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Tyron Smith calls Dallas home as he retires with the Cowboys following a season with the Jets

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Tyron Smith calls Dallas home as he retires with the Cowboys following a season with the Jets
Sport

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Tyron Smith calls Dallas home as he retires with the Cowboys following a season with the Jets

2025-04-17 05:39 Last Updated At:05:52

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Tyron Smith signed the ceremonial contract allowing the standout left tackle to retire with the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday, and prompting beaming owner Jerry Jones to declare, “Officially a Cowboy.”

Jones wasn't smiling a year ago when the Cowboys made the business decision to move on from the longtime anchor of their offensive line because of injuries, which led to Smith signing with the New York Jets.

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Football player Tyron Smith, left, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by team owner Jerry Jones, where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by team owner Jerry Jones, where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Team owner Jerry Jones, right, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by football player Tyron Smith who announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Team owner Jerry Jones, right, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by football player Tyron Smith who announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith speaks during a press conference where he announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith speaks during a press conference where he announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, signs a contract as Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, takes a seat during a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, signs a contract as Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, takes a seat during a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, laughs as he and Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, hold a gift that was presented to Smith by the team after a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, laughs as he and Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, hold a gift that was presented to Smith by the team after a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

“It was like losing a family member when he went to the Jets, really was,” Jones said. “And I couldn’t talk to him, I couldn’t have a small talk. I had a tough time talking, picking up that phone when he left us. And so it was with great pleasure that I put that old Jones on this contract today that will be the last one he signs in the NFL.”

Those 13 seasons with the Cowboys easily won out, particularly since it's been less than two months since six-time All-Pro right guard Zack Martin, Smith's teammate for 10 years, retired after spending all 11 of his seasons in Dallas.

“The moment I stepped into Dallas,” Smith said at a retirement ceremony attended by the 34-year-old's family and plenty of former teammates and coaches, “I knew this was home.”

Smith made eight Pro Bowls in a nine-season span that included both of his All-Pro nods. But the injuries piled up, and he didn't play a complete season over his final nine years after missing just one game through his first five seasons.

“After this past year and over the years of injuries and things like that, it just kind of felt like it was the right time to hang it up,” Smith said. “I don't want to be that guy down the line where I'm struggling, and I want to be healthy for my kids.”

At his best, Smith was perhaps the most dominant lineman in the storied franchise's history — a massive, 6-foot-5, 320-pound frame that seemed to come out of a cartoon book. He wore knee braces on his elbows and still had the athletic ability to keep nearly every pass rusher off the blind side of quarterbacks Tony Romo and Dak Prescott.

Smith was the first of three offensive linemen drafted in the first round by Dallas in a four-year span as the No. 9 overall pick in 2011. Center Travis Frederick was a late first-rounder in 2013, followed by Martin a year later. Frederick retired following the 2019 season.

Smith played right tackle when he debuted as a 20-year-old rookie out of Southern California, making the switch to the higher-profile left side a year later.

The selection of Smith triggered a rebuilding of the Dallas offensive line, which was among the NFL's best within a few years.

“You can't beat the group that we had,” said Smith, who made 161 starts with the Cowboys before making 10 with the Jets. “We felt like we were on top of the world and unstoppable, and it's no better feeling than that.”

Dallas had seven winning seasons and six playoff appearances during Smith’s tenure, but couldn’t get past the divisional round. The Cowboys have gone 29 seasons without reaching an NFC championship game since winning the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl title.

“It is a tragedy that we didn't get a Super Bowl with you sitting out there at that left tackle,” Jones said. “But that doesn't take away from the fact of what you've accomplished in the NFL. And I want to be the first one to shake your hand when you go into that (Pro Football) Hall of Fame.”

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Football player Tyron Smith, left, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by team owner Jerry Jones, where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by team owner Jerry Jones, where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Team owner Jerry Jones, right, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by football player Tyron Smith who announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Team owner Jerry Jones, right, speaks during a news conference, accompanied by football player Tyron Smith who announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith speaks during a press conference where he announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith speaks during a press conference where he announced his retirement from the NFL, at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, signs a contract as Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, takes a seat during a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, signs a contract as Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, takes a seat during a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, laughs as he and Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, hold a gift that was presented to Smith by the team after a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Football player Tyron Smith, left, laughs as he and Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry jones, right, hold a gift that was presented to Smith by the team after a news conference where Smith announced his retirement from the NFL at the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco, Texas, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been thrown into two top national security jobs at once as President Donald Trump presses forward with his top-to-bottom revamp of U.S. foreign policy, upending not only longstanding policies that the former Florida senator once supported but also the configuration of the executive branch.

Trump's appointment of Rubio to temporarily replace Mike Waltz as national security adviser is the first major leadership shake-up of the nascent administration, but Waltz's removal had been rumored for weeks — ever since he created a Signal group chat and accidentally added a journalist to the conversation where top national security officials shared sensitive military plans.

