Jimmy Johnson severed his tempestuous five-year relationship with Jerry Jones today, leaving the Dallas Cowboys and a chance to win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl.
"After our discussions, we have mutually decided that I would no longer be the head football coach of the Dallas Cowboys," Johnson said, sitting to the right of Jones at the Cowboys' Valley Ranch headquarters after two days of meetings."Personally, it was a time I felt like I needed to pull back some," Johnson said. "I felt I had to be 100 percent totally focused, or I'm not going to be into it like I need to be. I felt like I was beginning to lose that focus, and because of that I'm no longer coach of the Dallas Cowboys."
Jones said that it was in the best interests of everybody concerned.
"There are no negatives when you look at it," the team owner said, before thanking Johnson for his service.
Their feud began almost as soon as Jones bought the team in 1989, fired Tom Landry and made Johnson his coach.
It boiled over last week at the NFL meetings in Orlando, Fla. After a perceived snub by Johnson, Jones suggested in an early morning barroom conversation that he would fire his coach and replace him with former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer.
Johnson, infuriated, left the meetings the next morning.
Switzer was one of the possible successors along with Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz and defensive coordinator Butch Davis. Davis has never been a head coach at any level and has been with Johnson since his days at Oklahoma State, but at this late date, he would be the most likely successor for reasons of continuity.
"This boiled down to a personal thing between Jimmy and Jerry," Davis said. "It was nothing about football, it was nothing about management. This was personal."
Many of the differences have stemmed from the desire of Jones, Johnson's teammate at Arkansas in the early 1960s, to be known as "a football guy." Jones said during the week preceding the Cowboys' 30-13 win over Buffalo in January that he had the ability to coach the team.
Then, he added fuel to the fued by suggesting this week that there were numerous other coaches capable of taking the Cowboys to the Super Bowl considering the stockpile of talent. Johnson's departure, however, may lead to the defection of some of that talent including linebacker Ken Norton, fullback Daryl Johnston, wide receiver Alvin Harper and offensive linemen Nate Newton and Kevin Gogan.
The Cowboys already have lost defensive end Jimmie Jones, guard-center John Gesek and placekicker Eddie Murray.
"I'm very surprised," said Larry Lacewell, the team's scouting director. "I thought they had it worked out. But maybe Jimmy decided he didn't want to go another five years."
For Jones, it was a matter of coming full circle.
When he bought the team, he immediately fired Landry, the only coach the Cowboys had ever had. That earned him the wrath of fans in Dallas and across the nation who had adopted "America's Team."
It continued through the 1989 season when the Cowboys finished 1-15 as Johnson tossed out old parts and brought in new ones.
It worked.
The next year, the team improved to 7-9 and might have made the playoffs had not Troy Aikman been injured in the next-to-last game.
In 1991, they were 11-5 and made the playoffs and the next year, they went all the way, finishing 13-3 in the regular season and swamping Buffalo 59-17. Then they repeated this year, again against Buffalo.