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00:17Thank you so much for watching.
00:51Thank you so much for watching.
01:11I'm proud to be the head football coach for the Dallas Cowboys.
01:14And I'm excited to be the head football coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
01:19Five years later, Johnson was gone.
01:22In order for them to go on from here, we have mutually decided that I would no longer be the
01:31head football coach with the Dallas Cowboys.
01:34In between, Johnson and Jones made history, turning a 1-in-15 team into two-time Super Bowl champions.
01:41The Cowboys are back on top of the mountain now.
01:43They were there in the 70s, fell off in the 80s.
01:46They're back on top now, and they should stay there a while.
01:50Wow.
01:51You know, Jerry and I, of course, went to school together at the University of Arkansas and finished our playing
01:56days there.
01:57And then we kept in contact somewhat throughout the years.
02:00He went into business, and I went into football.
02:03And when we talked about me coming to the Cowboys, he said, we're taking over the worst team in the
02:09league right now.
02:10He said, you handle football, I'll handle business, and we'll make sports history.
02:15No one thought the oil man and college coach could reach NFL prosperity so quickly.
02:25Addicted the two would part ways after back-to-back world championships.
02:30Their fractured relationship was one of the distractions the 1993 Cowboys would have to overcome in defending their Super Bowl
02:37title.
02:40Coach, what'd you do with your summer vacation?
02:42What summer vacation?
02:44I don't take vacations.
02:46Let's go, let's go!
02:50Beautiful day in Austin.
02:54Training camp under Jimmy Johnson was always a grind, especially the summer after the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.
03:01In order to win back-to-back, you've got to work them, because if you don't, they'll become complacent.
03:08Into it now, into it, everybody's into it.
03:12Let the mind control the body, not the body control the mind.
03:18Oh, gosh.
03:19Training camp was never fun.
03:21Oh, yeah, Bill doesn't even have an earring.
03:23He's from the old school, you know.
03:26Bad to the bone.
03:30Bill Bates, number 40, was the Cowboys' special teams captain, and one of the few holdovers from the Landry era.
03:38Bates was a true throwback who seemed willing to run through a brick wall, which is probably why Johnson kept
03:44him around.
03:45He got 83.
03:47Like, he was really old.
03:50Hmm.
03:50First, Bill was, we were practicing in shorts, and here we had Herschel Walker, who was our only pro bowler,
03:57and he broke the line of scrimmage.
03:59It was supposed to be kind of like two-hand touch, and here comes Bill across the field, and he
04:04just lays out Herschel.
04:05So, right, Bill heads on, and I said, man, yeah, he's either crazy or he's extremely physical, and he was
04:13extremely physical.
04:20Oh, my freaking God.
04:23Excuse me, buddy.
04:24You okay?
04:24You okay?
04:26You okay?
04:26You okay?
04:29I know it.
04:31I know it.
04:32You okay?
04:33Put your hat back on.
04:42After suffering a knee injury in 1992, Bates was denied the glory of playing in the Super Bowl, a fate
04:54he would
05:04I was so focused on rehabbing and doing everything I could do physically to get back to the Super Bowl.
05:13Here we go, here we go, here we go!
05:16Sharp now, sharp!
05:18Sharp, like a well-oiled machine.
05:21I told the team, I said, hey, we had a great team last year, we won the Super Bowl.
05:27Now, they've got to think about this, and they've got to give it some thought, and not let it just
05:31go in one ear and out the other.
05:33Are they going to be better as an individual before next season?
05:37Right there, right there!
05:39Get in there, Bates!
05:40Off, off, off, off, off, off, off!
05:41Come on, Judd!
05:43Hold on that damn football!
05:44It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
05:47Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is.
05:50Treat a person as if he were what he could be and should be, and he will become what he
05:54could be and should be.
05:56There we go!
05:57There's a nice tackle!
05:58There you go, Dixon!
06:00There you go, Dixon!
06:01That's your way to whoop, stick it in there!
06:03Nice job arriving!
06:04What do you mean, whoop, stick it in there?
06:06I just want to whoop, stick it in there.
06:08All right, all right, that's the way to protect the ball, Judd.
06:10Run through him now.
06:11Good job, Dixon!
06:13I honestly believe that's the key to a great coach.
06:16Understanding your players, not only understanding them, but putting your players in a position to make the plays.
06:2414-13, 10 seconds to go.
