Former Dolphins Head Coach Jimmy Johnson In Town To Cover Super Bowl 54
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – South Florida football legend Jimmy Johnson is in town to cover the Super Bowl 54.
On Tuesday, Johnson talked about the incredible honor of being named into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He was surprised on national TV – a moment that took his breath away.
"I walked to David Baker and I went, 'Oh my god.' And my wife Rhonda said, 'The reason you couldn't talk was the whole time he was talking you weren't breathing.' I couldn't talk. It was a great moment," he recalled.
Johnson won two super bowls with Cowboys and coined the now iconic phrase "How 'Bout Them Cowboys?"
He would move to Miami where he wasn't shy about putting the cameras right in the middle of practice.
He went as far as to say he would use the media to actually send messages to his players – a tactic not every coach liked to use.
"You know, I talked to [Rob] Gronkowski about this last night and I told him about the story about the player falling to sleep and I cut him. And if Troy [Aikman] had fallen asleep, I would have told him to wake up," Johnson said. "And he's thinking that's just opposite of what [Bill] Belichick would do – he would cut Brady… I talked to Bill and Bill says, 'If I want to say something to a player I'll have him one-on-one, I'm not gonna talk to the media.' And I said, 'I know you don't talk to the media. I've been in your press conference. You don't say anything to the media.'"
Johnson told CBS4 he's very thankful for the assistant coaches he had, which helped him get to this point.
One of those assistants was former Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt.
Wannstedt said if Johnson didn't get into the Hall of Fame as a coach, he should've gotten in as an executive for the way he revolutionized the way players and draft picks were traded to build up franchises.
So the big question: Does Johnson miss coaching?
"No, not really. I had a good run and I've got a great family life now, which I didn't have when I was coaching," Johnson said.
