If you weren’t sure before today, former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson actually is the national treasure we always thought he was.
Johnson went full scorched earth over the biggest story in the football world this week after 8-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick wasn’t elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Johnson, 82 years old, took his flamethrower to social media with a series of posts on X on Tuesday night that continued into Wednesday morning.
“I would like to know the names of the assholes who did not vote for him .. . they are too cowardly to identify themselves,” wrote Johnson, who is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. “As a HOF coach I think Bill Belichick is the greatest of all time … yes he had a great QB but we all did … he won AFTER THE salary cap and free agency plus I Know how much he LOVES THE NFL and the game … I’m pissed.”
The thrust behind Belichick being denied entry into the Hall of Fame seemed to be a pair of high-profile scandals in his 24 seasons as head coach of the New England Patriots. Most centrally, the Spygate scandal, when the Patriots were caught filming the other team’s defensive signals during games.
The NFL fined Belichick $500,000 — the biggest fine for a coach in NFL history — fined the Patriots $250,000 and stripped them of a first-round pick. Belichick also took full responsibility for his actions.
Johnson wasn’t having it.
“If (HOF voters) are using the EXCUSE of spygate that’s ridiculous … many teams (including ourselves) tried it,” Johnson wrote. “Howard Mudd at Kansas City who later coached for Bill Polian and Tony Dungy gave us the idea … he was the best … we didn’t get anything and stopped but many teams gave it a try.”
Partly Comedy, Partly Incredible Hot Takes
Like everything else with Johnson, the social media posts were entertaining but also came with a certain edge — kind of like how he coached football.
“I guess my advice to Jimmy Johnson would be, you know, sometimes you need to ‘Church’ it up,” ESPN analyst and former NFL cornerback Domonique Foxworth said on “Get Up” on Wednesday. “Like … you ain’t gotta name names like that!”
Not everyone was critical of the Hall of Fame for snubbing Belichick.
“I have mad respect for sports writers to be able to say Bill Belichick shouldn’t be rewarded for cheating,” Fox Sports Radio’s Rob Parker said on Wednesday.
Few Coaches in Football History Like Johnson
Johnson won a pair of Super Bowls with the Cowboys in the early 1990s, which 4 less than Belichick won as head coach of the Patriots. Johnson also owns a unique place in not just NFL history but in the history of football itself as the first head coach to win a national championship and a Super Bowl.
Johnson was a head coach in college at Oklahoma State then at Miami from 1984 to 1988, where he won a national championship in 1987. He was the head coach and general manager for the Cowboys from 1989 to 1993 and served in the same roles for the Miami Dolphins from 1996 to 1999.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Former Cowboys HC Jimmy Johnson Gets Honest About Bill Belichick HOF Snub appeared first on Heavy Sports.