06:26We're behind the Redskins, RFK.
06:29All right, let's go, Lynn, we gotta have it.
06:31Got a little wind behind you, got a little wind to the left.
06:33You gotta be concerned about it.
06:34Let's go, Lynn, focus in, can you make it?
06:37Here we go, it's all on the line!
06:40That's the way to hit it, good job, Lynn.
06:42Perfect, right down the middle.
06:44Perfect, Lynn.
06:45Cowboys win, as always.
06:48I treated our football team as winners.
06:50I treated them as a championship team because that's where we were headed.
06:55But heading back to the Super Bowl would be difficult for Dallas without one of its best players.
07:04I shoot shoes.
07:07One potential roadblock for the Cowboys on their trip to the Super Bowl was the contract holdout of Emmitt Smith.
07:15I thought I earned the right to be paid as the highest paid running back at the time in the
07:25National Football League because of my performance.
07:28Leading the league in rushing, going to the Pro Bowl two straight years, and now we're coming off a Super
07:35Bowl season.
07:53I know he didn't think he deserved to make more than Barry.
07:57Should have been second highest paid running back.
07:59...Emmitt held out.
08:01In training camp, he was replaced by a fourth-round draft pick named Derek Lassink.
08:06So, Lassink, we got to find out for sure what he can do.
08:11All right, Derek, all right, Derek, all right, Derek.
08:12See, that's so fun!
08:14A little more quick.
08:15It's got to make that cut, Derek.
08:16Come on, Derek, come on, Derek.
08:18A little bit more power.
08:19A little bit more power, Derek.
08:20Good cut on the thing, but run through him, Derek.
08:24August turned to September, and still there was no new contract for Emmitt Smith.
08:29In a year with high expectations, no one thought the season could start without number 22.
08:36I probably did a very poor job of getting our team ready because me being naive and thinking that he
08:42was going to be there for the first game,
08:44I prepared the team to play with Emmitt Smith, and when he was not there for the first game, I
08:51was in disarray, and we did not play very well.
08:57Derek Lassink playing as a rookie wasn't getting it done.
09:02Everybody knew that we needed Emmitt back.
09:06I wasn't pointing fingers at Jerry or Emmitt.
09:10I just wanted it to be resolved.
09:13Without Emmitt, Dallas lost again a week later, this time at home in a Super Bowl rematch against the Buffalo
09:20Bills.
09:21Throws, and it's broken up.
09:24It's 0-2.
09:260-2.
09:28Suddenly, the Cowboys were in full crisis.
09:32I just remembered that we were inefficient offensively, and our kicker missed a couple kicks that could have won the
09:40game.
09:42I remember it was Lynn Elliott.
09:43He came over on the sideline, and I said something to him.
09:45He said, Coach, he said, I've just lost my confidence.
09:48That's all I needed to hear.
09:50I cut him and got me a new kicker.
09:53After the game, Charles Adley, he just throws.
09:58Then, then the Chiefs signed him, and he blew, and he blew the 95 playoff game for them.
10:08This is helmet across the locker room, knocks a hole in the wall, and, hey, we've got it.
10:15We can't win without Emmitt.
10:17Oh, boy.
10:20With pressure mounting from all sides, Jerry Jones made the deal.
10:24Emmitt got his new contract, and the Cowboys' new life.
10:29Now it's Emmitt Smith time.
10:31Sorry, I got into the season a little bit late.
10:33But I think we can put this thing together and go on and win it all.
10:37No team in NFL history has ever started 0-2 and go on to win the Super Bowl.
10:47First down to play.
10:49The 15 is gone.
10:50First touchdown of the year for Emmitt Smith.
10:5322 yards for number 22.
10:57With Emmitt back in the fold, Dallas ran off four wins in a row.
11:02Sweep to Smith on a toss-white break block.
11:04Cuts to the 15.
11:05Left throw.
11:062-8 block to the 10.
11:07Emmitt Smith to the 5.
11:09Stiff arm to the goal line.
11:11Touchdown, Emmitt Smith.
11:13On Halloween, the 4-2.
11:15That's a clip from 1994.
11:18They're wearing the 75th season emblems on their thing.
11:21That's a clip from 94.
11:22You can't use that in a 93 documentary.
11:28Cowboys travel to Veterans Stadium.
11:30Their own personal house of horrors.
11:32With a chance to move into first place in their division.
11:36It's a six year.
