Re-evaluating Jimmy Johnson

[John813]

Egos ruined the 90s team. Owners ego. Jimmy's ego. Players ego grew large too.

If Jerry and Jimmy weren't so head strong about credit I think Jimmy would of still had a short life span here but maybe lasted another 2-3 years.

Barry was a good coach but at the same time he allowed players to lose their edge.

Jimmy got lucky with an idiot Vikings FO and an owner willing at first to allow him to trade their best player and retool.

 

[jwitten82]

I think the way it went down, with Jimmy clowning Jerry at that dinner, then Jerry's comment about how many coaches could lead them to a SB is what caused the rift.

What dinner? What did he say?

 

[Runwildboys]

That's silly. Switzer didn't cost them the 94 NFC championship. An arrogant team that hadn't lost a playoff game in almost 3 years going against a team ready for revenge and peaking at the right time. That's what happened. 1996 Cowboys were a washed up team riddled with injuries.

Switzer wasn't a disciplinarian. He left it on Troy's shoulders to be the bad guy, which Troy hated. When Jimmy was there, he was the bad cop and Troy was the good cop, by design. It kept the team in line, while letting Troy keep a high level of respect and camaraderie.

 

[Vtwin]

Jimmy himself said his style starts to wear thin about 5 years in. Madden/Summeral talked about during the 93 championship game. Madden was uncertain about Jimmy's future with the Cowboys at that time based on conversations he had with Jimmy.

I think he had one foot out the door and the encounter with Jerry sealed the deal. The 94 team had plenty of leadership in the room, where it matters the most. The 95 team was less talented and the cracks started to show.

As instrumental as he was to building the roster and culture, I don't think Jimmy's presence 94-96 would have made that much difference.

 

[ChuckA1]

There's no doubt in my mind they win the third and then four in a row with JJ there. That's historic!

 

[JoeKing]

I used to be one of those fans who believe that had Jimmy stayed we would have won more Super Bowls.

Not anymore.

I now realize that things ended the way they did because it couldn't have gone any other way. Jimmy Johnson's act as a tough-minded psych genius was getting old and Jimmy recognized it. He figured it was better to go out on top vs. sticking around for the downside. Much easier to build a young, fast team and to do it from the perspective as the most recent best college football coach with the most cutting edge knowledge of the young players of that era. Much more difficult to maintain a team that had already peaked, was already starting to lose players and to babysit a team full of spoiled superstars.

In fact, I'm actually more impressed with what Barry Switzer did. There may have been no other coach that could have stepped into that situation and keep it together long enough to win another championship.

Your thoughts?

Reimagining history is fun. I bet you also like to pretend Jackie Robison really wasn't that good at baseball, Jesse Owens didn't embarrass the Germans in Berlin in 1936 and Max Schmeling beat Joe Louis.

 

[plasticman]

Jimmy left because Jerry reneged on their contractual agreement which was Jimmy had final say in all football matters. Despite Jerry's campaign to rewrite history that is a fact.

Another fact is Jerry doesn't know the difference between his butt and a hole in the ground when it comes to NFL football.

Any suggestion that Jerry was an equal contributor in building that dynasty is ludicrous. It was the guy that won a national championship and recruited 31 high school players that ultimately played in the NFL

Jerry was the wallet and nothing more. He doesn't build teams he destroys them.

 

[Runwildboys]

What dinner? What did he say?

My bad, it wasn't a dinner:

On March 21, management and staff from each NFL team were attending the league meetings in Orlando. ABC was throwing a party at Disney’s Pleasure Island to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Football. Johnson and a table full of Cowboy employees and spouses were tipping back drinks and swapping work stories when Jones himself suddenly approached.

Unbeknownst to Jones, he was the subject of conversation before he arrived tableside.

An awkward hush fell amongst the group. With scouting director Larry Lacewell by his side and his own drink in hand, Jones banged the table and made a loud, boisterous, self-serving toast.

“Here’s to the Dallas Cowboys, and here’s to the people who made it possible to win two Super Bowls!”

Johnson was with Wannstedt, by then head coach in Chicago, offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who had just been named head coach in Washington, their wives, and several other team staffers, more than one of whom were now ex-staffers after being fired by Jones.

Not one person joined Jones in his toast and the silence was deafening.

Johnson glared at Jones. The billionaire and his ego-enhancing praise were not welcome with this bunch. Jones slammed down his glass, offered a few choice profanities, and retreated back to the hotel bar at the Hyatt Grand Cypress.

 

[eromeopolk]

I used to be one of those fans who believe that had Jimmy stayed we would have won more Super Bowls.

Not anymore.

I now realize that things ended the way they did because it couldn't have gone any other way. Jimmy Johnson's act as a tough-minded psych genius was getting old and Jimmy recognized it. He figured it was better to go out on top vs. sticking around for the downside. Much easier to build a young, fast team and to do it from the perspective as the most recent best college football coach with the most cutting edge knowledge of the young players of that era. Much more difficult to maintain a team that had already peaked, was already starting to lose players and to babysit a team full of spoiled superstars.

