ARLINGTON, Texas — The day finally came: Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson being inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.
Jones made the announcement before a road game at the Panthers in November, with the honors being displayed during halftime of the Dec. 30 matchup with the Detroit Lions. Hours before the game kicked off, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Johnson sat down with the media to discuss the induction.
Here's what Jones and Johnson said:
On the conversations leading up to the announcement:
Jimmy Johnson: “There at the Chargers game, it’s funny because every time I’m with Jerry (Jones), even being here for the last hour-or-so, we just tell stories back and forth, laugh and cut up. Kind of like what Terry Bradshaw said when he saw us together at the Hall of Fame. He said ‘when you two guys are together, you’re like a couple of brothers laughing, cutting up and telling stories. And we tell some stories, some of them we can’t talk about here, but we were just telling stories back of fourth and then the Ring of Honor thing came up.”
Jerry Jones: “You’re going to hear me later today and other than that, I am not very scripted. You are going to hear the word, ‘right’. When we finally got the word that says he’s in the Ring of Honor, this is a rightful place for him. That says it all from my prospective. It’s so easy for me to go back to our very first weeks and remember when we first became part of the cowboys together. I can remember a week or so before that, I can remember personal visits with Jimmy. Dallas was really down and out. The banks were broke; it was a hard financial time. It was a rough time in Dallas. I said, you know those Cowboys down there, Rodger Staubach and Bob Lilly. I said, ‘boy they have such a part of what feels good down in Dallas, and wouldn’t it be something if we went down there and somehow were part of getting that thing going.’ If we could become a part of reviving, not only the feeling about the cowboys, but also the whole feel of the economy. We remember those conversations, and many like them.”
Johnson: “People, they hear the story, and they don’t believe it, but I don’t ever remember Jerry (Jones) even asking me to be the coach of the Cowboys. It was kind of an assumption. When I showed up and did the press conference, we never talked contract and we never talked money. We didn’t actually do a contract for a month-or-two. I just told him I don’t want to make less than I do at University of Miami, I am happy to be here. But that was the relationship we had. Jerry and I talked every single day and as you know, Jerry can talk. I’d go over to his office and sometimes I’d be in there for hours and id have work to do but Jerry would be talking. We talked every single day. I think maybe we talked so much because when you’re 1-15, you don’t have many friends, so we were talking to each other. That was the relationship we had from day one.”
Jones: “One of the reasons I had all of the respect, that you could possibly have for Jimmy and his ability to coach, and I say that knowing it’s a mouthful. He obviously had tremendous success at the collegiate level, had not coached at the college level. Jimmy fired me up, he was inspirational to me and always had been inspirational.”
On what they would do differently looking and if they would have stayed together:
Johnson: “I think for me the biggest thing was communication. When we were together everything was fantastic. I think maybe in the fourth or fifth year we kind of got to a part where we didn’t talk every day and so the communication probably could’ve gotten better but we had a great run. Something that we are both very, very proud of and the Cowboys are in great shape and so I just don’t look back and say ‘what if’."
Jones: “Yeah I’ll say this, the thing that we got to be a part of and it was intense certainly from my perspective and so to have gotten there and then ended up where we were, which was successful. I lost some tolerance when I was a little more humble, but I lost some tolerance. Cause I had kind of been there to a lot of butt kickings that we had over the last years and we certainly were enjoying that kind of success and I literally thought this thing could get more, maybe from me but certainly I thought it was time. I sensed without speaking for him, I sensed that he thought it was possibly time to go, what we were going to do going forward I didn’t give that the kind of thought that you might think I would have. I went to go see my momma and daddy the night before we met in Hot Springs, Arkansas, The first mother had ever been out with me and dad having a few drinks and that was rare because we enjoyed talking to each other and I was sharing with him my feelings, ‘is it me, is it me?’ and he asked me, ‘do you think you could get this thing right and maybe go another year or two and I basically and perspectively said, what Jimmy brings is a lot of enthusiasm and when it’s going the other way I didn’t like myself, I really don’t, and that mentality probably caused me to not be as tolerant as maybe we could have gone. Now the other issue, I’m not speaking for him…”
Johnson: “Sometimes I’m kind of like a gypsy, I’ve never been anywhere more than five years, and so it got to the point after winning a couple of Super Bowls, of saying, ‘hey, I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish’. And so sometimes you lose sight of what you can do, because of what you’ve already done. I think something that were both very proud of is when we first came to the Cowboys, it was no rules, just because the NFL did it a certain way we didn’t have to do it that way. I go out there and I ask our strength coach, I said ‘where are our players?’ He said ‘Well it’s cold here, our players they don’t come around in the offseason’ and I said come around in the offseason my ass, I said ‘they’re going to be here every day!, we got training camp, we got to lift weights, where’s our weight room, and it’s over behind the fence and I said its too cold to lift weights out here in Dallas!’ So I went to Jerry and said we need to build us a weight room, we gotta get those players in here. And so we started working players out year-round and I forgot who the media was but they said ‘Man these guys are crazy, those players will be one slap-out by the time they get to December.’ But we didn’t know any different and just thought this is the way we did it and Jerry and I talked about it, ‘Hey, here’s the way that we going to go and everybody said, ‘Well in the NFL you take me best players available, and so Jerry and I talked about and I said, ‘Jerry what if we don’t like that player? What do we do?’ But it was kind of that atmosphere between the two of us that we weren’t going to play with scared money. We were going to take chances, and we were going to do things that we believed were right regardless of what the NFL did. And I think that’s one of the reasons why we were able to jump-start that thing.”
