DALLAS — His four words defined a dynasty.
For the last 30 years, Cowboys fans have greeted each other with a common phrase. And Jimmy Johnson is the reason why.
"How 'bout them Cowboys?!?" Johnson hollered after the 1992 NFC Championship Game, as the Cowboys clinched their first Super Bowl berth under the fiery fourth-year head coach. They'd go on to win the next two Super Bowls, cementing the Cowboys as the team of the '90s.
Johnson built a monster, a Cowboys team that dominated the NFL ... and yet left so many what-ifs.
The early days
He inherited a sleeping giant, a once-proud Cowboys franchise that had fallen on hard times. And he rejuvenated it with his unique blend of intensity and deal-making.
"I said if we just take that same ol' Pro Football 'take the best player available'," Johnson said, "we are so bad, we're never gonna get any good."
His trade of Herschel Walker changed the sport. In a dastardly exchange, the Cowboys cut the players Minnesota dealt to them, and instead wound up with the Vikings first and second round picks in 1990, '91, and '92, plus a third round selection.
"I got a hold of Mike Lynn, and I said 'Mike, I'm gonna cut all these players. I want all your picks," Johnson said.
Dallas used those picks to take Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson, Russell Maryland, and others.
"That was the last phone call," Johnson said, "I ever had with Mike Lynn."
Building a champion
Johnson's intensity was legendary. From a winded kicker -- "Asthma my a**," Johnson hollered during windsprints one day, "get over there on that other field and have some asthma!" -- to withholding meals on the plane after a loss.
"I don't care how they feel about me," Johnson said. "When they lose, I want them to hurt. I don't care if it's a meaningless game, I want them to feel nauseated."
They didn't spend much time nauseated, because they didn't spend much time losing. After a 1-15 campaign in Johnson's first year, Dallas improved to 7-9 the second year, and then ripped off three straight seasons of success, going 11-5, 13-3, and 12-4.
Canton Bound
This weekend, Johnson, 78, goes into the Hall of Fame.
"This will be the first time," Cowboys legendary quarterback Troy Aikman said, "that Cowboys fans will have a chance to really celebrate what he's meant to those teams that we were a part of."
Aikman will present Johnson for enshrinement on Saturday. And Aikman has known Johnson since long before their Dallas days.
"We go back a long way, and there was some pretty tough moments for he and I," Aikman said.
Johnson tried to recruit Aikman multiple times.
"I thought he was gonna come to Oklahoma State, and at the last minute he changed, and went to Oklahoma," Johnson said. "Then, when we played him, when I was at Miami, we broke his leg. And I said 'hey, he's gonna transfer', so I tried to get him to transfer to Miami... well, he went to UCLA. So, I tried to get him half-a-dozen times."
Then, in his first act as Cowboys head coach, he drafted Aikman in 1989.
"When I drafted him, I knew I had him," Johnson said with a laugh.
But there was also a brief issue early in the Cowboys days, as Johnson drafted Steve Walsh that same year, leading to some discontent. But Johnson says he always knew Aikman was his guy -- he played Walsh simply to prop up his trade value, so they could flip him for more players and picks.
But whatever issues may have briefly existed between the two, they've long since become quite close, with Aikman even tearing up during the Fox telecast, when Johnson was told he'd go into the Hall.
"It's probably a huge upset that I'm the one presenting him for the Hall of Fame," Aikman said with a laugh. "If anybody was around during that time, they wouldn't have foresaw that happening."
Of course, it's not Aikman who Jimmy had his most famous dust-up with... that's Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Jerry and Jimmy
"I think Jerry and I could've communicated better those last few years," Johnson said. "We communicated well the first year or two, when we were losing. When we started winning a lot of games, the communication stopped."
Back-to-back Super Bowls, the potential for so much more... and then it all blew up.
During last month's Cowboys state of the team press conference, Jones addressed the controversy, as he's done at various points over the years. But this was a bit more candid, as he described an exchange with Barry Switzer, who took over after Johnson left.
"Barry Switzer said 'I just wanted to get both you little a**holes on this couch, and ask you both, how could you f*** this up?" Jones recalled. "That's Switzer."
Four straight Super Bowls? A decade-long dynasty? What could've been...
"Our team would've gotten better," Johnson said. "Egotistically, I think we would've won a few more. You know, but who knows?"
Jimmy Johnson spent just nine years coaching in the NFL. But he didn't need long to leave a Hall of Fame legacy.
"You can't tell the story of the NFL, without talking about the Cowboys in the '90s," he said. "And so, if you're gonna tell that story, you're gonna have to say something about Jimmy Johnson."
And you'll start, by saying four little words.