Jimmy Johnson is one of the great coaches in Dallas Cowboys history and, in a long-overdue move, he’ll finally be put in the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
Prior to the Hall of Fame Game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced that former head coach Jimmy Johnson would be inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor.
Jones announced the decision live on FOX with Johnson sitting next to him and fellow Cowboy Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, who played quarterback for Johnson in the 1990s as Dallas won three Super Bowls in four years, the first two under Johnson’s stewardship.
Johnson jokingly replied, “While I’m alive?” to the laughter of his fellow broadcasting comrades.
At the same time, however, it has been a question of thought. Why hasn’t Jimmy Johnson been inducted into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor until now? There has been speculation through the years.
As folks will recall, Johnson arrived in Dallas with Jones in 1989, and hall of farmer Tom Landry was relieved of his duties after 29 years of coaching the Cowboys. Johnson and Jones immediately hit it off with great success, drafting four pro-bowlers in their first draft together. Aikman, center Mark Stepnoski, fullback Daryl Johnston, and defensive end Tony Tolbert.
Together, they engineered the Herschel Walker trade that netted a bounty of draft picks for Dallas and sunk the Minnesota Vikings. With those picks, they netted superstars such as running back Emmitt Smith, offensive tackle Erik Williams, safety Darren Woodson, wide receiver Alvin Harper, and others, including the trade for Charles Haley, who would help form the core of the Cowboys dynasty in the early 1990s.
Jimmy Johnson should’ve been in the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor for a while and it has finally come to fruition.
Despite the success of going from 1-15 in 1989 and winning back-to-back Super Bowls, Johnson and Jones mutually parted ways after Super Bowl XXVIII, a 30-13 Cowboy win over Buffalo. Johnson would coach again in Miami, while Jones, under Barry Switzer, captured a third Super Bowl title. Since then, however, Dallas has not gone further in the playoffs than the divisional round and no Lombardi trophies.
Though football fans never got to see what truly would have been had Johnson and Jones worked things out, the Dallas dynasty remains one of the greatest in NFL history and how it all come to be and how the franchise rose from the depths of despair to the top of the mountain in such a short time is remarkable.
It’s been long overdue for Jimmy Johnson. He has become a broadcaster, an exceptional one at that, a Hall of Famer, and now he finally gets his place in the Cowboys Ring of Honor. Jerry Jones finally made the decision, better late than never, but he did it.