Jones: “I heard a lot of my life that you take two people back-to-back and if they’re really back-to-back, and they’re thinking just right and they’re really moving and I don’t know what happens if you get three or four, but two people that are bad to the bone and are really working together and in sync, a lot of great things can happen with that. There was no question that I had complete trust in Jimmy’s opinion, all of this stuff is not hard tangible that we’re talking about here, all of this stuff is based upon ‘Do we think it will go’. I do know Jimmy I want to point this out, it was a protective thing. Jimmy would come back and check if I was in a tough meeting and say ‘How you doing, are you okay, I know you had a bad day’. And when Jimmy did his contract we did it for ten years, and I thought, ‘Well you’re going to be here 27, Tom Landry was.’ And so the Cowboys signed him, but the Cowboys weren’t what the paper was written on, I had bought part of them from the government and foreclosed on it, so their signature was not any good. And so when Jimmy finally got around to doing his contract, and the Cowboys signed it, I reached over and nobody said anything and I personally guaranteed him. And I said at least you can come live with me and Eugenia if this thing doesn’t work and…”
Johnson: “And look how things turned out!”
Jones: “But my point is, there was a real genuine get in, get it done. Let me begin by saying, what did happen was the greatest thing frankly happened in my life certainly professionally, was that period of time, those years that we were able to make those kinds of things happen. It changed my life…”
Johnson: “And mine!”
On if looking at the Ring Of Honor had meaning to them:
Johnson: “Well, I don’t think anybody can ever imagine what this means to me. This was a special time in my life. This was something that paid dividends for the me the rest of my life. It’s something that I’m extremely proud of. We took over the worst football team in the NFL…the worst! Three straight losing seasons and a 3-13 record and not only did we win Super Bowls, we were able to put together the team of 90’s. So obviously, I’m very proud of that and I’m proud to have my name up in the stadium.”
Jones: “And I’d like to add to that, Tex (Schram), and I say this with all respect for Tex Schram, he had pretty strong ideas about what the Ring Of Honor is to him. He said, first of all, he said, I hope that you will consider it exclusive; not have huge numbers. He said, I like to think whether it’s Staubach, whether who it is, I’d like to think apart from the way that an individual may be thought about with the NFL Hall Of Fame. I’m not trying to put this above the NFL Hall Of Fame at all, just his perspective of what this means. I think it’s very distinct. I think it’s very definite because what he wanted it to be was someone who really made a serious step forward for the franchise, not necessarily the won/loss record, the franchise. It turns out that there’s only one other coach in it and that’s of course, Tom Landry. There’s actually only a total of three there today that aren’t players. That will change here in just a little bit. The point is, that Jimmy is that and he did make that kind of difference for the franchise. Obviously, a great coach and a great manager of the team. So, all of that, I think, is reflected in a lot of ways with the NFL Hall Of Fame. But it is also is a different statement when we say Jimmy you now forevermore, rightfully so, are in the Cowboys Ring Of Honor.”
On the message to fans now that Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson are both in the Ring of Honor:
Jones: “I take deference to I put them in the Ring of Honor. I get it. It ultimately has to… the way it’s structured, that’s okay. But they made themselves into the Ring of Honor. Coach Landry went into the Ring of Honor long before Jerry Jones. The Ring of Honor are made up of people who put themselves in the Ring of Honor and in doing so they lifted the Cowboys to a level that it wasn’t or wouldn’t have been had they not come along. And that’s why Jimmy’s going in.”
On Jerry Jones being the only Hall of Famer that isn’t in the Ring of Honor:
Jones: “Obviously that enjoys a certain uncomfortableness on my part from that standpoint. I want to differentiate… seriously… again the difference in the NFL Hall of Fame and the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. I don’t have an answer for that question there and I’m not so sure that we’ll go there with this selector.”
Johnson: “Just like when they asked me on recommendation on you going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I’ll be the first one to say that you need to be in the Ring of Honor.”
On the difficulty of giving Jimmy credit by inducting him into the Ring of Honor:
Johnson: “Can I interrupt you, Jerry? I think we’re past on who gets the credit. The two of us working together made history. And when I say working together, just like I told you earlier on, we talked every single day. I don’t ever recall us having a difference of opinion. I can’t remember an argument. We were always on the same page. And so, the credit needs to go to a lot of people. Jerry, Jimmy, a bunch of the assistant coaches, great players. Some of them weren’t that great when we were 1-15, but they were pretty fantastic when we held up that trophy. So, a lot of people take credit.”
