An excerpt from the forthcoming SWAGGER: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs—A Memoir by Jimmy Johnson with Dave Hyde. Copyright c 2022 by James W. Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Some issues that got here with teaching the Dolphins couldn’t be conveniently swept out the door. For occasion, to repair messy wage cap points, I needed to launch a handful of excellent veterans.
That added to the burden of a rebuild. The first time I met Shula after changing him was at a workforce banquet in his honor. I held out my hand and he shook it whereas delivering a bare-knuckled message.
“You really f—– up,” he mentioned.
“How so?” I requested.
“You let Troy Vincent and Bryan Cox go,” he mentioned.
I discussed that the wage cap dilemma left no selection. (I didn’t point out who prompted the issue.) He was clearly indignant I had changed him. The NFL’s all-time winningest coach had the proper to fume if he needed.
I understood the dynamics of changing a legendary coach by this level. I adopted Howard Schnellenberger on the University of Miami, Tom Landry at Dallas, and now Shula. This turned a daily query from guests to the Keys: How do you change an iconic coach?
The reply? I used to be by no means involved about who got here earlier than me. There’s a saying: “You don’t want to follow the legend; you want to follow the guy that follows the legend.” None of that mattered to me. I at all times took a job primarily based on the place I might stay, the chance it supplied, and the individuals I used to be going to be round—not whom I adopted. I took over an Oklahoma State program on probation as a result of I needed to be a head coach. I took the University of Miami job, sight unseen, at a coaches conference due to the chance and since I needed to stay there. I took the Dallas position due to Jerry’s supply and the NFL problem. I went to the Dolphins as a result of I needed to teach once more and nonetheless stay in South Florida.
I acted respectful in regards to the previous period when the topic was raised, however I by no means seemed again, or was hesitant about putting in my strategies. The previous—even my previous—didn’t imply an excessive amount of to me whereas teaching in a specific season. I used to be at all times in regards to the current and the long run.
Media, followers, and many individuals contained in the group made comparisons to the earlier coach due to the nice recollections and level of reference. I used to be normally good about sidestepping these points, however I made a mistake a couple of months after changing Shula in speaking at a Dolphins awards banquet for his or her earlier season. Many of the workforce’s greats have been there and references have been understandably made to the franchise’s historical past. The earlier season was reviewed. Don Shula was lauded. Awards got to gamers like Cox and Vincent, whom I had launched to get the wage cap below management. The whole night time was about yesterday.
“I know I’m supposed to say congratulations to all the people in the past,” I mentioned when it got here time for me to speak. “I’m supposed to talk about the great tradition, to pay tribute to all the great people who laid the groundwork . . .”
I gave a dismissive wave of my hand.
“Well, forget that,” I mentioned. “I only care about one thing: the present. The people who are here to win now.”
That prompted a stir. It’s how I felt. It’s how I at all times felt in any job. That night time’s message was directed at my present employees and gamers, that what occurred earlier than doesn’t matter to us. But some issues want a gentler contact or are simply higher left unsaid in a public discussion board.
Still, if others have been upset at how I got here within the door, I used to be extra involved with the minefield of inherited points: An ageing roster. Dan Marino’s bodily well being. A mediocre workforce. A restricted array of draft picks. Salary cap issues. And perhaps worst of all: a common, snug feeling from the gamers that they had a superb workforce since they made the playoffs the earlier 12 months earlier than being blown out by Buffalo within the first spherical. As Peter King wrote in Sports Illustrated, “It may be stretching things to say the Dolphins of 1996 have as many problems as the Dallas Cowboys of 1989, the year Johnson began his pro career. But not by much.”
My grand plan was to wash up these issues the primary 12 months, draft like I did in Dallas, and use Scotch tape and baling wire to carry Dan Marino collectively, if vital, to make a fast run on the Super Bowl. There was a small margin for error. Dan was on board with every part proper from my first day. I made positive to speak to him privately after my first workforce assembly to underline his significance in my plans.
“Coach, I’ve set enough records,” he mentioned. “If I throw ten passes and we win, I’ll be happy.”
Dan nonetheless might throw the ball in addition to anybody when wholesome and proved to be a real professional, an awesome competitor, and, regardless of some media experiences, a superb accomplice with whom I had a stable relationship in our years collectively. I might have cherished to have coached him within the prime of his profession.
But if I foresaw the potholes involving the Dolphins’ roster, wage cap, and draft choices when taking the job, I used to be shocked by the state of Dan’s legs. This was the period earlier than quarterbacks have been bubble-wrapped below protecting guidelines. Dan’s gait remained affected by the aftermath of a torn Achilles tendon. He had minor knee surgical procedure, as ordinary, after the earlier season—”a tune-up,” he usually known as them. There have been different results from 13 years of enjoying NFL quarterback.
It took one observe to disclose what all of it meant. I had the workforce run a few laps across the area to loosen up. Dan got here to me and mentioned he might run a pair laps with everybody, no downside.
“But then my knees won’t let me practice,” he mentioned.
Welcome to Miami.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com