Tuesday, October 22, 1996

Miami-Dallas: more about hope than hype
By Greg Cote
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
(Oct. 22, 1996)

MIAMI (KRT) - What once seemed impossible now occurs. There is something bigger than the hype. There is something more vital to Dolphins-Cowboys than all of the Jimmy/Jerry/Barry stuff simmering and roiling on the periphery.

Desperation, it is called.

The T-shirts call Sunday's football game here The Commotion by the Ocean, but this is no heavyweight championship. The shirts trumpet Jimmy Does Dallas, but this is no personal grudge - not first nor foremost.

This is a game between 4-3 teams in a rugged patch of schedule that could effectively jettison either from the NFL playoff race right quick.

For all the luster and anticipation and guaranteed TV rating, Miami-Dallas arrives as a game humbled by its participants' own failings. The matchup is less about hype than hope. See, the loser won't have much.

The loser will be a .500 team at midyear. For Dallas, Miami is followed by a treacherous troika of Eagles, 49ers and Packers. For Miami, on deck is a long, tough run of Patriots-Colts-Oilers-Steelers-Raiders.

Jimmy Johnson did his best Monday to soft-pedal the soap opera and hit at the core of the game. This was a hard sell. Keep in mind J.J. was addressing a media multitude that hoped one juicy anti-Jerry Jones quote from Jimmy (or vice versa) would be the axis on which the entire week would spin.

No such luck.

Give Double-J a juggernaut team and he'll guarantee a victory and dare you to put it in a three-inch headline. Give him a team coming off its third loss in four games and he will be what comes so unnaturally: modest.

"We're 4-3," he said, eyebrows pinched in a V to betray his displeasure. "Our focus all week should be us playing up to our capabilities."

This wasn't just media Pablum. He said the same in a team meeting Monday. Steering focus will be a lot of what Johnson does this week.

"He's a lot more concerned right now trying to end up 5-3," said quarterback Bernie Kosar, one of Miami's three ex-Cowboys along with defensive end Daniel Stubbs and cornerback Robert Bailey. "There's no downplaying this game is important to him personally. But that's not his priority."

Better not be. J.J. letting his personal feelings go unpenned this week would be a stick of dynamite under his team's focus.

It (almost) goes without saying there is personal animus at work here. Johnson gave Cowboys owner Jerry Jones two Super Bowl titles, but by the end their great, clashing egos won out and Jones drew blood with the parting shot, claiming "any of 500" coaches could have won with Dallas' talent.

Then Jones picked Johnson's arch rival to replace him, as if by design. J.J.'s dislike of Barry Switzer is such, Johnson banned Dallas writer Kevin Sherrington from Dolphins camp this week. Why?

Because Sherrington asked Johnson for a reaction to a strange tale supposedly told to the writer by Switzer - that Johnson's ex-wife has been keeping in contact by letter ... with Switzer.

Johnson's response is muted by design when you ask about his relationship with Jones and Switzer.
"That's really a distraction for our team," he says. "I don't think that has anything to do with the game. I won't even address it."

J.J. addresses a somewhat more pressing matter this week:
Saving his season.

(Greg Cote is a sports columnist for the Miami Herald. Write to him at: Miami Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132.)

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