In fact, I'm actually more impressed with what Barry Switzer did. There may have been no other coach that could have stepped into that situation and keep it together long enough to win another championship.

Your thoughts?

Yes Barry was a perfect pick for a bad decision to fire a back to back Super Bowl Winning Coach that was totally prepared and committed to 3-peat.

Remember the blow up (Jimmy and Jerry) was at the owners meeting. If Jimmy was disengaged wanting out of Dallas he would not have been at the owners meeting, preparing for the draft, meeting with his former right hand men, hiring Tom Ciscowski, talking to assistant coach Mike Zimmer to join the boys, and after getting fired going to his parents and Port Arthur telling them "He took my team away from me"

Barry was sitting on his porch going back and forth the the casinos and would and he and Lacewell would not challenge Jerry Dumbo GM Jones in anything. So if you want to give Barry credit for leaving The Cowboys every Thursday/Friday through Saturday to watch his son play QB in some small school in Oklahoma be my guess.

This is not my thoughts but facts.

 

[MoistMayonnaise]

The past is written. Learn from it and move on, something I wish Jerry would do.

 

[tunahelper]

I used to be one of those fans who believe that had Jimmy stayed we would have won more Super Bowls.

Not anymore.

I now realize that things ended the way they did because it couldn't have gone any other way. Jimmy Johnson's act as a tough-minded psych genius was getting old and Jimmy recognized it. He figured it was better to go out on top vs. sticking around for the downside. Much easier to build a young, fast team and to do it from the perspective as the most recent best college football coach with the most cutting edge knowledge of the young players of that era. Much more difficult to maintain a team that had already peaked, was already starting to lose players and to babysit a team full of spoiled superstars.

In fact, I'm actually more impressed with what Barry Switzer did. There may have been no other coach that could have stepped into that situation and keep it together long enough to win another championship.

Your thoughts?

Aikman is on record that he disagrees with you. I also believe more titles would have been gained if Jimmy stayed.

 

[TheCritic]

I think if Jimmy would have stayed one more year we would have won 4 straight super bowls.

That's fair to argue. But my guess would be that JJ would have been even more "over the top" with being a paranoid dictator, the player being too full of themselves after 2 SBs. And what about the 49ers? They brought in Deion Sanders that year and I would argue that Sanders had his finest season. I still believe that the 49ers were destined to win it all that year.

 

[TheCritic]

Aikman is on record that he disagrees with you. I also believe more titles would have been gained if Jimmy stayed.

Yes I too remember Aikman wildly complaining about Switzer as he was hoisting the SB XXX Lombardi.

 

[john van brocklin]

That's fair to argue. But my guess would be that JJ would have been even more "over the top" with being a paranoid dictator, the player being too full of themselves after 2 SBs. And what about the 49ers? They brought in Deion Sanders that year and I would argue that Sanders had his finest season. I still believe that the 49ers were destined to win it all that year.

Could have gone either way.
We will never know.

 

[Risen Star]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

~flush~

 

[conner01]

Switzer cost us at least 1 championship in 94. The lack of discipline we lost after Jimmy left was a huge difference as Troy often eluded to.

1996 is another season we could have made a deeper run. More discipline issues off the field that year. We still had our core talent to make another run.

And Jimmy leaving will always be on Jethro’s hand . You bow down to a back to back HC not buck heads with him. Our franchise has never fully recovered. It’s been a dysfunctional mess ever since .

We would have been in the SB at least once more with jimmy
We could have not hired a worse coach to replace jimmy because he created the lack of discipline

 

[RS12]

Sigh. Not this again. The one story nobody ever wants to talk about is how in the training camp 94 (Switzer's first} Jerry showed up to camp in full coaching gear with a whistle. Aikman verified that he told Jimmy this in a phone call back then. It is not a stretch to think Jerry ran this by Jimmy who the second he got done rolling on the floor realized it was feet do your stuff time. This was the beginning of the culture turning rotten with Jerry undermining weak coaches.

I distinctly remember beginning with 94 pre season games and continuing on the season how much sloppier the play was with penalties in particular. Yes Eric Williams was lost for the season but there is no doubt in my mind they beat SF and then SD for another Lombardi with Jimmy. The following year with a deteriorating roster and sub par coaching they still had enough talent left and had the good fortune to run into Neil O Donnell who couldnt tell a dark jersey from a light one.

 

[Runwildboys]

We would have been in the SB at least once more with jimmy
We could have not hired a worse coach to replace jimmy because he created the lack of discipline

No, we definitely could've done worse...but we sure as hell could've done better.

 

[sunalsorises]

Jimmy probably had another year or two left in him in Dallas or else he wouldn’t have went on to coach the Dolphins. In the end, Jerry got another championship and Jimmy didn’t. Given all that happened since then I wonder if Jerry thinks it was worth it. I truly believe Jimmy is at peace on his boat fishing. I don’t think Jerry is.

 

[conner01]

No, we definitely could've done worse...but we sure as hell could've done better.

Not sure we could have done much worse but I guess Jerry could have hired me lol