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)
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, 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)
“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)
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, 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)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.
“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”
"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.
The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.
For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.
As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.
That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.
Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.
The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.
“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”
Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.
“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”
Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.
Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.
“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.
Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”
Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.
Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.
McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”
“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.
More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.
Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.
The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.
In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.
Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.
“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.
He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”
FILE - A sign for the Rose Garden is seen near the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade at the White House, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