11:37We only want one game here.
11:39I never enjoyed playing in Philadelphia.
11:42Rainy Philadelphia.
11:44Gotta love it.
11:45Nobody enjoyed playing in Philadelphia except the Eagles players.
11:50Veterans Stadium.
11:53It's a dump.
11:55The fans would destroy you.
11:58You hit the turf.
12:00The turf would destroy you.
12:02Asked Michael Irvin.
12:04And the Eagles were a good team.
12:09Usually.
12:10They called it the city of brotherly love.
12:12You get snow love in Philly.
12:15Everybody in this stadium.
12:16It's totally against you.
12:18In a hostile environment, Emmitt Smith and the Cowboys gutted the Eagles with a basic running play.
12:24The lead draw.
12:30It's the play that everybody tried to stop, but couldn't figure out truly how to stop it.
12:35Emmitt, did he go right or left?
12:37Straight down the pipe on the last one.
12:39When we first got Emmitt, we tried to run him on sweeps and he really wasn't a good sweep runner.
12:44He was more of an inside runner.
12:45So, the lead draw was our bread and butter.
12:49In a lead draw, the center and guard blocked down on the defensive tackle.
12:54The fullback leads through the hole and Emmitt runs to daylight.
13:01It was definitely one of our plays where we as players, when we called it, we expected something big to
13:08happen.
13:10Smith finished the night with 237 yards and Dallas improved to 5-2.
13:16And Smith straight up the middle and he may be gone.
13:18He's got the 50, he's got the 40, he's got the 20 yards now.
13:22Off-stations to the 5, 62-yard touchdown, Smith.
13:31Hey!
13:32We're going to number two, baby!
13:39He had to run to the right sideline.
13:42And trips.
13:43Fell down, he hurt himself.
13:45Aikman's hurt at the 50-yard line.
13:48Troy Aikman injured his hamstring and was out for four weeks.
13:52Without a veteran quarterback on the roster, the Cowboys turned to Bernie Kosar, who had recently been cut by the
14:00Cleveland Browns.
14:01When Kosar was released.
14:03I don't know why.
14:04Apparently the Colts logo from earlier was actually 93 season.
14:10Some 40th anniversary something.
14:12I don't know.
14:14East.
14:15You know, my time with him at the University of Miami, I knew that he was a very intelligent player
14:19and he could come in and help our football team.
14:22And, in fact, I even picked him up at the airport and I said, can you learn the offense in
14:26a week?
14:27Three days later, Kosar was starting against the Cardinals.
14:32Bernie stepped right in, calling plays, drawing plays up in the dirt, because he can't call the whole system out.
14:39Tell the individual players what routes to run.
14:41It led us to victory.
14:43Kosar may not have known all the plays, but he knew where to go with the ball.
14:48Spins across the 25 and breaks it down.
14:51Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
14:55And he's on the 40, and he's going.
14:57And he's going down the far sideline of the 15, to the 10, to the 5, and he's rolled out.
15:04Without question, he helped our football team in that difficult stretch.
15:08During that stretch, it seemed the only way the Cowboys could lose was if they beat themselves, or by some
15:14freak happenstance.
15:15Both occurred against the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day.
15:20It was snowing in Texas.
15:23It was obviously a crazy day, because here you've got snow Thanksgiving in Dallas.
15:30And, of course, I hate cold weather, and I hate snow.
15:33And so that should have been an omen right there.
15:38We fought a very tough football game against Miami that day.
15:43And late in the game, we ended up going ahead.
15:46Intercepted by Bill Bates!
15:48I mean, that was a lot of sliding.
15:51It was a fun game to play.
15:55Until the end of the game.
15:58Miami's trying to go in and kick a field goal with less than 15 seconds, I believe, left in the
16:04game.
16:05And if they make it, game's over.
16:08If they miss it, we win.
16:11We block the field goal.
16:13It's a 41-yarder.
16:15It's a first-down kick.
16:16And it's blocked!
16:18It's blocked and rolling around in the 10-yard line!
16:21You can see the ball spinning around on the white snow.
16:24How often does the ball do a spin like that after it's blocked?
16:31Peter, Peter, meaning stay away from the ball, stay away from the ball.
16:35And all of a sudden you see one white jersey with a star on it come running out of nowhere.
16:45Yes!
16:46Lay on left!
16:48Lay on left!
16:50Oh, my goodness gracious!
16:53I think they get another shot!
16:54This is Miami's ball.
16:57Miami recovers the ball at the one-yard line.
17:00So they get another shot.
17:03This time, field goal good, we lose the game.
17:08After that game, I felt so bad for Leon.
17:11And we couldn't find Leon.
17:13Where was he?
17:14He's probably going to go kill himself.
17:17I was looking for Leon.
17:18Leon was back in the training room and big old 275, 280-pounder, you know, tears in his eyes.
17:26And he's afraid that he's going to get cut.
17:27And, you know, I grabbed him there in the training room.
17:30I said, Leon.
17:31I said, hey, you made a mistake.
17:32But there were all kinds of mistakes in that game.
17:34And, you know, you don't worry about it because as long as I'm here, you're going to be a Dallas
17:38Cowboy.
17:40Leon was really upset about it.
17:42And I'll never forget a girl from one of the schools that sent him a note and said, gosh, Leon,
17:50don't worry about it.
17:51But last year during the Super Bowl, there was this guy that was going in to score a touchdown and
17:56had the ball ripped out of his hands right before he scored.
18:02Oh, it's not going to be a touchdown.
18:05No, it's not.
18:06So don't worry about it.
18:08People make mistakes all the time.
18:11They happen to be the same guy.
18:20The loss to Miami dropped the Cowboys behind the Giants in the NFC East.
18:26Worse still, rumors began to circulate that they might lose their head coach at the end of the season.
18:35Well, maybe he ought to fire Coach Johnson for those reasons.
18:39Jerry said, for instance, that, hey, if somebody came calling, and this was referred back to me by Roy, saying
18:46he should say, hey, I'm not interested.
18:49It's very, very easy not to be interested when you own the Dallas Cowboys and you have a multi, multi,
18:58multi, multi millions of dollars.
19:01I mean, if you're a working stiff like I am and like a lot of people are, you know, obviously
19:08you look at things.
19:08And so Johnson often used the media as a means to send a message, whether it was to Jerry Jones
19:15or more often to his players.
19:18If our players hear it through you and it makes them play better, you know, then I've accomplished what I
19:25set out to do.
19:27It's just that I was aware of anything that I was saying to the media or anything that I was
19:34doing was going to go right back to the players.
19:37And so when I talked to the press, I just kind of visualized that I was talking to the team.
19:44What I'm having right now, I'm having a nice team meeting.
19:50Yeah.
19:51The former psychology major also employed more direct means of motivation after a lackadaisical win over the Minnesota Vikings in
20:01week 15.
20:02Johnson ripped into his players.
20:04I was infuriated at the team because we played so poorly.
20:08We won, but we weren't preparing ourselves for the playoffs.
20:13Coach Johnson made us feel like we had lost the game by 40 points and had gotten in Charles Haley's
20:22face and said he wasn't hard enough.
20:25Charles came in late after I'd already started my speech to the players and I screamed at him.
20:33He didn't like me screaming at him and I told him to, in so many words, to get right over
20:39here, you know, at this spot and right next to me.
20:43And he didn't like it and I had to say it again.
20:46And so finally he got over there and, but he was really upset with me because I singled him out.
20:51Did he ever get in your face?
20:52Yes.
20:54Yes.
20:54Yes.
20:55Yes.
20:56Yes, it happened.
20:57It happened one time where he made me mad, but then he came back and once, came back and said
21:01to me, you know, I had to do that, don't you?
21:05And I said, yeah, I understand.
21:06He said, you understand why I did it?
21:08I said, he said, because I want everybody around here to know that if I can get on my superstar
21:13players, that they don't have a chance.
21:17Jimmy had a way of pushing the right buttons at the right time and a way of keeping his ball
21:24club focus.
21:27The Cowboys had won their last four games to improve to 11 and four, but their hopes for a division
21:33title came down to the final week of the regular season in New York.
21:45We needed to win this game against the Giants in order to secure home field advantage and secure that bye
21:54week.
21:54We had a lot of guys hurt.
21:56We needed to recover and getting a week off before the playoff started was vital to our team.
22:04All right, let's go now.
22:10The Giants didn't make it easy.
22:13Right before the half, I get a handoff, cut on the right side, and I'm off to the races.
22:20I'm not the fastest guy in the world.
22:22I'm not the biggest guy in the world, but I'm running.
