Emmitt Smith

On September 19th, 2005, at halftime of the Cowboys-Redskins game (broadcast on Monday Night Football), Smith was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor with his longtime teammates Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin. Many popular Fleer sets (like "Ultra"), have continued without skipping a year or dramatically changing their design. In August 2005, Smith signed on to serve as a studio analyst on the NFL Network show, NFL Total Access. In late 2005 Upper Deck began producing basketball and football cards under it's acquired Fleer name. Their son, Emmitt IV, was born on Smith's 33rd birthday. In 2004, Fleer announced that it would cease all productions of trading cards. She is a former Miss Virginia, and the ex-wife of actor/comedian Martin Lawrence. Fleer and another company, Donruss, were thus allowed to begin making cards in 1981.

He married Patricia Southall, on April 22, 2000. After several years of litigation, the court ordered the union to offer group licenses for baseball cards to companies other than Topps. Smith is one of only five NFL players who have amassed over 10,000 career-rushing yards and 400 career receptions. Topps refused, and Fleer then sued both Topps and the MLBPA to break the Topps monopoly. His 1,586 yards rushing is also tops on the NFL postseason chart, and he shares the total playoff touchdown mark of 21 with Thurman Thomas. In April 1975, Fleer asked for Topps to waive its exclusive rights and allow Fleer to produce stickers, stamps, or other small items featuring active baseball players. Smith also accumulated a number of NFL postseason records, including rushing touchdowns (19), consecutive games with a rushing touchdown (nine) and 100-yard rushing games (seven). The union, also fearing that it would cut into existing royalties from Topps sales, then rejected the proposal.

The sum of his rushing yards, receiving yards(3,224) and fumble return yards(-15) make him one of only four players in NFL history to eclipse the 21,000-combined yards mark. Topps passed on the opportunity, indicating that it did not think the product would be successful. He leads all running backs with 166 career touchdowns, and is second only to Jerry Rice for the overall record. By now, the MLBPA had settled its differences with Topps and reached an agreement that gave Topps a right of first refusal on such offers.
Smith currently holds the NFL record in career rushing yards with 18,355 and is the only player in NFL history to rush for over 18,000 yards, breaking the previous record held by Walter Payton, on October 27, 2002. Fleer returned to the union in September 1974 with a proposal to sell 5-by-7-inch satin patches of players, somewhat larger than normal baseball cards. He is the only player in the NFL history to do all three in the same season. Since this was so far in the future, Fleer declined the proposal.

In 1993 he did a rare trifecta by leading the league in rushing yards, winning the AP MVP and Super Bowl MVP. The MLBPA was in a dispute with Topps over player contracts, and offered Fleer the exclusive rights to market cards of most players starting in 1973, when many of Topps's contracts would expire. He is also the NFL's all-time leader in rushing attempts with 4,409. In 1968, Fleer was approached by the Major League Baseball Players Association, a recently organized players' union, about obtaining a group license to produce cards. With 1,021 yards rushing in 2001, Smith became the first player in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards in 11 consecutive seasons and the first to post 11 1,000-yard rushing seasons in a career. The decision gave Topps an effective monopoly of the baseball card market. Smith and Jim Brown are the only players with seven straight 10-touchdown seasons to start their career. However, Fleer chose not to pursue such options and instead sold its remaining player contracts to Topps for $395,000 in 1966.

Smith is the first player in NFL history to have five straight seasons with over 1,400 rushing yards. The Commission concluded that because the contracts only covered the sale of cards with gum, competition was still possible by selling cards with other small, low-cost products. On February 3, 2005, at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida three days before Super Bowl XXXIX, he announced his retirement after fifteen seasons in the NFL. A hearing examiner ruled against Topps in 1965, but the Commission reversed this decision on appeal. In 2005, Smith signed a new contract with Dallas for one-day and no money so he could retire as a Cowboy. The complaint focused on the baseball card market, alleging that Topps was engaging in unfair competition through its aggregation of exclusive contracts. Giants to become the only player in NFL history to eclipse the 18,000 career rushing yard mark. The company now turned its efforts to supporting an administrative complaint filed against Topps by the Federal Trade Commission.

Then in November, he totaled 67 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries against the N.Y. This left Fleer with no product in either baseball or football. On October 24th, Smith broke Payton's record for career 100-yard rushing games when he totaled 106 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries against Seattle. In 1964, however, Philadelphia Gum secured the rights for NFL cards and Topps took over the AFL. The Saints game also marked his 77th career regular season 100-yard rushing game, tying Payton for the most in NFL history. The next year reverted to the status quo, with Fleer covering the AFL and Topps the NFL. Smith also became the oldest player in NFL history ever to complete his first career touchdown pass, tossing a 21-yard scoring strike to fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo in a game against New Orleans. In 1961, each company produced cards featuring players from both leagues.

