Editor’s note: The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on Feb. 14, 2001.

 

 It was near the midpoint of the 1989 NFL season and the Dallas Cowboys were the laughingstock of pro football. Under first year head coach Jimmy Johnson, the Cowboys were routed on a weekly basis and had not given up fewer then 27 points in any game.  As the successor to legendary Tom Landry, Johnson was reviled on sports talk shows and ripped on a regular basis in the media.

 Though the Cowboys stumbled to a 3-13 record the year before, and there had been a hue and cry to replace Landry, the fact he'd inherited an aging team on the way down got Johnson no slack. Life in Dallas was so ugly for him, in fact, the Port Arthur native would not allow his parents to attend games at Texas Stadium.

 In the midst of that sorry situation, Cowboy defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt learned a lesson from Johnson he'll never forget.

 "We were 0-6, 0-7, maybe worse," recalls Wannstedt, now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. "We couldn't stop anybody defensively. People were saying we were a bunch of college coaches in over our head and that the defense we weretrying to play would not work in the NFL. I guess some of us were starting to have some doubts.

 "At that time, Kansas City was playing about as good a defense as anybody, and I was looking at them on film. Jimmy walked into our coaches meeting, and I said, 'maybe if we went to the 3-4 defense Kansas City plays it would help.'  He turned the projector off and said, 'Hey, our scheme is proven, we know what we are doing, we are not changing a thing. We just have to get better players and we'll be fine.’ ”

Dallas, of course, did get better players, thanks to Johnson's personnel expertise, and it was more than fine. By JJ's fourth season the Cowboys improved from 1-15 to 13-3 and became the Super Bowl champions. They won another Super Bowl the next year and were being hailed as a budding dynasty, with a chance at winning four or five Super Bowls.

 While the dynasty never fully developed because of problems between JJ and owner Jerry Jones that forced a parting of ways, Johnson's point to his defensive coaches had been driven home.  Dance with who brung you, as Darrell Royal once said.  The Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls using the same small four-man defensive front with small, quick linebackers, that produced a national championship at Miami.

  "I can assure you that Butch Davis, Dave Campo and every other coach in the room that day will never forget how calm and confident Jimmy was," says Wannstedt.  "He gave us a real sense of security, made it clear he was not going to panic and left no doubt what we were doing was right and would work in the NFL.  He made a lasting impression with every one of us."

 Wannstedt's memory had been jogged by a sports editor calling to gather material for a column on JJ's Feb. 27 induction into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.  Wannstedt, who came to Port Arthur for a 1993 roast of Johnson, remains his closest friend and confidant. He also has the best understanding of what makes this very complex man tick.

  It is Wannstedt's opinion that the 57-year old Johnson means it when he says he'll never coach again.  He does, however, see JJ resurfacing in some sort of NFL television role, perhaps as early as 2002.  And he adds there is absolutely no looking back for Jimmy on how it ended with the Cowboys, or the chance he missed at setting NFL history.

  "I remember a conversation on his boat not long after the fallout between he and Jerry," said Wannstedt, who was head coach of the Chicago Bears at the time.  "I mentioned that if he had stayed in Dallas they had a great chance as a team to win more Super Bowls in a shorter period than the four the Steelers won in the '70s.

  "I said he was leaving a chance to accomplish things no other head coach has ever done, and ever would be able to do.  But he said that really didn't make any difference to him, that he really loved his time in Dallas but was ready to close that chapter and move on the next one.  I assure you not many coaches could walk away from a chance to make history like he did."

  In recalling those Dallas glory days, Wannstedt said the Cowboys got so good so fast that it sort of took the coaching staff by surprise.

  "I think were were probably about like Baltimore was to start this season," he said.  "We knew we were getting better, but nobody even mentioned Super Bowl.  We didn't even know what winning the division was, it happened so fast. The next thing you know we had done that and had won our first playoff game. Somebody walks in and says if we win the next game we are going to the Super Bowl."

  The next game, though, was at San Francisco against a high powered 49er team which, along with the Redskins, had been the odds-on favorites from the start.  But Dallas, coming of age faster than anybody could anticipate, stunned the 49ers, 30-20, then crushed Buffalo, 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII.

  "I know Dallas has won several of them," Wannstedt said.  "But to win that first one the way we did, putting it together only three years after 1-15 and all the criticism, was something very special.  I think if you ask Jimmy or Troy (Aikman) or Emmitt (Smith) or anybody who was a part of it, they would tell you that was the best one."

  It was certainly the one which removed any shred of doubt about Jimmy Johnson's greatness as a coach.

  Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net