So, just over 100 days into his tenure as America’s top diplomat, Rubio now becomes just the second person to hold both positions. He follows only the late Henry Kissinger, who served as both secretary of state and national security adviser for two years under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s.

Rubio — a one-time Trump rival and hawkish conservative who was derided by the president as “Little Marco” during the 2016 presidential campaign — has proven adept at aligning himself with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy positions. Rubio has largely eschewed his staunch advocacy of providing foreign aid and promoting democracy overseas since taking over the State Department, repeating a refrain that every policy or program should make America safer, stronger or more prosperous.

Since being confirmed in a 99-0 Senate floor vote, Rubio has presided over a radical reorganization of the State Department. That includes the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and plans to cut U.S. jobs by 15% while closing or consolidating more than 100 bureaus worldwide. He has also begun a major cull of the visa system, revoking hundreds, if not thousands, of visas issued to foreign students.

He has overseen the negotiation of agreements to send immigrants accused of crimes to third countries, most notably to El Salvador, in cases that are now being challenged in federal courts.

“Marco Rubio, unbelievable," Trump said Thursday before announcing on social media that Waltz would be nominated as ambassador to the United Nations and Rubio would take over as national security adviser in the interim. "When I have a problem, I call up Marco, he gets it solved.”

That's a far cry from 2016, when Rubio and Trump were competing for the GOP presidential nomination and Rubio warned that Trump was a threat. After Trump won, the relationship remained contentious, but eight years later, Rubio was an enthusiastic Trump supporter who worked his Florida bona fides to get into the president's inner circle.

Yet, even after Rubio was nominated to the top diplomatic job, doubts remained. Many pundits suggested he would last only a short time in office before Trump dismissed him in the same way he did his first-term secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who was fired by tweet in 2018 just 18 months into the job.

Yet Rubio has been resilient. And as of Thursday, he oversees both the State Department and the National Security Council, which is responsible for coordinating all executive branch foreign policy functions, ranging from diplomatic to military and intelligence operations.

Thomas Wright, an NSC official during the Biden administration who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the national security adviser post alone is “more than a full-time job.”

“It is just very hard to comprehend the idea that you can do this job sort of part time,” Wright said.

He said he watched national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy work 14-15 hour days, six to seven days a week: “I think they felt that they had to do that to do the job properly.”

Appearing Thursday night on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity," Rubio was not asked to weigh in on the president’s decision to tap him as national security adviser but did joke that he was barred from adding pope to his list of many jobs because he is married.

But as he marked the first 100 days of Trump's latest term, Rubio applauded the president for his vision.

“I am honored by the trust President Trump placed in me and I am proud of the work the Department of State has done over the past hundred days to implement his agenda and put the American people first,” he wrote Wednesday in a State Department Substack post.

One of Rubio’s former Florida statehouse colleagues, Dan Gelber, a Democrat, said of Rubio's increasing responsibilities that "Marco is probably, to a certain extent, one of the more reliable Cabinet officers, if not the most reliable."

“And I can only believe those qualities are even more vital to his current confluence of positions and growing portfolio,” Gelber said. "He’s not a chaos guy, and I’ve always sort of wondered how he’s going to do in an administration where there seems to be so much chaos. And maybe that’s why he’s getting all these positions.”

Rubio's dual-hatted role comes on top of him serving as acting administrator of the largely shut down USAID and as acting head of the National Archives. It puts him in a similar position to that of Trump's longtime personal friend and golfing buddy Steve Witkoff.

As a special envoy, Witkoff is the lead U.S. negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks and in administration peace efforts for the Israel-Hamas war and the Ukraine-Russia war.

In many ways, Rubio and Witkoff are following in the footsteps of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had multiple roles in the first administration, ranging from the Middle East to Latin America and immigration.

State Department officials appeared taken aback by Trump's appointment of Rubio as acting national security adviser. Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said at a briefing Thursday that she learned the news from a journalist who asked her a question about Trump's post minutes after it appeared on social media.

Officials, however, have noted that Rubio in recent weeks has spent an increasingly large amount of time at the White House away from his posh seventh-floor State Department office in what is known as “Mahogany Row,” a corridor known for its wood paneling.

At the same time, these officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the personnel shift, said they did not expect Rubio's duties as secretary of state to change significantly. He still plans to travel on diplomatic missions abroad and likely will delegate at least some of the NSC management to others, they said.

Amiri reported from the United Nations.

President Donald Trump speaks as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from front row left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and from front row right, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent listen during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from front row left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and from front row right, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent listen during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral luncheon with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. With the President from left are National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral luncheon with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Washington. With the President from left are National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a television interview at the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a television interview at the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, stands with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the State Department, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, stands with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the State Department, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington, as President Donald Trump look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington, as President Donald Trump look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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