Dallas Cowboys
In 1989, Jerry Jones, the new owner of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, a long-time friend and former University of Arkansas teammate of Johnson's, asked him to be the new head coach, replacing Tom Landry, who had coached the team since its beginning in 1960. Johnson was reunited with former Miami standout Michael Irvin, and in Johnson's first season as coach, the 1989 Cowboys went 1–15. Johnson, however, did not take long to develop the Cowboys into a championship-quality team. Johnson had an ability to find talent in the draft, make savvy trades (namely, the trade of Herschel Walker, which yielded six high draft picks and a number of players from the Minnesota Vikings), and by signing quality players as free agents in the age before the NFL had imposed a salary cap, such as Jay Novacek.
Johnson served as head coach of the Cowboys from 1989 through 1993. He is one of only six men in NFL history—(including Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Mike Shanahan, and Bill Belichick)—to coach consecutive Super Bowl winners, winning Super Bowl XXVII in 1992 and Super Bowl XXVIII in 1993. Although no head coach has won three consecutive Super Bowls, only one head coach has led his teams to three consecutive NFL championships on the field (Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers 1965–1967). Johnson led the Cowboys to a record of 10-1 in the regular season during the month of Dec. from 1991–1993, also leading to a playoff record of 7-1 in those years. Johnson also had a record of 24-1 when Running Back Emmitt Smith ran for 100+ yards in a regular season game, and 5-0 in the post season, setting the culture for winning and keeping the lead in those years from 1990-1993 winning 2 Super Bowls. Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones mutually agreed to split due largely to their inability to work together. After Lombardi retired from coaching the Packers, Shula, Noll (twice), Shanahan, and Belichick all tried and failed to pull off the "three-peat".
Jones then hired another former teammate at Arkansas, former University of Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer and the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX two seasons after Johnson's departure. Notable members on the team included Johnson holdovers, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and Super Bowl XXX MVP Larry Brown. Although Johnson still received a significant amount of credit for that third Super Bowl victory, 33 of his players from the 1993 Super Bowl team were not on the roster in 1995, including 30% of the starting line-ups.
Read more about this topic: Jimmy Johnson (American Football Coach)
Famous quotes containing the words dallas and/or cowboys:
“A sceptic finds Dallas absurd. A cynic thinks the public doesn’t.”
—Clive James (b. 1939)
“What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)