Jimmy Johnson on status with Cowboys: ‘I am back in the fold’

Former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson is enjoying his renewed relationship with his former organization and team owner Jerry Jones. During a radio appearance this week, Johnson opened up about how he finally feels he’s “back in the fold” with the Cowboys. The team honored him with a Ring of Honor induction during the 2023 season and he and Jones are now thick as thieves once again.

“We were talking on the phone about an hour after his Green Bay loss, and he was talking about what all he needed to do because he had big decisions on Mike McCarthy and Dan Quinn and Dak Prescott,” Johnson said on WQAM 560 AM, claiming to be on the Jerry Jones “advisory board.” “Everything is hunky dory now. I am back in the fold with the Cowboys.”

Johnson hasn’t coached in more than two decades, but as a two-time Super Bowl winner and former AP Coach of the Year, he has a lot to offer Jones in the way of good advice. The duo had a lot of great times together before animosity struck toward the end of his tenure in Dallas.

Johnson says he’s on the ‘Jerry Jones advisory board’

“The two of us were working around the clock, together,” Johnson said before his Ring of Honor induction. “People don’t realize the relationship [we have]. Back then, Jerry and I talked every day. Every single day I’d be in his office. And we never really had a disagreement, and that’s surprising to a lot of people, but we were always on the same page. 

“And probably some of the tension happened there at the end of my career, as far as with the Cowboys, we were so busy going in different directions that we didn’t talk as much. My feelings for Jerry have never changed. I love the guy. He’s a big part, maybe the biggest part, of my entire career.”

Johnson, who works as an analyst for Fox Sports, went viral for his speech during halftime of the Cowboys’ playoff game against the Packers. It was an emotional moment for the former head coach, and maybe if the team had heard it, it could have made a difference. Instead, the Packers sent the team home in the first round with a 48-32 knockout.

Even after witnessing that performance, Johnson likely advised Jerry Jones to hang on to Mike McCarthy, Dan Quinn and Dak Prescott. McCarthy and Prescott will certainly be back in 2024, though Quinn is now the head coach of the Commanders.