Pro Football

Pro Football Hall of Fame: Jimmy Johnson gets immortalized in Canton

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When you look back on the career of Jimmy Johnson as a coach it was clear that he was destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The groundwork was laid as a player at the University of Arkansas. Johnson, along with his roommate, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, were both members of the 1964 national championship team.

Johnson jumped right into coaching after graduating from college. He started as an assistant coach for Louisiana Tech (1965), Picayune Memorial High School in Mississippi (1966), Wichita State (1967), and Iowas State (1968-1969).

The Port Arthur, Texas native would cut his teeth on the defensive side of the ball in the years to follow. He was the defensive line coach at Oklahoma for three seasons (1970-1972) and the defensive coordinator for four seasons (1973-1976) at his alma mater, Arkansas. Over the next two years, Johnson would continue his defensive coordinator duties but was also the assistant head coach at Pittsburgh (1977-1978).

After nearly a decade and a half of coaching in the ranks, Johnson got his shot to be a head coach at Oklahoma State. Although he had his ups and downs, Johnson helped turn around an inconsistent program by going 29-25-3 during his five-year tenure there (1979-1983) and set the foundation for their three 10 win seasons over the next five years.

Speaking of those five years, that’s where Johnson put his name at the top of the coaching ranks in college football. He would become the head coach at Miami (1984-1988) and set a new standard at the program.

After going 8-5 in his first season, Johnson led the Hurricanes to 44 wins in 48 games over the next four years. In 1987, it all came together for Johnson as Miami went 12-0 and won the national championship, the second in the school’s history.

Dominating on the college level earns a coach much respect, but there’s another level to reach. In 1989, Johnson’s old college teammate, Jerry Jones, bought the Dallas Cowboys. After firing legendary coach Tom Landry, Jones hired Johnson to be the head coach in Dallas.

Johnson drafted Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman with the first pick in the 1989 NFL Draft. However, his first year in Dallas was a disaster as the team went 1-15. During that atrocious season, Johnson orchestrated a trade that sent running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings and gained a multitude of draft picks which would set the foundation for what the Cowboys became in the 90s.

Those picks were used to acquire such talent as Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith, Alvin Harper, Darren Woodson, Erik Williams, and many others. After going 7-9 in 1990 and winning the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year award, Johnson began turning the Cowboys into one of the league’s best teams. In 1991, the Cowboys went 11-5 and won a playoff game against the Chicago Bears. A year later, Johnson would begin to cement his coaching legacy forever.

The Cowboys were the youngest team in the NFL in 1992 under Johnson. Although they were full of youth they were also dominant. The team finished the league’s top-ranked defense and went 13-3. After a 34-10 beatdown of the Philadelphia Eagles, and a 30-20 upset of the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, the Cowboys moved on to the Super Bowl XXVII. Setting a record nine turnovers, the Cowboys blew out the Bills 52-17 for the organization’s third Super Bowl title.

1993 was more of the same. Despite starting 0-2 in large part to the absence of Emmitt Smith who was trying to secure a long-term deal, Johnson led the Cowboys to a 12-4 record. Once again, they beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game and faced the Bills in the Super Bowl. A 30-13 slaughter capped off back-to-back titles for the Cowboys and firmly established them as the Pro Football team of the 90s.

Johnson’s time with the Cowboys only lasted two more months. In March of 1994, Johnson and the Cowboys parted ways and it rocked the team’s fan base and the entire NFL landscape. The reason was that tension between Johnson and Jones got too thick. Jones wanted more credit for the team’s success and to be acknowledged for it, while Johnson felt Jones should stick to being the owner and let him handle the football aspect.

In 1996, Johnson returned to coaching with the Miami Dolphins. During his four-year stint, Johnson led the Dolphins to three playoff appearances in four years but never reached the success he had in Dallas.

Johnson has been a sports analyst for Fox Sports since retiring from coaching. While doing a live broadcast during a playoff game between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Packers in January of 2020, Johnson found out that he’d be the newest member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The 2020 ceremony was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, the Pro Football Hall of Fame decided to combine the 2020 and 2021 classes and hold a two-day celebration of some of the NFL’s greatest players and coaches.

Johnson’s first NFL Draft pick, Troy Aikman, presented him for enshrinement. At the beginning of his speech, Johnson didn’t waste any time addressing the elephant in the room, Jerry Jones. The two have buried the hatchet over the last several years and Johnson paid him the ultimate respect on Saturday night.

“I guess you want to know what I’m going to say about Jerry Jones,” Johnson said early in his 8-minute, 50-second speech. “Well, Jerry, you told me we were going to sports history before we ever bought the Cowboys — before you bought the Cowboys because I didn’t pay a damn cent. You know what? We — WE — we did make sports history, not only for the Dallas Cowboys but for the NFL. To go from the worst team in the league two years in a row to winning back-to-back Super Bowls and building a heck of a football team, we did it, and let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Jerry. Thank you for giving me that opportunity.”

Johnson would also deliver a powerful message about believing you can do something instead of dreaming about it.

“When I was at Dallas they said, ‘What makes you think you can win a Super Bowl with a team that just went 1-15?'” Johnson said. “I didn’t dream about it. I believed we were going to win a Super Bowl. When you believe something, it affects something about how you act, how you deal with people. Your expectations and the expectations you put on them.

“You treat a person as he is, he’s going to stay as he is. Treat a person as he could be or should be, and watch him become what he should be or could be.”

Johnson was brash, confident, and good as a Pro Football coach. Now, he’s immortalized forever as one of the best the game of football has ever witnessed.

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