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'The 2 Of Us Working Together Made History! Jimmy & Jerry Cowboys LIVE BLOG Before Ring of Honor Ceremony Inside AT&T Stadium

'The 2 Of Us Working Together Made History! Jimmy & Jerry Cowboys LIVE BLOG Before Ring of Honor Ceremony Inside AT&T Stadium

Mike Fisher

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ARLINGTON - ‘A lot of people dream. We never really dreamed. We truly believed we were going to win a Super Bowl.’ - Jimmy Johnson.

Jimmy is here. Jerry is here. We are here. And we launch our LIVE BLOG here inside AT&T Stadium for the 4:30 p.m. pregame press conference as Johnson and Jones discuss with us the coming Ring of Honor ceremony ...

It has become a rite of passage of sorts for NFL coaches and other prominent football figures, like going to see "The Wizard of Oz.'' ... except with Jimmy Johnson and his boat, behind that there is actually something to see, something to discuss, something to learn ...

And fish to be caught.

Jimmy and Jerry - photo by Bret Kelly, CBS11

Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has made the trip to South Florida and this offseason was invited aboard that boat. He and the legendary Johnson - already in the Hall of Fame and today set to be inducted by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones into the team's Ring of Honor - is also looking forward to welcoming Johnson.

While at sea, Johnson and McCarthy shared a couple beers (Troy Aikman’s EIGHT brand) and Jimmy talked about "America’s Team.''

“He sure did,” McCarthy smiled. “He sure did. It was all good.”

That can stay private. But now comes a very public day, eventually at halftime of this game between the Cowboys and the Lions will feature a moment that’s been 30 years in the making.

@JeffKolbFOX4

The Cowboys will induct Johnson into the Ring of Honor at AT&T Stadium three decades after he delivered two Super Bowls to Dallas before the bitter Jones-Johnson divorce.

McCarthy Reacts to Johnson's Cowboys Ring of Honor Announcement

But today? A 4:30 pregame press conference here at AT&T is on. And CowboysSI.com is in attendance ... And before Johnson's name goes into the Ring (it looks like he'll be positioned forever next to Darren Woodson) ... our live blog as it happens ...

3:58 THE SEATING ARRANGEMENT … 

Waiting in the media room deep inside the stadium and nearby the locker room …

Two big chairs …

4:27 THE PLAN …. It is the Cowboys PR plan that this session will cut off at 5 p.m. 

Does Jerry know this?

4:32 ARRIVAL …

Two men enter …

“It feels right,” says Jerry in what is his theme of the night.

4:40 “I wasn’t the fair-haired boy,” Jerry says of his arrival in Dallas, saying they helped strengthen his early bond with Jimmy.

4:42 ‘We had a great run … the Cowboys are in great shape. .. I don’t look back and say ‘What if?’ - Jimmy.

4:47 “Our attitude: We weren’t going to play with scared money!’ - Jimmy on not caring about NFL tradition & trends when he and Jerry took over the Cowboys.

4:49 “I don’t think anybody can imagine what this (Ring of Honor) means to me. It changed my life.’ - Jimmy on his Cowboys experience.

4:53 Jerry uses a grand word to describe Jimmy in the Ring of Honor: ‘FOREVERMORE.’

4:57 Jerry gets asked about any ‘difficulty in giving Jimmy credit.’ Johnson - in a very cool gesture - interrupts to smooth over the concept.

Jimmy: We’re past on who gets credit. The two of us working together made history.”

5:00: ‘A lot of people dream. We never really dreamed. We truly believed we were going to win a Super Bowl.’ - Jimmy.

5:01 On to the next portion of the evening ... But first a quick handshake ...

Congratulations, coach Jimmy Johnson!

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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