Dallas' final game of the season was a home contest against the lowly Chicago Bears. With 10:59 remaining in the fourth quarter, Dallas held a 27-0 lead that had the 63,101 fans dancing in the aisles. Needing 109 yards to surpass Pittsburgh's Barry Foster for the league rushing lead, Emmitt Smith clinched the crown with a 31-yard touchdown scamper early in the third quarter. Defensive tackle Russell Maryland scored his first career touchdown when he snagged a bobbled pitchout, rumbled 26 yards into the end zone and celebrated with a bellyflop. It was a good day. A great day. A celebratory day.
Until Curvin Richards entered the game.
In 13 carries, Richards fumbled twice. His first was returned 42 yards by Chicago lineman Chris Zorich. "Man, Jimmy was mad," says Tim Daniel, a Cowboys wide receiver. "I was standing right there when he turned to Curvin and said, point blank, 'If you fumble again, your a-- is cut and you'll never carry the ball for the Dallas Cowboys again.'" Then Richards fumbled again. Johnson yanked him. As he jogged toward the sideline, Richards surely expected to be browbeaten by Johnson. Instead, the coach said the worst thing possible: absolutely nothing.
The Cowboys held on to win, 27-14, and entered the locker room with a franchise-best 13-3 record; an NFC East title; a bye week -- and a coach again on the brink of a meltdown. Two weeks after the airplane incident, Johnson was even angrier. In his postgame press conference, he refused to look directly at the assembled reporters, muttering, "The team is to be congratulated on winning 13 games. (But) I was not happy with the sloppy play." Johnson furiously chewed out his players, pinpointing each miscue as if it had occurred in the final minutes of a deadlocked Super Bowl.
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AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Johnson and Troy Aikman were definitely a successful tandem, although they didn't always see eye to eye.
"This is crazy," Tony Wise, the offensive line coach, said. "Whether anybody around here believes it or not, we beat a pretty good football team today." Aikman was equally disturbed. "What really concerned me is that he didn't congratulate us at all," he said. "That was really hard on a lot of guys. There was a lot of bitterness."
After addressing (and undressing) the team, Johnson headed straight for Jerry Jones' suite to let his owner have it. With a quarter remaining in the game, Jones had escorted Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, onto the sideline. When Johnson spotted the smiling owner and prince (as well as Bandar's six bodyguards), he flipped. "What the f--- were these guys doing here?" he yelled at Jones. "In the middle of a game that we're blowing?"
After Johnson calmed down, he told Jones that Richards had to be cut. The owner insisted they sleep on it, but the following morning the coach's mind was unchanged. In the history of the NFL postseason, teams won scoring a lot and scoring a little. They won with good defense and adequate defense. They won with clutch kickers and nervous kickers. They never won turning over the football.
When the Cowboys informed the league of the transaction, Joel Bussert, the NFL's senior director of player personnel, was shocked. "Jimmy," he said, "I just want to make sure you know that you'll have to pay this guy full playoff money and that you can't replace him now on the postseason roster."
"Fine," said Johnson. "I just want Richards away from us."
Upon learning of his fate from Johnson, the low-key Richards nodded his head, cleaned out his locker and quietly departed Valley Ranch. His teammates were saddened, but hardly surprised. "Jimmy gave Curvin plenty of warnings," says James Washington. "What else was he supposed to do?"
The Cowboys were heading to the playoffs -- one man down.