22:24And Gray Jackson come up on my left side, grab me, ride me down to the ground, and instant pain.
22:35Something happened in my shoulder that I never felt before.
22:38Smith is down.
22:40Emmitt Smith is down at the Giants' 30.
22:55They take me to the locker room with what I have.
22:57They take x-rays to my shoulder, and they recognize that I have a separated shoulder.
23:05And they get very creative.
23:07They get a set of knee pads that you normally put in your pants.
23:11They tape them together, and they kind of cut a hole in the middle of them, and they place it
23:16up on my shoulder and tape it to my shoulder.
23:18Put my shoulder pads back on.
23:19And they say, now, you're going to have some discomfort.
23:27In the second half, Emmitt carried the Cowboys in a moment that defined a team's season and a player's career.
23:35It was just a different kind of pain.
23:38And every time I got hit, every time I hit the turf, all I could hear was just cracks just
23:44happening all in my chest.
23:49I'm telling myself, no pain, no pain, I'm just telling myself, no pain, and tears are rolling in my eyes,
23:59I'm trying to convince myself that there's no pain, but I'm feeling all the pain.
24:06And over time, Emmitt pushed the Cowboys into field goal range.
24:19It just inspired us all.
24:25We'll never forget the day Emmitt Smith ran 32 times for 170 yards and caught 10 balls for 62 and
24:35did most of it with one arm.
24:38Get a go, get a go.
24:40Get a go, get a go.
24:44Here we go.
24:4741 yards, good snap.
24:48The hold is up.
24:49The kick's on the way.
24:55The boys win.
24:57What a great game.
25:04Five weeks ago, we had a little meeting after Thanksgiving, and we said this.
25:11If you lay it on the line and you win out, you'll win the division second year in a row,
25:18and it'll give us a hell of a shot to get to where we want to go.
25:22Hey, hey, you've been under the gun.
25:25You've been under the pressure.
25:32One hell of a job.
25:34All right.
25:42Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Playoffs.
25:53For the second straight year, they would face the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC Championship.
25:59Jimmy Johnson decided to give his team a little extra motivation.
26:05My wife, Rhonda, at that time, my girlfriend, Rhonda, and I, we were going to go have some
26:10Italian dinner, and I was listening to the radio, and they were debating about who's going
26:15to win the game, San Francisco or Dallas, et cetera, et cetera.
26:18And so I said, well, I'll just solve this right here and now.
26:21And so I called in, I said, we will win the ball game, and you can put it in three
26:28-inch
26:29headlines.
26:30We will win the ball game.
26:33I didn't think that it would cause that much uproar the next morning.
26:37I did see him, and Emmitt said, well, coach, he said, you wrote a check.
26:41I guess we're going to have to cash it.
26:43Let's go.
26:45The 49ers should have had more heart than that, because they certainly had the talent.
26:49Somebody says, somebody's head coach says they're going to come out and beat you on the
26:54radio.
26:57They should have been really upset at that.
26:59They should have beaten the Cowboys.
27:03But they didn't.
27:06That's in a way.
27:07You know what I mean?
27:08He comes in and says, hey, this is what we will do, period.
27:12And if you hear that enough, if you hear it enough, you'll be like, yeah, we will do
27:17this, and we will do that.
27:18I mean, it's just an attitude, and that's what he installs in us.
27:24Maybe it was the Pygmalion effect and the self-fulfilling prophecy.
27:28I know this.
27:29It irritated the San Francisco players, probably one of the classiest players that's ever, ever
27:34played the game, Jerry Rice.
27:36I guess they were so hyped up about it.
27:38You know, he takes a swing at our defensive back and gets a 15-yard penalty to start the
27:43ball game off.
27:43And so, it evidently had a negative effect on San Francisco, but it rallied our guys to
27:49give them confidence that they're going to win the game.
27:55Y'all get a teary on his game.
27:57Y'all get a teary on his game.
28:03Johnson's bravado had the desired effect.
28:07The Cowboys knocked Steve Young and the Niners off their game.
28:11They shot Haley over the middle.
28:13The ball's intercepted by Everett on a deflection.
28:16To the 30, to the 24-yard line.
28:22With a 21-point lead, a Dallas victory seemed all but assured.
28:27Right up until the second play of the third quarter.
28:33We're trying to close the game out.
28:35And all of a sudden, Troy dropped back to pass.
28:39And a guy kind of like dives over his head, but his knee grazes his helmet.
