 2013; 4x, 2014).
Rice's 3.6 yards per carry average in the Super Bowl is the highest by any player who did not start at least one game during the regular season. His 41 carries are also a Super Bowl record for most carries by a player who did not start at least one game during the regular season.
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