Jimmy Johnson's mission in life is simple. He's obsessed with winning football games.
It drives him day and night, like some mad scientist on a single-minded quest. He works hours akin to someone doing a double shift at a factory.His life is football and anyone interfering pays the price.
Once he became coach of the Dallas Cowboys he calculated that he would have no time for marriage. So he divorced his wife, Linda Kay, the college sweetheart he married in 1963.
Johnson won a national title in 1987 at the University of Miami and Linda Kay was perfect for the college social scene.
There's no social whirl in the NFL. The children were grown and gone.
"I just wanted to live alone," Johnson said.
He moved into an apartment near the practice field so he could be minutes away, trying to learn the NFL game in which his team started 1-15.
"I was told my Miami ideas wouldn't work in the NFL," Johnson said. "I found out you can't go by everything you're told about the NFL."
He lives alone except for tropical fish which he studies in his more pensive moments, saying, "They relax me."
Johnson's friends include sons Brent and Chad and girlfriend Rhonda Rookmaaker.
Rookmaaker calls Johnson "moody" and sneaked a Christmas tree into his apartment for the first time this Christmas to brighten things up.
Johnson has no time for press luncheons. He has weekly press conferences, then goes jogging and leaves the public relations to owner Jerry Jones.
The 50-year-old coach battles a weight problem and lunch is sometimes just chips and hot sauce. He once lost 30 pounds in a contest with his assistant coaches, but he's gaining it back.
Johnson, who was a psychology major at the University of Arkansas and has an IQ of 162, abhors being called "obsessed."
He cuts to the chase when asked if he is a driven man.
"I enjoy winning games," he said, his eyes flashing. "I hate losing games. I don't go down the middle of the road in many things in my life. I don't think I'm obsessed, but when I enjoy something very much I work hard to get it."
Johnson wins because he motivates. He does so through knowledge, fear, intimidation, humor and cunning. He's also a riverboat gambler. In every big game the Cowboys have played, the Johnson touch shows through unorthodox moves.
His disdain for a field goal in the NFC title victory over San Francisco on a fourth and one was surprising. It failed and Johnson shrugged it off by saying, "That's my style. I like to gamble."
Johnson knows what makes every one of his players tick.
He gets his message across through the press, his assistant coaches and in team meetings.
Huge offensive guard Nate Newton knows what works best on him.
"The fear factor," Newton said. "It's 90 percent fear, my way or the highway. That's Jimmy."
Defensive end Jim Jeffcoat said it's easy to read Johnson the wrong way.
"He's mysterious but you come to realize that this man is a winner and that there is a method and a means to all that madness," Jeffcoat said.
For a mad football scientist, Johnson doesn't dress like one.
His hair is always perfectly groomed. Sometimes he wears a $500 suit, gold watch, silk tie, button down shirt, $100 leather shoes and, of course, his national championship ring, to press conferences.
Johnson can laugh. He can be charming and witty.
But he can also fly off at an assistant coach, player or reporter.
Running back Curvin Richards was cut from the team after he fumbled twice in a victory over Chicago.
"We lost our confidence in Curvin," Johnson said.
Johnson has no close friends. Certainly not owner Jerry Jones. They may have been roommates at Arkansas but they don't even go to dinner with each other anymore.
"To say we're close friends wouldn't be accurate," Jones said. "But we work together great."
"Jerry does his job and I do mine," Johnson said. "We don't socialize that much. We have an excellent working relationship. We listen to each other and then make decisions based on our analysis of situations."
How did Johnson, who can become the first coach to win a national collegiate title and a Super Bowl, get this way?
C.W. Johnson will tell you. He's Johnson's 74-year-old father who lives in Port Arthur, Texas, where Johnson was born.
"Maybe he's motivated this year by something I told him. I told him if he was going to win a Super Bowl to do it as soon as he can because I don't have long to wait."
Johnson is flying his mother and father to the Super Bowl.
Johnson grew up in the refinery town of Port Arthur where he played high school football and teased the late singer Janis Joplin about her hair.
Johnson was a competitor from the day he could walk. One day he decided there could be gold in his backyard and talked brother Wayne into going after it.
The Johnsons dug hard until Wayne hit Jimmy in the head with a shovel.
"It was the fastest I ever ran in my life," said Wayne, who was 5 years older. "I figured I might be dead if Jimmy caught me."
C.W. recalls that Johnson was dynamite in penny ante poker and would go into tirades if anyone peeked at his cards.
"I want to beat you with my brains," Jimmy would shout. "If I can't do it that way I don't want to beat you."