Jones: “Let me also answer this, Jimmy. This didn’t have to happen. It happened because it was the right thing to do. That’s not a difficulty of credit. It’s just the right thing to do. They say, “Why has it lasted this long?” As it turns out, when you go in that means you were there all along in that sense. I will agree with you that somebody could’ve said, “Jerry, shouldn’t Jimmy have been in 15 years ago, 20 years ago?” You can say whatever you want to about my human reactions or afraid that he’s along in that spot. I say this today, he’s there because it’s the right thing to do. He was always going into the Ring of Honor… whether I put him in or one of my kids put him in.”
On being directed to a photo on the wall of a very early press conference (of Jerry and Jimmy) and that they go back even further to their time at Arkansas and if images like that cause them to reflect on how far back the relationship dates, and about what are they most appreciative and what they cherish most:
Jones: “Well, I’ll start that, Jimmy, by saying that I had mentioned that I stood on the bench to try to get Coach Broyles to make him head coach at Arkansas. And then I really stood on the bench and pushed any way I knew how to push for him to be the head coach at Oklahoma State. I was always wanting him to be the head coach, wherever. And so, when the opportunity or challenge or whatever of the Dallas Cowboys came along, it was a natural. I remember when I called Jimmy, he said, ‘I don’t care if it is selling insurance or if it is plumbing. I always wanted to be on the team with you. Just figure me in, if you will.’ And so the point is, it was a natural thing to do. This is a very natural thing to do that we’re sitting up here. Whatever I thought you were, worth five Heisman Trophies, whatever I thought you were, and we’d been good enough friends that I knew some of what he wasn’t, okay? But whatever I thought you were, you overdelivered.”
Johnson: “And, that first press conference, that picture up there, he’s still in charge of the socks and the jocks. But that press conference there, I felt like we were going into a hornet’s nest. And we were. And I just wanted to give out a message, just, be patient with us. Give us a chance. Because confidence has never been lacking with Jerry or myself. Both of us found that we were going to get the job done if people would just be patient with us.”
Jones: “I will say this, it was a nice long list that had pointed out how we were gonna bust our ass. A big long list of them. And had a lot of reasons why we were going to at the time. And if you recall, football was kind of sliding a little bit at that particular time. Even here in Dallas, the Mavericks were hot. Cowboys a little slow, a little slow moving, when they’ve looked at it like that. They were talking about reducing TV contracts. This was no silk purse. But I will tell you right now, to get involved with it, I wanted to be with someone I had confidence in that was extraordinarily talented that I believed it. That’s why Jimmy deserves to be in the Ring of Honor. You overdelivered.”
On the significance of this achievement and being acknowledged by the franchise:
Johnson: “I think the significance has a little bit to do with the players. We got some players back in ’89 and we struggled. Those players got better and better and better. We were able to accomplish something that most people didn’t think that we could ever accomplish. We did it in a short amount of time, but if you’d rather coach for twenty years and win a couple of playoff games or coach for five and win a couple Super Bowls. But like I said before, I don’t think anybody could imagine how I feel. I’m proud. I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish. And when I saw ‘we’, Jerry and I and everybody, everybody around here…our entire organization. Everybody was pulling together. When you get that many people pulling together, you can accomplish a lot of things. Like I said, I’m just proud to be there.”
On if Jimmy Johnson ever got numb to what it would take to be successful after having seen a lot of great teams come and go:
Johnson: "Like I said, we’ve never lacked on confidence. There was never a doubt in our mind. When I was at Oklahoma State – I hate to make it personal, but I’ll do it anyway. When I was at Oklahoma State, I had my group: Wannstedt, Wise, Butch Davis, all those guys. I said, “Guys, I know it’s pretty ugly right now, but hang with me. We’re going to win a national championship.” We ended up winning the national championship at Miami, our group. That first year, we were 1-15, and that was ugly, and everybody doubted us, so the oil man from Arkansas and the college coach who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. And they were ripping us on a regular basis, but we went over to a little restaurant not too far from Valley Ranch, and I said, “Guys, I told you we were going to win the national championship.” I said, “There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to win us some Super Bowls. Just be patient. We’re on the right track.” I lot of people dream. We never really dreamed. We truly believed that we were going to get it done. I think Jerry has that same feeling or else he wouldn’t have bought the Cowboys. He believed that he was going to be successful, regardless of what the financial situation was. He had that kind of belief. And our guys, it all trickles down. Jerry, myself, the assistant coaches, the players. By that second year, hey, we would have made the playoffs that second year. We’re going from 1-15 to could have made the playoffs if Troy didn’t hurt his shoulder against Philadelphia. Then we make the playoffs, then we win a couple of Super Bowls. Every player, every coach, everybody in the organization were on the same page. We truly did believe we were going to win us a Super Bowl."
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