Few sports relationships are as cold as that between Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner, and Jimmy Johnson, his former Super Bowl winner.
Johnson, in a FOX interview, admitted that “things have changed” since the Cowboys began winning more in the 1990s. They had been 1-15 in 1989. Johnson denied that Jones was “meddling” with his team, as many have suggested. Instead, Johnson stated that Jones wanted to be more in the spotlight.
“You see, when Jerry was buying the Cowboys, I can remember like it was yesterday. We were in his automobile and he said, ‘Jimmy, you’re in charge of the football, I’m in charge of the money and we’ll make sports history.’ Well, we made sports history. And everything worked fine for a long time and then all of a sudden we started winning and then when we started winning, things changed a little bit. There started to be a little bit of a tension,” Johnson said.
“People say, ‘he meddled too much.’ No he didn’t meddle. It’s just that when we started winning, he wanted to be more in the spotlight. I was proud of what we accomplished. Maybe I didn’t want to share it. I take fault in a lot of it. I should’ve shared it more.”
NFL legend Jimmy Johnson sheds light on Jerry Jones relationship: 'When we started winning, things changed' https://t.co/6FFnohM0Vn
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 16, 2022
Jimmy Johnson was fired by Jerry Jones shortly after Super Bowl XXVIII. In the 30 years that have followed, they’ve been largely on non-speaking terms.
Jones had vowed to induct Johnson into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor a few years ago, but it hasn’t happened yet.
With so little information, it’s difficult to tell who’s right and who’s wrong.