Rashad Jennings talks 'Dancing with the Stars' win: I literally couldn't believe it, all the hard work was well worth it

Rashad Jennings just won the Dancing with the Stars mirrorball trophy, but he's not slowing down any time soon.


"I don't know if you caught my face or not, but I literally could not believe it at all," Rashad told USA Today of the moment he and pro partner Emma Slater learned of their Season 24 Dancing with the Stars victory on Tuesday night's finale.

"It solidified all the hard work we put in. It was well worth it."

Rashad and Emma defeated the runner-up couple David Ross and partner Lindsay Arnold as well as third-place finishers Normani Kordei and partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

Rashad, who said he plans to put the mirrorball trophy on his fireplace where light shines in through the window, told Entertainment Tonight in a separate interview he feels "amazing" after his big win last night.


"I feel good, truly, to come on the show, never danced in my life, and just keep on grinding and learning how to dance," said Rashad.

The NFL running back, who is currently a free agent, also helped Emma land her first Dancing with the Stars win ever, as she has competed on seven seasons of the show but never finished higher than fourth place until now.

"I'm her biggest fan, you have no idea!" Rashad explained. "When you talk about the amount of hours we put in, part of that is because I want to see her go far."

Dancing with the Stars co-host Erin Andrews revealed during the Dancing with the Stars finale that Rashad and Emma put in a total of 362 hours of rehearsal time over the course of the season, which was 100 hours more than each of his finale opponents.

Rashad and Emma were therefore more than deserving to be crowned champions.


"And you know what? We were thinking, 'We need to rehearse more!'" Emma revealed to ET. "We literally would bring it up our coordinator and say, 'Hey, I don't think this is fair, we need more hours [to practice].' We said that every week!"

But Rashad has no plans to stop dancing. He has joined the Dancing with the Stars' live tour Hot Summer Nights this year; however, football is still going to remain his top priority.

"Everywhere [I go on the tour,] I'm going to be training every day, no matter where I'm at," Rashad insisted.

"[During the season] we would rehearse for hours and hours a day and now we don't [have to]," Emma said. "We just have our show, which is a lot of great cardio, and then in the mornings, you have all this time to really put energy into yourself."

"I'm going to be training harder," Rashad noted.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski