A nice shot of Coach Johnson with the military personnel in attendance
The second part of my interview with Coach Johnson is below. As promised there are more hard-hitting football questions as well as the Survivor questions that were asked by myself and a few of the other reporters.
At a Crown Royal event for their new initiative, Operation CAMO Care Package, I had the opportunity to interview two-time Super Bowl Winning coach Jimmy Johnson along with three other blogger-types. Operation CAMO Car Package is a project Crown Royal in conjunction with Operation Troop Aid. I recommend you check out what they are doing and support the cause. The easiest way you can give your support is by going to your local adult beverage retailer and purchasing a bottle of Crown Royal in a purple camouflage bag. For every camo-bagged Crown Royal purchased they will fill another camo bag with essential items such as toiletries, sunscreen, snacks, and in some cases 120-minute prepaid phone cards and send it to troops serving overseas. That seems like a win-win to me. You win because you get to enjoy
I would like to let my readers in on a little bit of my experience at the event. I was one of the most under-dressed people at the event. Almost everyone guy had a suit on except, you guessed it, the bloggers. The two other male bloggers had on shorts and polo shirts. I had on slacks and a long-sleeve button-down shirt (classy and sexy, right ladies?) The female blogger was dressed very appropriately as well, probably classier than me. Also, there was a free lunch and free booze. Crown Royal was featured, and this reporter can confirm that is so, so smooth.
As with the last post the following interview portion has been edited for length and to not reveal how long and bumbling my questions were.
Nonpopulist: (On Survivor), Was it easy to turn into Coach Johnson, did you use that to your advantage?
Coach Johnson: Well, I really didn’t want to be the leader. I didn’t want to be the boss, and they just kept saying, listen, we’ve got decisions to make and somebody, not saying you’re going to make the decision, but you help us make the decision. So, I said at least I’ll do that.
Nonpopulist: How quickly did hygiene go out the window? How long did you keep up appearances?
Coach Johnson: About 30 minutes (laughing)
Nonpopulist: 30 minutes, and you spent a whole month there? (more laughing) [ed. Note: damn, I’m funny]
John (It’s Never Sunny in Cincinnati): If Jerry Jones was on Survivor, how long would he last?
Coach Johnson: Well, Jerry’s had the good life for a long, long time, and what I’ve found out because I’ve had the good life for awhile myself, being on the couch in the air condition, sleeping in a bed, having lots of food and water makes you want to come back and get those things again. So I don’t know if Jerry would last real long on Survivor.
John (INSIC): When the Survivor taping ended, what was your first meal when you got back home?
Coach Johnson: I had four cold beers. (laughter of knowing-drunks)
Nonpopulist: Nice, that’s a good choice.
Coach packing the ceremonial Crown CAMO bag
Nonpopulist: You followed coaching legends three times in your career. Two out of three went well for you. Having the benefit of years to look back and reflect, what would you say the difference is between the two successful ones and the one that didn’t go as well?
Coach Johnson: Following Schnellenberger we ended up winning a championship. In four years, we only lost two regular season games, so that went well. Then following Landry, back to back Super Bowls, so that went well and we put together a team that won another one. And then, following Shula, we were in the playoffs three straight years and we were in the second round of playoffs two straight years. Now, for most teams in the NFL, going to the second round of playoffs is usually pretty good, but when you’ve got a couple Super Bowl rings, people have expectations to win a Super Bowl, so if you don’t win a Super Bowl it’s a disappointment. But people look at the Dolphin thing and say, well, was that a disappointment—I thought we played about as well as our talent allowed us to play. Like I said, going to the playoffs three straight years, but we didn’t win a super bowl, so that was a disappointment.
Nonpopulist: Yeah, that was my follow up. Were you the victim of high expectations?
Coach Johnson: Yeah, again, most teams in the league would love to be in the playoffs three straight years.
Nonpopulist: Yeah, when was the last time you got a coaching inquiry about a coaching position?
Coach Johnson: I’ve had inquiries about, not coaching in the last 5 or 6 years, but being a general manager or being a consultant. Of course, in the early years they always wanted me to coach, but I’ve pretty well made it clear to everybody I love doing Fox NFL Sunday. That satisfies my itch for football, and being out there with Bradshaw and Howie Long and Strahan and Menefee.
Nonpopulist: Yeah, we can tell you guys have a good time.
Coach Johnson: We have a ball.
Nonpopulist: I saw where last Sunday on the Fox NFL Morning Show, you guys were giving your Super Bowl picks and you chose the Colts and the Cowboys.
Coach Johnson: Yeah and both of them lost. I’ve said before I’m terrible at picking games, but I still like both teams.
Nonpopulist: What do you think of former players and coaches who are now commentators stumping for their former teams?
Coach Johnson: I don’t necessarily stump for a team. I mean if you look at the picks I made, the Cowboys and the Colts, that pretty well might be the consensus around the league. The only one that might be thrown in there with them would be the Packers, maybe. A lot of people are picking Green Bay. That’s probably the consensus pick. Again, I don’t have any allegiance to any team as far as the way I am on Fox NFL Sunday.
Nonpopulist: So, you’re not afraid of getting the cold shoulder or anything like that?
Coach Johnson: I think players more so than former coaches. The only coaches that might be concerned about that are ones that are going to go back and coach again which I’m not.
One of Coach Johnson's Super Bowl rings. Shiny.
Again, I would like to say thank you to HuggingHaroldReynolds and the folks at Taylor PR for the opportunity.
No comments:
Post a Comment