Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson finally get it right in setting beef aside for Cowboys' celebration

ARLINGTON, Texas – It took way too long. Jimmy Johnson coached his last game for the Dallas Cowboys by winning a repeat crown with a decisive victory in Super Bowl 28 in early 1994. That's nearly three decades ago. And it has also been more than three years since Johnson was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On Saturday night, his old boss and former college teammate, Jerry Jones, finally put him in Cowboys' mystical Ring of Honor.

The nationally televised halftime ceremony, with the crowd roaring at AT&T Stadium, was special enough. Living members of the Ring of Honor, including pillars from Johnson's teams, welcomed the coach to the club. Emmitt Smith slipped the blue blazer on Johnson's back. First-class prankster Charles Haley mussed up Johnson's famous hair. Michael Irvin chanted with Johnson as he bellowed his signature catchphrase: "How 'bout those Cowboys?"

Yet for as much as the emotion was palatable and the recognition deserving – even to the point that Jones dipped to bow to Johnson – it was just as much a celebration that an injustice was finally corrected.

For so long, Jones, 81, a Hall of Famer himself as the most powerful owner in the NFL, just wouldn't give Johnson his due. They parted ways in March 1994 after Jones contended to reporters during a late-night chat at a hotel bar during NFL owners meeting that "500 coaches" could have coached the Cowboys. By then, the relationship was already fractured, seemingly undone by clashing egos and increasing distance. The bombshell from Jones, though, apparently was enough to push it to the point of no return.

That's why the extended wait for Johnson, 80, to join Tom Landry as the only coaches in the Ring seemed so much like a slap in the face. Jones, as the sole selector for the Ring, made Johnson twist in the wind, and twist, and twist, for decades.

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Psychologically, why was it so difficult to give Johnson credit?

When I asked Jones this during a news conference that had the feel of a fireside chat before the game, Johnson quickly deflected.

"Can I interrupt here, Jerry?" Johnson began. "I think we're past who gets credit. The two of us, working together, made history."

Johnson went on to contend that they talked every single day and that he couldn't recall them ever having a difference.

Yeah, right.

Then again, you can't blame Johnson – or Jones – for putting this Ring event into the most positive light as possible.

"So, the credit needs to go to a lot of people," Johnson added, praising his assistant coaches, staff and of course, players.

Letting bygones be bygones, forgiving and forgetting was a good thing after the cloud of discontent continued to hover over their history. Sure, it's fair to wonder whether the Cowboys – who won three Super Bowls in four years through the 1995 season – would have won a few more Super Bowls had Johnson stayed on board. There is no shortage of Cowboys players, who won that third Super Bowl under Barry Switzer, who will swear that they would have won two or three more.

In any event, Jones and Johnson also deserved their kumbaya moment. At last.

"This didn't have to happen," Jones said, choosing to pick up on the question. "It happened because it was the right thing to do. That's not a difficulty of credit, it's just the right thing to do.

"You say, 'Why has it lasted so long?' As it turns out, when you go in, that means you were there all along."

OK, Jerry. We get it. The moment would not be complete without some "Jerryism" to leave us scratching our heads.

"I would agree with you," Jones added. "Somebody could have said, 'Jerry, couldn't Jimmy have been in 15 years ago, 20 years ago?' And you can say whatever you want to about my human reactions or frailties. I'll say this today: He's there because it's the right thing to do. He was getting in, whether I put him in or my kids put him in."

Johnson, who has maintained a huge NFL presence as an analyst on Fox Sports, maintains that he doesn't look back. That's so Jimmy. No regrets. No problem. After all, he pointed out, he was a lot like a gypsy during his coaching career, typically staying on a job for five years or less. Still, he also acknowledged what he might have done differently, considering how his Cowboys tenure ended.

"For me, the biggest thing was communication," he said. 

By the fourth or fifth year with the Cowboys, "We kind of got apart to where we didn't talk every single day."

Yet now it was Johnson who made it a point to suggest a future member of the Ring of Honor: Jerry Jones.

Aww. The love is flowing on the high road.