Just Finished Jimmy Johnson's Book - A few interesting facts

ClappingCarrot said:

In preparation for Johnson's upcoming HOF enshrinement, I finally got around to reading a book that he and Ed Hinton wrote over 25 years ago, Turning the Thing Around. I was too young to remember Johnson as the Dallas coach and vaguely remember him and his time at the Dolphins, so it was refreshing for me at least to get an abbreviated overview of his life, both personally and professionally. It's a great book for Cowboys fans and those who have followed Johnson all over his coaching career, but feel that people not associated with the Cowboys or Johnson will find this book to be Johnson's own hero worship of himself (I think the man has earned the right to gloat, personally). Jimmy is arrogant and cocky, but fascinating and victorious.

Obviously, a lot has changed since the time this book was written, such as both of his parents passing away, as well as his abrupt departure from Dallas and eventual strained relationship with Jerry Jones.

Here are a few interesting facts about him that I learned and wanted to share, for those unaware:

1. Born and raised in the Carolinas, and, knowing that Jimmy Johnson never stayed employed at the same place too long, I was fascinated to learn that Johnson was briefly employed by the Clemson Tigers in the late 1960s. It was his shortest stint to date, as he only lasted with the program about 6 weeks. There, he served as DL Coach under the legendary Clemson Coach Frank Howard, whom Johnson did not know at all. Howard had a routine that he showered immediately after practice and then met with the coaches, and Jimmy thought it'd be odd to introduce himself while they were both naked in the shower. So Jimmy went about his business, only to find that Howard was urinating on Jimmy in the shower and shouted: "Hey little buddy!" Over 25 years later after Jimmy had been crowned the champion of Super Bowl 27, Howard sent him a card in the mail that congratulated him on the big win. At the bottom of the card he wrote: "PS - I promise never to pee on your leg again."

**Jimmy only lasted 6 weeks in Clemson because Iowa State paid him a higher salary than the DC to be a DL coach. Jimmy said Johnny Majors paid him a chunk of his salary under the table, so as to not ruffle any feathers since their salaries were public record at the university at the time.

2. Dining with Jimmy sounded bizarre, especially during his coaching days. Jimmy rarely ate when he went out to dinner. He used it as an opportunity to order several beers, "cut-up" with his company, and then take 15-20 orders to go. He would take them all home and freeze them, then eat basically the same thing for a week or two at a time. Mexican one week, Cajun next week, etc. Now - there were occasions where he would eat, but he would frequent On the Border and other restaurants and do this often. He once instructed a poor waitress at On the Border to stack entree to-go boxes as high as she could while he destroyed numerous Heinekens. I'm not sure if this is something that a lot of coaches do, because I can't imagine there is much time to cook during the season, but I got a kick out of it.

3. Jimmy marches to the beat of his own drum, and celebrates holidays how he chooses to celebrate them. Take Christmas for example. It wasn't uncommon for Jimmy to call his family and wish them a Merry Christmas on December 28th or 29th, and sometimes later. He would was generous and gave gifts as well, but they were often delivered well after Christmas Day. He also respected the religious aspect of it, but wasn't interested in celebrating a holiday how society dictated him to do so. Jimmy did however, throw famed Halloween parties dating back all the way to the 1960s with his first wife, Linda Kay Cooper. It was something he looked forward to every year. There were plenty of occasions where he would have his coaching staff over to get wasted with him, but he was never up too late. Jimmy was a happy hour enthusiast and was always in bed early, even during the off-season.

