Jimmy Johnson's Happy: It's Almost Time To Just Play Football

By DAVE GOLDBERG / AP Football Writer

(Oct. 26, 1996)

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) - Jimmy Johnson was jovial Friday.

That's because the Miami Dolphins' game against the Dallas Cowboys was 48 hours away, and questions about his relationship with Jerry Jones and Barry Switzer were almost over.

"It's made this week less fun for me," Johnson said of the game between the team he coaches now and the team he used to coach.

"I look forward to big games. I'm hyped up. I like the challenge. But because of the personality issues involved this week, I haven't liked it. You don't want to talk about personal things on a daily basis."

The personality issues are Johnson vs. Jones and Switzer, the owner who let him go in Dallas and the coach who succeeded him there. It's the overriding theme of Sunday's game between the Dolphins and the Cowboys.

"Commotion By the Ocean!" read T-shirts being distributed in South Florida.

The personality issues were mentioned by a media contingent much larger than the one Johnson normally faces on Friday.

But this time, Johnson didn't mind, even though he continued to try and talk about this as just another game.

He joked with a columnist from Dallas about the bad old days, when he took over the Cowboys in 1989 and the team finished 1-15.

"Every week we'd lose but I'd say, 'We're making some progress,' " Johnson said. "He'd ask me 'Where?' "

He even chuckled each time he was asked about Jones or Switzer instead of Dan Marino, who will start at quarterback on Sunday for the first time in a month. Since Marino cracked an ankle bone against Indianapolis, the Dolphins are 1-3 after going 3-0 with him.

The Cowboys also are 4-3, in the opposite way. They're 3-0 after starting 1-3, and they've won both games since Michael Irvin came back from a five-week suspension for substance abuse.

Johnson was jovial about that, too.

Asked who should be the favorite in Sunday's game, he replied: "Don't the papers say the Cowboys are the favorites? The papers know everything."

Then he was asked whom he would make the favorite.

He thought for a few seconds.

"I'd make them the favorite, too," said Johnson, who starts six rookies. "They have how many guys who have been to the Pro Bowl? Do we have any Pro Bowlers? Well, we have a lot of guys who have been to college all-star games."