28:45A little like a graze, but it catches him in the helmet.
28:50Totally just sent him straight to a whole other planet.
28:54And Eggman is woozy, walking around, holding his head.
28:58He stays in, but Eggman is shaking up.
29:03He stayed in the game and called the next play.
29:05And then we ended up going to the sideline.
29:07And then they just said, Troy had a concussion.
29:11And he was just like in the middle of no man's land.
29:15Once more, the Cowboys called on Bernie Kozar.
29:19And once more, Kozar delivered.
29:23Kozar, back to throw.
29:25Short slam.
29:26Oh, Harper caught it.
29:27He's breaking away.
29:28He's going to score.
29:30The five.
29:31Touchdown.
29:41The NFC Championship again.
29:44And the Cowboys aren't the least bit surprised.
29:46Their coach told them this is what happens.
29:49Jimmy said we would win the game, didn't we?
29:51Three-inch ball, let us.
29:54I was guaranteed a win, right?
29:57I guess we checked.
29:59We cashed that check today.
30:01Yeah.
30:02Now, I've been doing a lot of talking.
30:05But the things that you said, if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk.
30:12Hey, hey, hey.
30:14Thanks to you guys, y'all did the walking, all right?
30:17Hey, and one thing, this week I'm not going to say a word.
30:22You know how I feel.
30:24But I'm not going to say a word.
30:25But I will say one thing right now.
30:27How about them, Cowboys?
30:31He's after the ball game.
30:33Make sure they take my golf club to the hotel.
30:38It was a little different.
30:40It was kind of like one of those things, okay, I've been here before, so I know what to expect.
30:44And this is no big deal.
30:47What up, fellas?
30:51But the one thing that kind of irked me a little bit early in that week, I'm riding with my
30:57marketing guys.
30:58And they have some good news that they want to share with Mr. Smith.
31:02They shared this news.
31:04Guess who's going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week?
31:06This is the week of the Super Bowl.
31:08I'm like, who?
31:09Therma Thomas?
31:10Jim Kelly?
31:11They're like, no, you.
31:13They're all excited.
31:14I'm like, oh, no.
31:16Have y'all lost y'all mind?
31:18Get me off the cover.
31:20I'm like, man, this is Sports Illustrated jinx.
31:23This is not the week that put me on the cover.
31:25The Cowboys only had a week to prepare for Super Bowl 28, and there was concern over the health of
31:31their quarterback.
31:33Troy Aikman spent the night after the championship game in the hospital, unable to remember a single play before or
31:39after his concussion.
31:41This is the first time that this has happened, and staying in the hospital was very frustrating just because I
31:47felt that I was ready to go home around 3 o'clock.
31:50But I actually wasn't because I still wasn't making much sense.
31:54It's very unlikely that I'll ever be able to recall what happened.
32:00We were definitely worried that Troy wasn't going to be able to play in the game.
32:05And I know Bernie took the majority of the snaps during practice that week.
32:12As an added distraction, Jimmy Johnson hinted loudly that his long-term future with the Cowboys was very much up
32:18in the air.
32:19I don't have any thought right now that I'll be doing anything else, but, I mean, I'm not 100%
32:25going to do anything.
32:27I mean, I go like a racehorse as hard as I can for as long as I can, but I'm
32:33not concerned about doing it for 29 years.
32:35Let's go, let's go!
32:36For this week at least, Johnson was focused on preparing his team for the Buffalo Bills.
32:42I made my first presentation to the players, and I said, guys, I said, just think about this.
32:48We are the best team.
32:50I said, if we played out here on the practice field with nobody watching, no pressure on you,
32:55I said, we'd beat the hell out of them.
32:57And I think you know that.
32:58I said, it's all in your mind.
33:00And I said, if I put a 2x4 here on this floor, and I say, walk this 2x4, every one
33:07of you, you'd be able to start at one end and end up at the other.
33:10Big guys, little guys, there'd be no problem.
33:15I said, if I put this 2x4 up about 15 feet, and I say, walk this 2x4, then your thought
33:23process is, don't fall, don't fall, don't fall.
33:27And what's going to happen, you fall.
33:29And I said, so, when you think about playing the Super Bowl, you don't think about millions of people watching
33:34you.
33:35You don't put that kind of pressure on yourself.
33:37You keep the thought process that you're on the practice field, and nobody's watching, and you're the best team, so
33:43you win.
