Souhan: Remembering Jimmy Johnson... and what he did to the Vikings

Jimmy Johnson this week announced his retirement from Fox Sports, where he was an NFL analyst for 31 years.

Vikings fans know him for orchestrating one of the greatest thefts in sports history: the trade of Herschel Walker to the Vikings for seven high draft picks and a handful of players.

Johnson’s departure from the public square elicited dozens of memories.

My first professional sports beat was the 1989 Dallas Cowboys. One of my first pro sports assignments was trying to find Johnson and incoming Cowboys owner Jerry Jones the night before Jones was to announce the hiring of Johnson and the firing of legendary coach Tom Landry.

How popular was Landry? Imagine Bud Grant with two Super Bowl rings, in a more populous state, with a national fan base.

Jones became an instant villain, and the large staff of the Dallas Morning News went out looking for him. Our college football writer, the great Ivan Maisel, found the two laughing it up over drinks. The resulting photo dominated the paper’s front page the next day and solidified Jones’ reputation as a franchise destroyer.

Over the next few months, the Cowboys beat writers got to know Johnson. He was a blast.

He went out for drinks with us (sometimes drinking Heineken over ice) and proved honest, down-to-earth and funny. His assistant coaches, most of whom came with him from Miami, were happy to have tied their careers to him. He inspired loyalty.

Johnson had won a national title at Miami and in the summer of ‘89 believed he could win immediately in the NFL by throwing the ball. He chose Troy Aikman with the first pick in the draft, then used a supplemental pick on former Cretin quarterback Steve Walsh, who had played for him at Miami.

Aikman resented that move.

At halftime of the Cowboys’ first preseason game, at New Orleans, Johnson told his assistants that he had no talent to work with. He eventually decided to tank the season while building the roster.

Which is where the idea of the Herschel trade was born.

Veteran general managers like the Vikings’ Mike Lynn viewed Johnson as a hick who couldn’t function in the NFL and would be desperate to win immediately. What they got wrong: Johnson was ruthless and shrewd and had a 10-year contract.

Johnson also correctly assessed Walker as a straight-ahead, I-formation running back who was beat up, could no longer overpower defenses and didn’t fit into a modern passing offense.

So with the Cowboys winless at the trade deadline, Johnson put Walker on the market. The Browns and Vikings were interested. Johnson and Lynn agreed to a deal: Seven high draft picks and five players, with Johnson being able at the end of the season to take either the picks or the players.

Lynn believed that Walker would get him to the Super Bowl. He also thought that Johnson would be so impressed with the quality of the players — including linebacker Jesse Solomon and cornerback Ike Holt — that he would choose the players and return the draft picks.

When the deal was consummated, Johnson called Lynn and told him that he was going to keep the picks, no matter what, and that he would send Lynn a few lower-round draft picks to keep the players he liked.

The day after the deal was announced, a colleague and I were walking through the Cowboys’ facility. Johnson pulled us into a room filled with copiers and smacked his lips — a sure sign he was agitated. Most early coverage of the trade had assumed that Johnson had traded his only quality player for five non-stars, and that Johnson wouldn’t keep the picks.

Johnson told us he was keeping the picks, and the players. We were floored.

In 1990, I moved to Minnesota to cover the Vikings, and learned that Lynn had never walked down the hall at Winter Park to ask coach Jerry Burns how Walker would fit into the offense. Turns out Walker would have been a bad addition even if the Vikings had traded nothing for him.

Here’s what many might not remember about Johnson: He coached the Cowboys for only five seasons. After going 1-15 in 1989, he won Super Bowls following the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Then Jones, jealous of Johnson’s stardom, fired him. Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl following the 1995 season with the team Johnson had built. The Cowboys have not returned to a Super Bowl since.

Ultimately, this is a tale of hubris. Lynn thought he was smarter than Johnson. Jones thought he didn’t need Johnson. Both were wrong.