Jimmy: Dallas has become a country club
It's Jimmy versus Jerry all over again.
Former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson told the Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday that owner Jerry Jones falsely takes credit for serving as general manager during the team's Super Bowl years of the early 1990s.
"That is completely a bunch of crock," said Johnson, who coached the Cowboys to Super Bowl wins following the 1992 and 1993 regular seasons. "Jerry started putting all those titles on himself after I left. He didn't call himself general manager and president and all that stuff when I was there. He was just the owner, because it was in my contract that I had total responsibility for all football decisions.
"It was in my contract, and he didn't allow anybody to have that in their contract after I left."
Johnson left the Cowboys after the 1993 season. The Cowboys made it to the NFC Championship the next season under Barry Switzer and won another Super Bowl in 1995 under Switzer.
Johnson's disdain for what's going on currently in Dallas went a step further in a remark that completely goes against the way the former coach ran the Cowboys in the early '90's.
"All the players in this league think they’re self-motivated and that’s a bunch of bull because there are only a handful that are self-motivated," Johnson said. "So you’ve got to motivate these players through some respect but the No. 1 motivator is fear. Fear of letting down your teammates, being embarrassed or fear of losing the job.
"Where is the fear in Dallas? There’s no fear in Dallas. It’s a country club where everybody is buddies.”
Johnson was notorious for having a short leash in Dallas and ran a locker room where everyone was expendable and all feared for their job, no matter how high up the depth chart they might have been.
Interest in Jones' role on the team has sparked again after an interview on NBC aired Sunday in which Jones admitted he would have fired himself as general manager, if the roles were separated, because of the Cowboys' failings since those Super Bowl years.
Jones has also gone on to say he believes the Cowboys will win another Super Bowl because of the three the team won while he was GM in the 1990s.
Johnson has disputed Jones' role in the building of the Cowboys' dynasty before, but seemed especially critical on Wednesday.
"I was the personnel director there with the Cowboys," Johnson said. "My pride was collecting the talent and putting together the team that won the Super Bowls."
Johnson was also critical of the way Jones has set up the Cowboys organization, calling it a "country club" while charging that no one fears getting fired.
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