SPORTSThe Man Under the Hair

IN THE SPRING OF 1989 WHEN Jimmy Johnson came riding into Dallas on the black horse steered by his boss and best friend. Jerry Jones, the duo seemed inseparable. They were two heads of one mysterious, sometimes brash and bungling beast: The JJs. To dusty, trail-hard Cowboys fans they seemed like rustlers, outlaws who dared steal America’s team.

The boss was an apparent Arkansas rube, who. despite himself, had amassed a fortune. The coach, whose signature hair was a black hat compared to the departing fedora, had just spent live years at the helm of the renegade University of Miami Hurricanes. He was something of an enigma. Sometimes jolly, sometimes curt, always confident. His incredible record at Miami (44-4 in his last four years) inspired both awe and resentment.

The wagons circled. The lynch mob was readied. They’ll fail! the Cowboys’ faithful taunted.

And they did–or so it appeared.

“It was probably the most difficult year of my life,” Johnson recalls. “I was able to survive because I knew it was going to be difficult, I thought we would have a more talented team. But if I thought about it more I shouldn’t have been surprised since the Cowboys were last in the league the year before I got here.”

Entering the 1991 season, not everyone likes Johnson and Jones, but the hanging tree has gone unused. Jones has glad-handed his way out of a deep public relations rut and, in a short time, has earned respect around the NFL. For Johnson, it is more complicated. Improving from 1-15 in 1989 to 7-9 in 1990, when he garnered NFL Coach of the Year honors, he has Cowboys fans looking ahead instead of back. Yet he remains a mystery. We see Johnson on television answering questions or pacing the sidelines, but where else? Ripping up at local celebrity golf outings? No. On the banquet circuit? No, again. Standing next to the mayor in some contrived photo op? Emphatically no.

If you’re trying to find Jimmy Johnson, whether it’s the middle of the off-season, or two days before a Giants game, look no further than Valley Ranch.

“I believe in doing whatever it takes to win,” Johnson said on a morning in late June. He had given his players their first extended leave in two years, but he was in the office… relaxing. “If we do everything we possibly can do, then I know no one is out-working us. I don’t have to worry about what they’re doing because 1 know they can”t do any more.”

Johnson says this is his last coaching job. not because he is aging, but because he can’t think of a better one. The differences between college and NFL coaching are ones that he appreciates.

“I like so much more the atmosphere in the NFL because the emphasis is only on winning,” he says, “I’m the type of individual that focuses in: I don’t like to be distracted. I don’t do many social events. In college I did a lot of public speaking because it was expected of me. I spent a lot of time there with academics, and our graduation rate tripled. I was involved in a lot of different things other than football, It really was frustrating at times. 1 enjoy being able to focus in on one thing.”

That one thing is winning, something Johnson doesn’t hope to do, but rather expects to do. He sets no goals for a season, refusing to put a cap on what the team might accomplish. Last year the Cowboys won 700 percent more games than the year before, yet he felt disappointed. This year the question is not whether they will make the playoffs, but how well they will do in the post-season.

Coaching the Cowboys is Jimmy Johnson’s world, and that is the way he likes it. He says that he once went on a weeklong cruise and “was a basket case.” What we don’t get from those sideline snippets, according to those close to him, is that Johnson is extremely intelligent. That he is a master motivator. That he is a people person who uses his background in psychology with great results.

Born in Port Arthur. Texas, in 1943. Johnson was an undersized, overachieving two-way lineman who earned all-state honors. He moved on to the University of Arkansas, where as an undersized, over-achieving defensive lineman he helped lead the Razorbacks to the national championship in 1964. His college coach. Prank Broyles.

’ has said that Johnson was one of three geniuses he recruited at Arkansas.

“He was like having a coach on the field,” Broyles recalls. “He was calling defensive plays before the offense snapped the ball. He has a brilliant, quick mind. Jimmy could make As and Bs by barely cracking a book.” Johnson, a psychology major, uses “genius” in dealing with people. Defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt, entering his 10th season with Johnson as his head coach, offers an almost Zen-like description of Johnsons people skills.

“Jimmy reads people better than anyone I know. I left Miami and came here because of the way he treats people. He believes that if you treat people right, you can become that person, and you can understand what motivates them.”

“He finds out what makes every individual tick,” concurs Cowboys public relations chief Rich Dalrymple. “Don’t treat people the way they are, treat them the way you want them to be, then they become that person. He is a master psychologist.”

Never was this more apparent than at the Cowboys’ Christmas party last year. It was held before the Phoenix Cardinals game, when the team was 6-7. and levity was in the air. At the point in the evening where the coach usually offers his sentiments and a pat on the back for a job well done, Johnson stepped to the mike and said. “I want everyone to remember one thing. Just think how you’ll feel if we don’t win the Phoenix game.” Then he left. The Cowboys won 41-10.

“I think it’s important for any CEO or any imanager or supervisor to motivate the people who work for them.” Johnson explains. “It’s important for any executive to bring out the best in the people. Sometimes that can be tricky working with professional athletes making a lot more money than you are.

“In the old days you could get a group of guys together and they would run through a brick wall. That doesn’t happen anymore. Each individual has different things that motivate them, and you have to deal with each one individually. At least that’s my best way to motivate people.”

Clearly, no one has forgotten Tom Landry. nor should they. Yet Johnson’s greatest achievement might be that after only two years, he is no longer resented as Landry”s successor, even though he had to dismantle his team.

“One of his first jobs was to weed out players with negative attitudes.” says Wann-stedt. “He doesn’t let himself be surrounded by negative people. It can be as important to judge personality as talent.”

“We knew how we were going to do things and we wanted to sell the players on doing it our way.” Johnson explains of his series of “optional” (read: mandatory) off-season mini-camps; scorching. Hill Country training camps: and year-round attentiveness to duty. “I think it was much more important for players to want to do it than for me to tell them how to do it.

“You approach it not only as a business but also that the number one priority is to win football games. If an individual is keeping you from winning football games, then it [releasing him| is an easy decision.”

Such abrupt statements have at times made Johnson appear heartless-a perception that Jerry Jones is quick to dispel.

“He has a tremendous amount of loyalty,” Jones explains. “I don’t think this perception conies across at all [in the media]. He is loyal to the point where I wonder sometimes if this compromises some of his decisions with staff and players. I think the perception is that he’s cold and that it’s easy for him to make a decision like that. His entire world is involved with his relationships with his staff and with his players.”

With three drafts under Johnson’s belt, the 1991 Cowboys are close to being the team Johnson envisions. Wide receivers Alexander Wright and Alvin Harper give the exceptional speed and quick-strike capability Johnson was known for at Miami. The number one pick, defensive tackle Russell Maryland, will stuff the middle while quick defensive ends provide the pass rush. Troy Aikman throwing. Emmitt Smith running. And a passel of future picks on which to build the franchise in the Nineties.

“Last year our guys were hoping to win. This year our guys are expecting to win,” Johnson, the psychologist, says. “And we will win.”

When that happens, perhaps the bad guysmight not look so bad after all.