Video: Aikman on why he left the Cowboys - never hear this before

[visionary]

All you old heads let nostalgia glasses taint your memories. Dude had one of the greatest teams ever assembled HOFers and all pros everywhere, but sure let’s act like he carried a subpar team to 3 championships. Whooo aikman

Like i said, pathetic loser post by someone who obviously has zero understanding of football

 

[Jstopper]

Like i said, pathetic loser post by someone who obviously has zero understanding of football

Yeah you can’t refute my argument grandpa. That’s because it’s true. How many of his contemporaries were better than him? Too bad they weren’t fortunate enough to QB those super talented Cowboys teams too

 

[Brax]

You forgot "WINNER" in all that name calling.

Amazing to see all the bashing of a HOF qb who won 3 SBs and all those Playoff games for speaking the truth and these same folks praise saint Dak to no end. Truly embarrassing to be a cowboys fan with clowns like some of these.

 

[J_Allen]

Didn't watch the video. But in reality his brain was toast if he took another hard hit. He had to get out of football.

You just knew he was going to get a concussion towards the end. It was only a matter of which quarter.

 

[J_Allen]

What I heard was that Aikman didn’t want to submit to another head coach, but wanted a say so in how the team was run. This fits right in with the immediate contemporary reports that Aikman hated Chan Gailey.

This is why I’ve always contended that Aikman’s complaints about the lack of discipline under Switzer have to be taken with a grain of salt. He claimed to want a more authoritative leader like Jimmy Johnson, but when Jerry gave him Gailey, Aikman rebelled against him.

I’m not blaming Aikman. I’m just saying he complained about Switzer being too lenient, but that leniency allowed Aikman to have a big say so. That same leniency was taken advantage of by other players to act badly, but both the self-disciplined and the unselfish-disciplined players got the same leniency. Aikman wanted leniency for himself, but not other players. I don’t believe that would have worked, and if Switzer did that, I don’t think they win SB XXX.

But when Aikman lost his say so because a strict coach was hired to corral the wild players, Aikman then complained about not having a say so. To this day, I don’t think Aikman sees the conflict in how he reacted to both Switzer’s leniency and Gailey’s strictness. I also don’t think Aikman and the other SB veterans would have reacted kindly to another disciplinarian not named Jimmy Johnson after Jimmy left.

Ultimately, it was a no win situation for Jerry Jones. He tried to put on a good public face, and put lipstick on the pig. But the entire team wouldn’t accept another disciplinarian after Jimmy. So the best Jerry could do was hire someone willing to have a light touch and let the veterans run the team - which he did when he hired Switzer.

Remember that Switzer’s initial reaction was to chastise both Jimmy and Jerry for not working it out between themselves. But Switzer was willing to come in with a light touch, and dang near led the team to two more SB wins - if not for Aikman crapping himself with three interceptions in the first quarter of the Championship game in 1994, and for a non-PI call which should have gone against Deion Sanders that game.

The problem was the split in the attitudes of the veterans. On the one hand, you have the scandalous behavior of even some of the HOF players like Irvin and Haley. On the other hand, players like Aikman longed for the strong hand of Johnson, but in actuality wouldn’t accept it from anyone but Johnson himself.

Bottom line: Aikman wants to maintain his righteous indignation, but fails to examine how his own responses to Switzer and then Gailey conflict with that righteous indignation.

That not all that unusual. Many people fail to see their own inconsistencies. It’s a common issue we all struggle with.

Ultimately, Aikman and all the other players never got over the split between Jimmy and Jerry, and it seems like Aikman is still not over it. You see the same dynamic in children of divorce. Some get over it. Some never do. And some continue to blame one parent above the other. It seems like Aikman (and many fans) continue to blame Jerry more than Jimmy. I think Jimmy AND Jerry are both 100% culpable.

In the end, Aikman wanted out. No problem. He got out. And just like Jerry paid off Jimmy to leave, Jerry gave Aikman a big bonus as he walked out the door also.

Jerry paid them off AND still gets most of the blame. But Jerry also still reaps the rewards, which I think Aikman highly resents.