33:47This was easier said than done, especially for Bill Bates, whose knee injury kept him from participating in a previous
33:54Super Bowl.
33:56I'm trying to keep from hyper-villating before the kickoff.
34:01I might just pass out right now.
34:04So, here we are again, same time next year.
34:07The Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl.
34:12This is it, baby.
34:15Here we go again, baby, last one.
34:16Last one.
34:17All in net.
34:19Troy Aikman started the game, but he clearly was not himself.
34:23Aikman, straight drop, here comes Cruz.
34:25She steps up deep out of the middle.
34:27It's intercepted.
34:28And the Buffalo Bills have come to play in this Super Bowl.
34:32Come on, let's go.
34:33Keep your head.
34:34Keep your head in the ball game.
34:35Let's go.
34:36But Dallas was helped by something Jimmy Johnson learned earlier in the week, simply by watching television.
34:43You know, at all the Super Bowls, they would let cameras come in just for the first couple of minutes
34:48to get what they call B-roll before you practice.
34:51And I was watching just a local sports station, and it had the B-roll of Buffalo warming up.
35:01And I saw Jim Kelly taking the football without anybody else other than Thurman Thomas and pitching it like a
35:09shuffle pass.
35:12And it looked to me like they were actually practicing, you know, the pitch.
35:17And so I went back to my defensive coordinator, Butch Davis.
35:20I said, Butch, have they run the shuffle pass?
35:22I don't recall seeing it on any of the game film.
35:26And then we went all the way back through.
35:28They hadn't run the shuffle pass all year long.
35:31And as it turns out, I think they ran it like three times.
35:35They ended up stopping for losses.
35:38I actually got a fumble one of the biggest plays in the ball game.
35:42Kelly with a shuffle pass to Thomas.
35:44And fumble!
35:47Thurman Thomas fumbled the ball and stripped of it coming forward on that shuffle pass.
35:53And the Cowboys have claimed a fumble.
35:57Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man.
36:00So, just by luck, I was watching television and able to pick up the shuffle pass.
36:06I told Jim Kelly about it years later, and I had a laugh.
36:10He didn't laugh very much.
36:14Despite their tactical advantage, the Cowboys produced only two field goals by halftime and trailed 13 to 6.
36:23But nobody was panicking.
36:26Jim, he seemed pretty calm.
36:29Well, halftime, normally I really wouldn't be involved in a lot of the adjustments.
36:34But I stood up in front of the offense before we took the field the second half and said, you
36:41know, guys, here's what we're going to do.
36:42We make some adjustments on our little counterplay to Emmett.
36:45And we're going to take the ball, we're going to receive the kickoff, we're going to take it down the
36:50field, we're going to jam it down their throats, and we're going to play physical football and get back in
36:55this game.
36:56And I'm like, hey, get it to me.
37:01We came out of that locker room like game busters.
37:16We felt like if we were going to get back in the game, it had to be with Emmett because
37:20Troy wasn't at his best.
37:21And that's exactly what we did.
37:23We fed it to Emmett and took it down the field.
37:27Outscored them 24 to nothing in second half.
37:31The Cowboys gave the ball to Smith seven times on an eight-play drive.
37:36Smith for nine, Smith for three, Smith for eight, Smith for seven.
37:48Aikman is on to Smith.
37:50Herkelford breaks away to the ten, to the five.
37:53Smith.
37:58Oh, what a run by the league's MVP.
38:02He was hit in the backfield.
38:05He was going to go down.
38:07Most back, almost all back would have gone down.
38:10And the Cowboys have turned this game dramatically.
38:17In that moment, the game was over.
38:21We never gave Buffalo a chance to truly settle back in from that point on.
38:27We hit them with a flurry of shots.
38:30It was like a boxer closing out of a knockout.
38:34Fourth and goal at the one.
38:36Let's pitch left to Smith.
38:38Left from Justin.
38:39Touchdown, Emmett Smith.
38:46With 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns,
38:49Emmett Smith was named the Super Bowl MVP.
38:53And the Cowboys, again, were crowned world champions.
38:59Two in a row.
39:00I see what it is.
39:02Yeah.
39:03Back to back, baby.
39:04Back to back, baby.
39:05Back to back, baby.
39:05Cowboys back to back in the house.
39:08Yeah.
39:09Yeah.
39:09Woo-hoo.
