Emmitt Smith - SCORE!

Slow and steady wins the race, and former footballer Emmitt Smith proved just that as he and his professional dance partner, Cheryl Burke, won Dancing with the Stars tonight. Reminscient of last year's season, when Stacey Keibler was favored to win, and Drew did a major upset, safe money has been on Mario Lopez throughout this whole season, but Emmitt kept his eye on the prize and the coveted disco ball trophy is his.

Emmitt told People Magazine, "I am so proud of this trophy and I am proud to share it with Cheryl. We worked our tails off."

Talk show host and fellow contestant, Jerry Springer said, "They both had identical scores so it was who had the more compelling story and Emmitt's was the great American story. You saw his growth throughout the process and that's the great American story. That's the magic of this show."

Runners up Mario Lopez and his professional dance partner, Karina Smirnoff, were disappointed and Karina was crying and apparently didn't want to talk to reporters. Mario said, "Apparently world-class dancing wasn't enough. That wasn't the criteria it was based on. I don't really care about the trophy. I just wanted to win for Karina. She is honestly the best dancer in the world. No disrespect to the other girls on this show, but they don't hold a candle to her." Yikes. Sore loser much?

Photo from People