On October 3rd, he posted his best game as a Cardinal against New Orleans, totaling 127 rushing yards on 21 carries (6.0 avg.), including a 29-yard scoring jaunt (his longest as a Cardinal). Fleer produced a set for the AFL while Topps cards covered the established National Football League. He also caught 15 passes for 105 yards for Arizona. Meanwhile, Fleer took advantage of the emergence of the American Football League in 1960 to begin producing football cards. His 267 carries marked his highest total since 2000 and his nine touchdowns were his highest total since scoring 11 times in 1999. However, Topps still held onto the rights of most players and the set was not particularly successful. After finishing 2003 as a reserve, Smith began the 2004 season as the Cardinals starting running back and accounted for 937 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on 267 carries. Wills and Jimmy Piersall served as player representatives for Fleer, helping to bring others on board.

He signed a two-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals on March 26. This 67-card set included a number of stars, including 1962 National League MVP Maury Wills (then holder of the modern record for stolen bases in a season), who had elected to sign with Fleer instead of Topps. On February 27, 2003, Smith volunteered to be released by the Cowboys, rather than put owner Jerry Jones in the awkward position of cutting him to fit under the league's salary cap. The company did not produce new cards the next year, but continued selling the 1961 set while it focused on signing enough players to produce a set featuring active players in 1963. (Among running backs selected to the Pro Bowl, he's behind only Barry Sanders, who has 10, and the late Walter Payton, who has 9.). One set was produced in 1960 and a second in 1961. Smith led the NFL in rushing four times, was the league's MVP in 1993, was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII, and made eight Pro Bowls. However, Fleer continued to produce baseball cards by featuring Williams with other mostly retired players in a Baseball Greats series.

He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1990 and subsequently became an integral part of their three Super Bowl championship teams in four years following the 1992-93 and 1995 seasons. Williams was nearing the end of his career and retired after the 1960 season. He left Florida after his junior year with 3928 rushing yards and 36 touchdowns. Fleer was unable to include other players because another company, Topps, had signed most active baseball players to exclusive contracts. While at UF he set 58 school records, including the single game rushing record in his very first start. It began by signing baseball star Ted Williams to a contract in 1959 and sold an 80-card set oriented around highlights of his career. He starred at the University of Florida, where he joined Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Well-established as a gum and candy company, Fleer followed some of its competitors into the business of selling sports cards.

In high school, Smith amassed 8804 rushing yards and scored 106 touchdowns. One negative aspect associated with Fleer's bankruptcy is that many sports card collectors now own redemption cards for autographs and memorabilia that may not be able to be redeemed. Included in Smith's league record 78 regular season 100-yard rushing games are 18 days with over 150 yards, which is the fourth highest total of 150-yard games in NFL history. Competitor Upper Deck won the Fleer name, as well as their die cast toy business, at a price of $6.1 million. His 45 100-yard games in high school is still the national record, and in NFL annals, Smith's 78 100-yard rushing games makes him the NFL's all-time leader - just ahead of Walter Payton (77) and Barry Sanders (76). The move included the auction of the Fleer trade name, as well as other holdings. The century mark became a big number in Smith's career, having rushed for 100 yards in 155-of-326 games dating back to high school (45-of-49 at Escambia High School, 25-of-34 at Florida, 81-of-202 at Dallas, including playoffs, and two-of-25 at Arizona). By early July, in a move similar to declaring bankruptcy, the company began to liquidate its assets to repay creditors.

Smith is one of only three players in Cowboys history with three career 100-point seasons, and he is the only non-kicker to accomplish the feat. In late May 2005, news circulated that Fleer was suspending its trading card operations immediately. He passed his childhood hero Walter Payton in a game against Seattle in 2002. In 1998, 70-year-old Dubble Bubble was acquired by Canadian company Concord Confections and Concord, in turn, was acquired by Chicago-based Tootsie Roll Industries in 2004. May 15, 1969 in Pensacola, Florida) is a retired American football player, one of the most prolific running backs to ever play professional football, and is only the seventh player in NFL history to carry the title of all-time rushing leader, and is the current holder of the title. In 1995, Fleer acquired the trading card company SkyBox International and it closed its Philadelphia plant(where Dubble Bubble was made for 67 years). Emmitt James Smith III (b. Fleer became known as a maker of sports cards, and has also produced some non-sports trading cards.

Its pink color set a tradition for nearly all bubble gums to follow. In 1928, Fleer employee Walter Diemer improved the Blibber-Blubber formulation to produce the first commercially successful bubblegum, Dubble Bubble. Unfortunately, while this gum was capable of being blown into bubbles, in other respects it was vastly inferior to regular chewing gum, and Blibber-Blubber was never marketed to the public. Fleer originally developed a bubblegum formulation called Blibber-Blubber in 1906.

Bought out by comic-book empire Marvel in 1992, it is now a part of Upper Deck. Fleer in the mid-19th century, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubblegum. The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H.