Ex-Dolphins coach Johnson selected to the Pro Football HOF
Jimmy Johnson spent the bulk of his coaching career leading South Florida teams to higher levels, and now the Keys resident will official join football’s elites, becoming one of the 2020 inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Johnson, who made his NFL mark by wheeling-and-dealing the then-woeful Dallas Cowboys back to national relevance in the early 1990s, was working on the FOX halftime show of the Green Bay-Seattle playoff game on Sunday when informed he had been voted into the Hall’s Centennial Class of 2020.
He broke into tears as his fellow television analysts applauded.
“The only thing I can think of is all the assistant coaches who worked for me, all the great players that played for me — they’re the reason I’m here,” said Johnson,
a longtime resident of Tavernier. “And they’re the reason …. I can’t talk.”
Johnson collected himself before adding, “This is so special to me, because when you put in the work we put in, it’s nice to know people appreciate it.”
The Cowboys and Miami Dolphins former head coach had been one of eight coaching finalists of a special blue-ribbon panel made up of members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the selection committee, coaches, football executives and historians.
Johnson joins former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, an analyst for CBS, as the coaches to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame’s Centennial Class. Both Johnson and Cowher learned about the honor during their telecasts, the exSteelers Super Bowl-winning
coach’s
The enshrinee list of 10 seniors, three contributors and Johnson and Cowher, will be fully revealed on Jan. 15 during NFL Network’s
Those 15 will join the five modern-era enshrinees, who will be announced on Super Bowl Weekend, during the NFL Honors ceremony, which will air on Feb. 1 at 9 p.m.
Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas, the undersized but tenacious middle linebacker who starred for the Dolphins from 1996-2007, is one of the 15 finalists for the modern-era enshrinement.
Thomas, University of Miami greats Edgerrin James and Reggie Wayne, former Dillard High standout Isaac Bruce and safety Steelers safety Troy Polamalu headline the list of finalists trying to be among the five inducted. Coral Springs High School alum Steve Hutchinson, a seven-time Pro Bowl guard while with the Seahawks and Vikings, is also a finalist.
This is Thomas’ first year as a Hall of Fame finalist, and it’s possible he could join the football’s elite with Johnson, the coach who drafted him for the Dolphins in ’96, the first year after the departure of NFL all-time winningest moment coming on
Saturday.
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Morning
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coach Don last week.
Johnson spent 10 seasons as the coach at Oklahoma State and the University of Miami, during which he compiled an 81-34-3 record and led UM to an undefeated season and national title in 1987.
In 1989, the Cowboys hired Johnson from UM to succeed Tom Landry. Dallas went 1-15 in Johnson’s first season, but with a nucleus of Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, the
Shula, who turned 90
Cowboys quickly turned into a contenders and won Super Bowl titles in 1992 and 1993.
In Johnson’s five seasons in Dallas, the Cowboys went 44-36 in the regular season and 7-1 in the postseason. Four of his Cowboys players are also in the Hall of Fame (Aikman, Irvin, Smith, Charles Haley). He drafted Aikman and Smith.
Johnson left the Cowboys in 1994 and worked in television for a couple of seasons before succeeding Shula.