39:11Go, man.
39:16You know, Emmett, we had a special relationship.
39:20So when he messes up my hair, we laughed about it and everything.
39:23I said, hey, you can mess it up any time we win a Super Bowl.
39:27It was a game like their year.
39:30They started 0-2.
39:32They were in deep ruts.
39:34Everybody said they couldn't do it.
39:36Well, guess what?
39:37Dallas, your Cowboys are still champions.
39:42It was everything that I wanted it to be and more.
39:45And after that game, I made sure that I found the Lombardi Trophy
39:50and I would not let go of it.
39:55I wanted to cherish that moment because, gosh,
39:58I didn't know if I was going to be back there again.
40:02I think everybody's kind of gotten a kick out of Jimmy and Jerry
40:06and thinking that we were at each other's room.
40:09So when you win these kind of things,
40:11the only thing you're going to do at each other's room is hug it.
40:16Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones stood on the winner's podium
40:19for the second straight year.
40:21It was the last time they would stand there together.
40:24Johnson's tenure as the Cowboys' head coach ended two months later.
40:32Dynasty in Dallas.
40:36Everyone was thinking about a three-peat.
40:38Everyone except Jimmy Johnson.
40:41In fact, Peter King, Sports Illustrated,
40:44was in the limo with me after the ball game
40:45and asked, he said, you know, hey, you've got to come back
40:48because you win three in a row.
40:49You know, it's automatic Hall of Fame.
40:51And I said, you know, Peter, I said, I can't answer that.
40:54And he said, you've got to answer whether or not you're coming back or not.
40:57And I said, you know, now's not the time.
40:59I don't really know if I'm going to come back.
41:01I knew that I needed to get away, pull back a little bit.
41:05You know, I was looking forward to going fishing down in the Keys.
41:09Did you think you were going right back?
41:10Oh, yes.
41:11There was no doubt in my mind.
41:13I felt like we had the ball club to go right back there and win another one.
41:17All of a sudden, something happened
41:19that threw everybody for a loop in the spring.
41:23The rumor has it, our head coach, Jimmy Johnson, and our owner
41:28happened to be in Orlando at the bar having some drinks.
41:31It might have been a little tipsy.
41:33That's the rumor.
41:34Here I am spreading more lies and more rumors, maybe.
41:37All of a sudden, they get on the wrong page.
41:40And words were said, and a couple days later,
41:43the owner's on the tube saying that Jimmy Johnson
41:47is no longer going to be our head coach.
41:48We have mutually decided that I would no longer be
41:54the head football coach with the Dallas Cowboys.
41:58And nobody could figure it out, could figure out why.
42:01This isn't something that has been just frivolously thought about.
42:06We have analyzed this from stem to stern.
42:09People want to make a big to-do about it.
42:12It was Jerry and I, you know, bickering and fighting.
42:15More than anything else, I was ready to move on.
42:19I'd really never coached anywhere longer than five years.
42:22And so we'd had success.
42:23We'd won back-to-back Super Bowls.
42:25And I wanted to do something else.
42:27I'd even had it in my calendar the day that I was going to leave the Dallas Cowboys.
42:32As it turned out, I left maybe a month earlier.
42:37But I had plans all along to leave.
42:40Whether he left for himself or because of Jerry Jones or both,
42:45Jimmy Johnson was no longer the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
42:49And the players had trouble accepting it.
42:52I never thought it would come.
42:55Did I ever think it would come to that?
42:57How can you, you just won your second straight Super Bowl
43:00within five years of owning the organization.
43:05Fancy that.
43:07Then fancy firing the guy that just won, that led you to the two of them.
43:13That helped turn this whole thing around.
43:16No, I couldn't understand it.
43:18And I still don't.
43:19We've gone through a little transition here.
43:25And, well, maybe it's a big transition.
43:28But, hey, the Dallas Cowboys would be right on top.
43:34I wish that all of us would say,
43:37what could have been if the Dallas Cowboys had Jimmy Johnson as the head coach?
43:43Would we have moved on to win our third Super Bowl in a row?
43:47We definitely felt like we were going to be three-peats and four-peats.
43:52The franchise that Jimmy Johnson helped turn around won another Super Bowl in 1995.
43:58But they would never again be as dominant as they were in Johnson's last year in Dallas.
44:02Those Cowboys survived injuries, a holdout, and a power struggle.
44:10On their way to a...
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