Jimmy Johnson deserves to be enshrined somewhere in 2020.
With the Pro Football Hall of Fame off the table, the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor belongs back on it.
Johnson was scheduled for Hall of Fame induction at an Aug. 8 ceremony in Canton, Ohio. This mass-gathering event, along with the Aug. 6 Hall of Fame Game exhibition between the Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, was postponed Thursday to 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Any reason that existed before to further delay Johnson’s place in the Ring of Honor exists no longer.
The time has come to extend Johnson an invite.
There remains heavy uncertainty about the months ahead, including doubt about whether an NFL season is viable during a daunting public health crisis. As of now, the NFL’s goal is to salvage the season. And so, if Johnson is comfortable with the notion, it should be the Cowboys’ goal to honor Johnson at the first regular-season opportunity they have at AT&T Stadium in 2020.
For years, Johnson has been among the Cowboys’ most notable Ring of Honor omissions.
He won two Super Bowls while establishing the foundation for a third during his tenure as head coach from 1989-93. An ego-frayed relationship with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones led to his 1994 departure. Today, it is Jones who decides when Johnson is inducted.
Four months ago, Jones dismissed that the Ring of Honor inclusion would come this year.
“Right now, it’s not on my mind at all,” Jones said Feb. 27 at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. “It is not. Regarding Jimmy, we have such a big year ahead of us with Jimmy and his celebration. I want that to be the focus, period. If everybody says, ‘Is that the right order of things?’ well, Coach [Tom] Landry was in the Hall of Fame before the Ring of Honor. Here, we’ve got the two greatest coaches in the history of the Cowboys, so they can go in the same order.”
Obviously, much has changed these past four months.
With Thursday’s news, the “big year ahead” for Johnson became far less of one.
HOF postponed until 2021...so got to wait another year!
— Jimmy Johnson (@JimmyJohnson) June 25, 2020
“HOF postponed until 2021 ... so got to wait another year!” Johnson wrote Thursday morning on Twitter.
While the “big year” reason no longer holds water, the Landry comparison hardly did from the start. Landry coached his final season with the Cowboys in 1988. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Ring of Honor in 1993. Landry, a two-time Super Bowl winner, waited about four years. Johnson, a two-time Super Bowl winner, has waited 26.
To extend Johnson an invite for a 2020 Ring of Honor induction following the Canton delay would constitute a meaningful gesture from Jones.
A Ring of Honor ceremony perhaps couldn’t be held with any Cowboys fans in attendance — or at least as many. This lack of a fan reception is no small thing, even as many across the NFL anticipate record-high television ratings. A ceremony in Arlington also would require some travel for Johnson during a pandemic. Conceivably, Johnson may prefer to wait to join the Ring of Honor.
After already being forced to wait on Canton, Johnson deserves the opportunity to make this call.
He deserves the invite.
Johnson is one of three men with primary Cowboys ties who have been selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame but still await the Ring of Honor. Jones and Deion Sanders are the others. Sanders is due at any point. It would be fitting, given their Cowboys arrivals came in near unison, if Jones and Johnson considered being inducted together on the same stage.
This was supposed to be a big year for Johnson to be honored.
It still can be.
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