4. Jimmy had, at this point in his life (age 50), written off 3 men in his entire lifetime. His college coach at Arkansas, Frank Broyles, was one of them. In the early 1980s, Jimmy was given an interview by Frank for a vacant Head Coaching job down in Fayetteville. Jerry Jones had been looking out for his coaching career long before he hired him in Dallas, and implored Broyles to consider Jimmy for the coaching vacancy. Broyles, more or less, was trying to appease the wealthy alumni and donor Jerry, and did just that, but failed to mention that he had already offered the job to Ken Hatfield, who had already accepted it. Jimmy caught wind of this from a local beat writer, while he was in town and being courted by Broyles, which the media was able to sniff on. The ordeal humiliated and embarrassed Jimmy, and every time he was able to whip the hell out of the Razorbacks from there on out felt really good to him. He also had written off the President of the University of Miami, Thad Foote, for reneging on a contract extension that was promised to him, as well as Gary Stevens, a man who had agreed to be his OC in Dallas, but backed out at the last minute to stay with Coach Shula in Miami. Jimmy despised people that didn't honor their word. In regard to his confrontation with Stevens, he was able to poach a WR Coach from the Rams named Norv Turner, and the rest as they say is history.

5. I may never understand why Jimmy impulsively divorced his first wife. They were in love, he cared for her deeply, they had a good life together, and raised two great kids together. After Jimmy was hired in Dallas, he went on a jog alone one afternoon and decided that he wanted to live alone and wanted to be alone. I think, in his mind, he resented all of the travel desires that Linda Kay had and her desire to live in mansions and live a lavish, indulgent lifestyle. All Jimmy was interested in was coaching football, and having beers on the beach. I truly and emphatically believe that his family was second on his list of priorities, which he would lament later in life. Jimmy told her after his jog that he wanted a divorce, quietly left their residence, and didn't see her again until three years later, at his oldest son's wedding. He still took care of her though. He gave her everything he owned in the divorce settlement except for his cabin in coastal Texas. Since her life had revolved around his coaching career, he felt an obligation to make sure she never had to work again, and that made me respect Jimmy the man a lot. I'm certain that there is a lot more to that story than he had published in the book, however.

6. It's common knowledge that Jimmy shared a hometown with music legend, Janis Joplin, in Port Arthur, Texas, but I'm sure many would be surprised to learn that they were classmates. Janis was a grade ahead of Jimmy, but they took a history course together his Junior year and her Senior year. She sat directly behind him (alphabetical order), and Jimmy and his jock buddies used to tease her and call her "beat-weeds." "Beat" was a shortened play on the word "beatnik", and "weeds" was an adjective that Jimmy himself had coined that described her stringy, unkempt appearance. Every day in class he would greet her by saying, "Hey beat-weeds." Years later, when she died of a heroin overdose, Jimmy went out and bought several of her records out of respect. He listened to them, but ultimately decided that he didn't like her music at all.

7. Final fact - and I found this to be the most interesting. Jimmy notes in the book that he and Jerry have (at the time) a complicated, but cordial relationship, but exclaimed even in 1993 that they are not friends. They were never friends, and he didn't have the job in Dallas because they were friends. They were simply two men that had a great respect for one another in their respective fields and what they were able to accomplish. Jimmy had Jerry over at his house in 1982 and they were having drinks at his bar downstairs. He told Jerry that he admired the amount of money he was able to make in oil and insurance and asked Jerry just how he could go about doing the same thing. Jerry told him that, the way Jimmy thinks of football 24/7, that's how he thinks about making money and that's how they're both so successful. So I guess, kudos to Jerry for realizing how good Jimmy was as a coach well before he even was, and going to bat for him 20 years before ever even hiring him. But at the same time, damn Jerry for not letting these two minds peacefully coexist and trying to take on both roles.

Wow - I wrote a lot. Anyone else read this book? It was one of the finer Cowboys bios I've read. Landry wasn't nearly as interesting as Jimmy haha.

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LittleBoyBlue said:

Would have been the first and only NFL team to win 4 straight Superbowls. Maybe five.

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ninja said:

I think it was Shanahan who said if not for the salary cap, that team would have won 5 SBs. I think it was the cap and not coaching change that kept that team from achieving even more SBs.

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LittleBoyBlue said:

Would have been the first and only NFL team to win 4 straight Superbowls. Maybe five.

