Swagger
Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs—A Memoir
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4.3 • 102 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
FOX NFL Sunday analyst and legendary Hall of Fame head football coach Jimmy Johnson—the first to win both a college football championship and a Super Bowl—shares his long-awaited, intimate, no-regrets memoir recounting his extraordinary life and insightful lessons on winning, at every level.
Hall of Fame football coach Jimmy Johnson’s house isn’t on the way to anything. Yet, his private sanctuary on the Florida Keys’ Islamorada islands is a popular destination to which college and professional coaches, general managers, and team owners regularly trek to seek advice—how to build a positive team culture, draft elite players, balance work and family life, and lead a team to win. Why? Because Jimmy Johnson has done it all—rising through the college coaching ranks to lead the University of Miami Hurricanes to a national championship, winning two consecutive Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, and handling public triumphs while dealing with private adversity. Now, written with veteran sports journalist Dave Hyde, Johnson shares a candid account of his life experiences that have turned him into a legend in the coaching world.
From his early days on the college football fields at Louisiana Tech to his arrival as the Cowboys’ coach in 1989, Swagger traces the history of Johnson’s career, and his lifelong mission to win. His larger-than-life personality and hard-driving, tough-talking coaching style led him to become one of only six coaches in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Swagger shows the behind-the-scenes details of his professional conflict with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his personal revelations following his mother’s death and his son’s struggle with addiction. It reveals Johnson’s formula for winning, including his criteria for identifying talent, his core beliefs, how he replaced legendary coaches like Tom Landry and Don Shula, coached stars from a young Troy Aikman to an aging Dan Marino, and established the ever-elusive sense of “culture” that every team leader hopes to achieve. More than a highlight reel, Swagger reveals the hard-won lessons Jimmy Johnson has learned both as a man and as a coach through a lifetime dedicated to excellence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
NFL coach Johnson examines his legacy in his self-assured debut. Born in Texas in 1943, Johnson developed a love of football early, played college ball, and received accolades as head coach at the University of Miami in the 1980s. In 1989, Johnson became head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and subsequently led the team to Super Bowl wins in 1993 and 1994. His tenure, he notes, wasn't without conflict, and he resigned in 1994 after learning that owner Jerry Jones discredited his victories in a drunken conversation with a reporter ("It was all the tiresome antics with Jerry," Johnson writes). Johnson later coached the Miami Dolphins, but success eluded him. Johnson is unapologetic about his triumphs ("My style was never to act humbly in victory the way the old unspoken rules read"), and he candidly recounts the negative consequences of his "addiction to football," including the end of his 26-year marriage and his younger son Chad's alcoholism. His obsession looms large over the narrative; after the death of his mother, he skipped her viewing because the act of mourning "folded into the suffocating idea of football over family, of football over life." Cowboys disciples and football buffs will drink up this warts-and-all confessional.
Customer Reviews
Great insight!
Great insight into the life, and mindset, of a great coach! As a lifelong Washington fan, I still always admired Jimmy as a coach and think he’s an even better analyst on FOX, if that’s even possible!
Highly recommended read!!!!
A Glimpse
This book is a glimpse of what it takes to be successful as a head coach. The care, compassion and hard nose mentality it takes to lead a team, regardless of sport or business. Lessons in human behavior and social interactions by the greatest Cowboys Coach of all time!
Great read and insight of who Jimmy Johnson is.
Great stories about players and how he looked at their backgrounds and individual personalities. Very open about his sacrifices of his family,marriage to coach championship teams.