Jerry Ranks Coaches Landry and Jimmy - And Gives A Cowboys Ring of Honor Reveal
FRISCO - We can look at the interaction that knots Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson as a half-empty glass or a half-full glass. I choose to fill it up and toast the Easter Egg that the Dallas Cowboys owner tossed into his answer regarding the idea the new Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Johnson also being enshrined in the team's Ring of Honor in 2020.
“Right now, it’s not on my mind at all, it is not,” Jones said last week from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “We have such a big year ahead of us with Jimmy and his celebration. I want that to be the focus, period.''
That's unfortunate and counterintuitive. "Unfortunate'' because I'm afraid that the more time that passes without a friendly resolution to their shared bitterness, the more the wounds fester. And "counterintuitive'' because there is no logical reason precluding the NFL and the Cowboys from a "Jimmy celebration'' that lasts all year.
I can see how Jerry might wish to spread out the "celebration'' for greater marketing impact. Jimmy in the Hall in 2020 and Jimmy in the Ring of Honor in 2021? That vaults the Cowboys into national headlines twice as much, maybe, as if both events are crowded into the same year.
But it's Jerry's mention of Johnson and coach Tom Landry in the same breath that is toast-worthy.
In discussing the idea that Johnson going into the Ring of Honor after becoming a Hall-of-Famer, Jones said, "The right order of things?’ Well, Coach Landry was in the Hall of Fame before the Ring of Honor.''
That's true ... though the Landry family's unhappiness with Jones is the reason his Cowboys induction was delayed. (Also true, as we've reported exclusively: The Jones family twice in the last seven years has "come close'' to putting Jimmy in the Ring of Honor, only to eventually change its mind. So "order'' doesn't really matter much, either way.)
But check out what Jerry said next.
"Here we’ve got the two greatest coaches in the history of the Cowboys,'' Jones said. "So they can go in the same (Hall-then-Ring) order.”
That is quite a statement. In my coverage of Jerry Jones for the last 30 years I do not recall him ever giving Johnson that particular compliment - that Jerry sees (and that the world should see) Johnson as on par with Landry.
It's one thing to issue a prepared statement, as the Cowboys did following the announcement of Jimmy to the Hall.
"To Jimmy I say, ‘The stars were aligned and our dreams came true when we joined the Dallas Cowboys,'' Jerry said in a statement shortly after Johnson was surprised with the news live on the FOX Sports set. "And on behalf of the Cowboys, and our fans all over the world, I say congratulations Jimmy. We're proud of you."
It's another thing to be magnanimous when Jerry is on the brightest stage. As Jerry that summer, right after his 2017 Canton induction: "Just so we're clear, you know me: I want to make anything we do in that Ring of Honor ... I want to make it have its own special attention ... But I hope it was obvious up there (in Jones' HOF speech in which he praised Johnson) how much I appreciated what Jimmy has contributed to the Cowboys [and] his, frankly, lifelong friendship.
"Our differences, while they were certainly visible .. if you really look at our friendship over the years, there's just not that much to fuss about. And so, it was pretty easy to reflect back on his contribution and what he meant."
"It's own special attention'' is an important part of how Jerry views this. Jerry's belief that Jimmy was guilty of "disloyalty'' is an important part of the story, too.
But Jerry Jones just compared Jimmy Johnson favorably to Tom Landry and - by saying, "They can go in the same order,'' he's saying Jimmy is going in.
So it'll be done on what people here inside The Star call "Jerry Time.'' But it'll be done.