The final epitaph. After Gailey was fired, and all the salary cap stuff was paid off, Jerry hired another disciplinarian to run the team - Bill Parcells. The very first thing Bill did was run off the one remaining big star from the Jimmy Johnson era - Emmitt Smith. So even Bill knew that none of Jimmy’s stars were going to accept another strong hand.

That’s the sad story of divorce.

That's the best write-up I've seen regarding the 90's Cowboys. Brilliant.

 

[Proof]

People do it all the time. Your job starting to suck? Transfer or retire if you can. He went through the suffering in '89 and '90.

There's no more loyalty in sports than any other place of business. Players do what's best for themselves, and owners do what's best for the team.

that’s cool, but removes a lot of the respect and platitudes imo. step up if you want a legacy

 

[SultanOfSix]

All I heard is that the organization was becoming a circus atmosphere instead of a real football one like what it was under Jimmy and that was making Aikman look like a clown by association so he didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.

 

[Mark]

This just solidifies that Jerry not only ran away Jimmy but also Troy

For my money the worst owner in sports from a fan perspective

Jerry OWNED a team - a fact that was lorded-over everyone. Included his hand-picked head coach. But wasn't a "team-player", when the rubber hit the road. I think he kinda gets that now.

 

[visionary]

Jerry OWNED a team - a fact that was lorded-over everyone. Included his hand-picked head coach. But wasn't a "team-player", when the rubber hit the road. I think he kinda gets that now.

Still doesnt
Hes just older but the same football moron

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Well, aren't you special, Troy?
I thought you had left because of diminished talents.

 

[DB_Cooper]

I’m a HUGE Troy fan but he is also the reason we reached for David LaFleur… He wasn’t that good of a GM back then.either… I do agree he left though because Jerry wasn’t running things the way he agreed with. Combine that with his injury history and it was time to move on.

 

[Birch_Wood]

He had too many concussions and back issues, it wasn't worth it. His reasoning is very similar to Barry Sanders thought process for leaving the Lions. No light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[kskboys]

All that leadership and winning went away once the salary cap couldn’t keep him surrounded by hall of famers on both sides of the ball

Ahem...no. Very poor leadership. Stupid decisions after stupid decision. Had almost nothing to do w/ the salary cap.

 

[Techsass]

Didn't watch the video. But in reality his brain was toast if he took another hard hit. He had to get out of football.

The video is short. Less than a minute long.

 

[gtdRR]

I think that may just be his view from his 2024 lens. At the time, he had several concussions and a back injury issue that seemed to keep him from being 100% most of the time. He was also extremely frustrated by the team's inability to build through the draft (part was his fault - hand picked TE who was a bust). I remember him commenting they had not had a rookie break into the starting lineup in 3 years.

This interview is from 2015 or so. There is some context, that is missing in OP's short clip, in regards to his attitude and style of leadership. We all know the culture of this team took a dump once Jimmy left. Here is the full interview.

 

[links18]

Aikman grabbed every single penny he could and did not care one bit if the team had less to pay other players.

Where are you getting that from?

 

[TwoCentPlain]

Where are you getting that from?

Recalling articles I read about his contracts in the salary cap era and how the dead money of his contracts hamstrung the team for years. I believe he signed the richest contract ever at that time.

Aikman did not give the Cowboys any loyalty discounts.

 

[BusDriver]

Amazing to see all the bashing of a HOF qb who won 3 SBs and all those Playoff games for speaking the truth and these same folks praise saint Dak to no end. Truly embarrassing to be a cowboys fan with clowns like some of these.

Even more amazing is the video is almost 10 years old and Troy is even more accurate now than he was then… and the way the NFL was when he played … not many QBs in today’s era would survive a season .., maybe Allen.

People acting like a QB gets lucky and wins 3 SB in 4 years … yeah go Dak.

 

[zrinkill]

Bunch of disrespectful children in this thread ........ we would be beyond lucky to have a young Troy Aikman to build this team around.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

Even more amazing is the video is almost 10 years old and Troy is even more accurate now than he was then… and the way the NFL was when he played … not many QBs in today’s era would survive a season .., maybe Allen.

People acting like a QB gets lucky and wins 3 SB in 4 years … yeah go Dak.

Haven't you heard? He's a busDriver. He was surrounded by all of these HOF'ers except they weren't at the time. They all came up together . Nobody knew what we had until they started winning and Troy was the leader.