Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin had a lot to do with the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasty in the mid-1990s.
But so did Jimmy Johnson.
He arrived in Dallas in 1989 and slowly built the franchise. He went 1-15 in 1989, 7-9 in 1990, 11-5 in 1991, and 13-3 – with a Super Bowl title – in 1992. Johnson won another Super Bowl in 1993, but he and Jerry Jones had a falling out. Johnson left the franchise after the 1993 season.
One can only wonder what would have happened had Johnson stayed.
Johnson, however, doesn’t really think about that.
“No, I never look back on those things,” he said on The DA Show. “Not just the Cowboys, [but] when I was at Oklahoma State, we recruited Thurman Thomas, we had a great team coming back and people were surprised that I left that team because it had some great players.”
Johnson coached Oklahoma State from 1979 to 1983 before departing for Miami. He coached the Hurricanes from 1984 to 1988 and won a national title in 1987.
“People were surprised when I left Miami because we had great, great players,” Johnson said. “They won a couple of national championships after I left. [I went] to a struggling franchise that had three straight losing seasons and had the worst team in the NFL, but I moved there.”
The Cowboys were coming off a 3-13 season in 1988, but Johnson worked his magic.
“I left the Cowboys after two Super Bowls, and I left them in pretty good shape,” he said. “They won another Super Bowl after that. So I just always did things to kind of make myself happy. Are you happy because you win or do you win because you’re happy? I was always a better coach when I was upbeat and positive and happy, so I’ve made moves because I wanted to be happy.”
While Johnson wanted to be happy, he was also never satisfied. The more his players achieved, the harder he was on them.
“Terry Bradshaw said, ‘You were such an SOB to those players. After your first Super Bowl, they said you were even harder on them the next year. With a veteran team, had you stayed, would you have lightened up because you had so much experience?’” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘No, I would have been a bigger SOB.’ Because as you have success, players get complacent. Everybody is saying, ‘Well, I didn’t get enough money. I want a new contract. I didn’t get enough accolades.’ Everybody wants more.
“So the only guy that’s got the hammer is the head coach,” Johnson said. “I had to drill them. I was harder on them after the first Super Bowl than what I would have been, and I was even harder after the second Super Bowl. The other thing is, you can’t be satisfied with the talent that you have. You have to continually work free agency, the draft and try to get trades to try to upgrade your talent and bring in younger players. We were the youngest team in the league my first Super Bowl. I would continually bring in players and that would have kept the success there.”