Jerry Jones still won't let Jimmy Johnson into Cowboys Ring of Honor
Jerry Jones is still not allowing Jimmy Johnson, the two-time Super Bowl-winning former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, to enter the team’s Ring of Honor.
Jones made headlines during 2021’s Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony whe he told Johnson — who was one of the hosts on the broadcast — that he would one day be inducted into the Ring of Honor. Two years later, that promise has yet to be fufilled.
When asked about it during DeMarcus Ware’s induction on Wednesday, Jones wouldn’t budge on the matter. Instead, he offered his thoughts on “projections.” He said he projects Micah Parsons to be in the Ring of Honor some day, essentially deflecting the question centered around Johnson.
“He’s the youngest 80-year-old you’ll ever meet. And I’m probably second. I’m not gonna let the old man in,” Jones said, via Jon Machota on Twitter. Machota pointed out that the last sentence wasn’t a dig at Johnson, rather a reference to a Toby Keith song that Jones is known to quote.
Johnson did a lot for the Cowboys, taking a 1-15 team his first year at the helm and turning them into the NFL’s finest just three years later.
23 players, including Ware as well as coaches and executives are enshrined into the Cowboys Ring of Honor, but Johnson is not one of them. Earlier this offseason, Jones literally would not speak on Johnson’s behalf when asked a similar Ring of Honor question.
“I’m not going to talk about that,” Jones said. “But the point is that the Ring of Honor should be very, very exclusive. And it’s good that whatever we do, we get to talk about it as much as we do. It gets more attention than it does if we loaded it up.”
The whole point of the Ring of Honor is to immortalize the people that have impacted the franchise like few others have. Almost every Dallas Cowboys fan would agree that Johnson should be near the top of that list, let alone on it in the first place.
Jones said that Ware will be the only inductee in the Ring of Honor during the 2023 calendar year. At 80 years old, time is ticking for Jones to put any differences aside and give Johnson the honor that everyone knows he deserves. Of course, the two share a relationship that Johnson has even admitted he doesn’t understand, making it that much harder for the public to understand. Only time will tell if he ever gets his induction.