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luckyman76 said:

We were ultimately undone by Switzer coaching and drafting. Landy ultimately undid his own dynasty by being inflexible and taking over the draft. Look at how horrid the team became as a result a few years after Roger. The 90's team had the talent to do 5 but with Jimmy still around and drafting we likely win out the decade and he retires to TV with no Dolphins career and who knows who he recommends for his successor. Perhaps the BB era would have happened here instead of NE. Sometimes in life your best or only chance is your first one. Jerry was so selfish and foolish to think that kind of luck would always be there. When you own a business, you know you will reap rewards but your biggest concern is just don't let me get in the way of this being successful. Too many things ride on you not screwing up for not only yourself but everyone around you. We all have had to coexist with people at different jobs we didn't like but it made other things possible. Just because you are rich doesn't free you of that nor should it. You can tell that Jerry loves his yes men and what does that bring you.

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MikeB80 said:

it would have been nice if Jerry and Jimmy knew they were going to part ways as Jimmy always says had they done it earlier.

Norv Turner would have been a nice transition to head coach if jimmy was going to walk as he likes to claim.

Just one more thing Jerry Jones screwed up.

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luckyman76 said:

Norv left before that stuff happened and I am sure he gravitated more to Jimmy than Jerry so he didn't feel like that was the best situation for him. Jerry always mentions Jimmy with betrayal and disloyalty so I think it was always in his mind to stick it to Jimmy and he was going to put in his boy Barry. Barry was his backup. If you backtrack on Jerry and knowing that he wanted to the buy the Chargers and several other teams prior, the NFL was always a pet hobby/fetish with him his entire adult life. I am sure his connection to Jimmy for so long was part of his fostering that fetish and wanting to have things planned out. As Jimmy mentioned they weren't friends it was more of cultivating one of Jerry's deals. Jerry plays the long game. It is why he has been successful in business and with this franchise but not so much in this arena on the field. He was obsessed that he was every bit as good a football mind as Jimmy. Part of our current success at drafting is his taking credit for what Will McClay has done. With Stephen and Will letting Jerry take all of the credit they got him to be the "face" of the franchise like Jimmy had wanted while they did the work. Jerry is so desperate right now before he kicks to be vindicated for the mistake he made over 25 years ago.

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dckid said:

Wrong. Sorry to be so blunt.
It’s the culture that changed when Jimmy left. The NFL expertise. Just for a moment imagine. Jimmy the best coach in the league, back to back champ being replaced by a guy who had never coached a pro team and was run out of Oklahoma. Top talent evaluator in league, his draft grading chart is still alive to this day.
It was like going from Michael Jordan (92) to a 12th man on Appalachian State.

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luckyman76 said:

We were ultimately undone by Switzer coaching and drafting. Landy ultimately undid his own dynasty by being inflexible and taking over the draft. Look at how horrid the team became as a result a few years after Roger. The 90's team had the talent to do 5 but with Jimmy still around and drafting we likely win out the decade and he retires to TV with no Dolphins career and who knows who he recommends for his successor. Perhaps the BB era would have happened here instead of NE. Sometimes in life your best or only chance is your first one. Jerry was so selfish and foolish to think that kind of luck would always be there. When you own a business, you know you will reap rewards but your biggest concern is just don't let me get in the way of this being successful. Too many things ride on you not screwing up for not only yourself but everyone around you. We all have had to coexist with people at different jobs we didn't like but it made other things possible. Just because you are rich doesn't free you of that nor should it. You can tell that Jerry loves his yes men and what does that bring you.

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ninja said:

I think it was Shanahan who said if not for the salary cap, that team would have won 5 SBs. I think it was the cap and not coaching change that kept that team from achieving even more SBs.

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ClappingCarrot said:

Brett Favre too. Packers couldn't beat Jimmy's teams to save their lives.

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Chocolate Lab said:

On #5... I still remember when Jimmy was hired, and he said point blank at the press conference in front of the whole world that he wouldn't be seeing his wife* much anymore. He wasn't joking a bit, either. He was dead serious with that trademark Jimmy intensity. Even at the time as a kid, I thought that was cold. But that's how he was and how dedicated he was.

*I actually thought it was girlfriend at that time, but it appears from your post that he was still married at the time.

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