CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that former head coach Jimmy Johnson will be inducted into the franchise’s ring of honor on Dec. 30 when they host the Detroit Lions.
Jones made the announcement on FOX prior to the Cowboys’ game on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.
Johnson won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1992 and 1993 seasons during his five-year tenure with the Cowboys, but the relationship between the two men has been rocky at times and deteriorated at the end with a bitter departure following the 1993 season.
Johnson finished 44-36 in Dallas and then went on to spend four seasons coaching the Miami Dolphins.
He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020 and many wondered when, if ever, he was going into the Cowboys ring of honor.
“I really thought it was time and I wanted to do it this year,” Jones said at a news conference before the game. “Frankly it just felt right. Certainly there some awkwardness that was happening for not doing it that I guess I anticipated, but also really didn’t anticipate. I wouldn’t have wanted that to linger any longer at all.”
Jones then turned to Johnson, standing next to him behind a podium, and added “but when you’re in, you’re in. And you’ve always been in. It was just a question of when.”
Johnson, who was in Charlotte working the game for FOX, and joked, “I think one reason for this year is I’m alive. Because he has always told me I was going in.”
Johnson said his working relationship with Jones while the two helped build a Super Bowl champion was better than most people think.
“I’m appreciative of the ring of honor, but I’m even more appreciative of him bringing me to the Cowboys in 1989,” Johnson said. “The two of us working around the clock together. People don’t realize the relationship we had. Back then Jerry and I talked every day. We never really had a disagreement and that is surprising to a lot of people. We were always on the same page.”
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