Jimmy Johnson, A Football Philosopher

   

    It is hard to imagine that an NFL Hall Of Fame head coach only coached in the league for 9 years; and even harder to believe that he only has 19 years of head coaching history. When looking at his past as a coach I was stunned by a very consistent trend. Jimmy coached 4 teams (Oklahoma State, University of Miami, Dallas Cowboys, and Miami Dolphins) in every single term he coached the team for no more than five years. Jimmy was an uncompromising and difficult personality that both was compulsively seeking another challenge and so insanely confident in his perspective and philosophy of winning, that he violently confronted any mortal that would challenge what he knew to be true.

The conviction of brevity.

    Jimmy believed that confidence and decisiveness resulted in speed, and that speed is the predominant basis to winning football. To be clear, Jimmy cared very little about measured field speed, he valued the velocity of decision making, and conviction. When Jimmy drafted Emmit he was criticized for investing such a high pick on a 4.55 40 time RB, but in Jimmy's infinite wisdom what he saw was a ridiculously decisive inside runner (inside running sheds time). 

The role of a QB.

Jimmy's first NFL pick was the HOF QB Troy Aikman, a country strong leader that went 0-11 as a rookie starter. The first ballot legend only threw more than 20 td's once in his career, and has a TD to INT ratio of 1.2 to 1 (not very good). Troy has 3 rings playing under the principles of Jimmy's philosophy. Troy played fast, played with belief, and embraced the gospel of no hesitation.

The value of ignoring the metrics

Jimmy Johnson in his first year as the Miami Dolphins head man drafted with his 3rd 5th round pick #54 Zack Thomas. Many people might not remember that Jimmy had signed a popular free agent LB Jack Del Rio who was slated to be the starting MLB. The 1996 training camp started on a sunny day on July 15th. In true Jimmy courage and insight, after two weeks of observing his roster he cut Jack Del Rio on August 5th and elevated #54 as the starter. Zack was the starting MLB for Miami his whole career and is tied with Dwight Stephenson for first in franchise history as a 5 time first team All Pro. #54 personified Jimmy's philosophy of winning, unparalleled decision making speed on the field. 

Marino was not a believer.

Jimmy Johnson receives the lion share of the blame for driving Marino into retirement. I suppose there is ample evidence and historical accounts of the jagged relationship between the two accomplished men. Marino, like Jimmy, also had uncompromising belief in his talents and ability. Marino viewed the philosophy of Jimmy as a shackle to his talent. Marino's unwillingness to comply with a winning philosophy culminated to a historically embarrassing playoff loss to the Jaguars (62-7). A loss so jarring that both great NFL personalities retired forever. It is interesting to note that Marino Played QB as a pro for 17 years and 4 years in college with no titles, Jimmy coached for 19 years and only 9 in the NFL, and he walks away with three rings.

    I guess it is appropriate that a revered coach who's winning philosophy was based on the conviction of choice would cultivate a legendary career with immediacy and transience, a living embodiment of his own winning ideology.