In Search of Good Times

Jimmy Johnson is one of the greatest football coaches in history, having seen tremendous success both in the college ranks with Oklahoma State and, more notably, the Miami Hurricanes, as well as winning back-to-back championships with the Dallas Cowboys.

He has since gone on to have a very successful post-football career as a studio analyst on FOX’s highly popular Sunday NFL coverage, sitting alongside fellow NFL legends Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan and Howie Long. He lives on a houseboat in Miami, and clearly has a life that most of us would envy.

Or, at least, so we would think.

I began to wonder about Johnson last year, when I was watching television and, all of a sudden, there he was, endorsing the male enhancement product, ExtenZe. For a man of Johnson’s stature, as well as his still high-profile public image, it seemed like such an odd thing for him to do.

But then I saw an Associated Press story yesterday about Johnson being on the next season of CBS’ long-running reality show, “Survivor” – a story that honestly made my jaw drop. After I recovered, I could only think of one question:

What in the world is Jimmy Johnson thinking?

It’s one thing to see someone like Pete Rose going around to card shows selling his signature for 40 bucks a pop. It’s another to see someone like Jose Canseco agreeing to box a 60-year-old man – and losing – at a minor league ballpark in Arkansas. It’s yet another to see someone like Stephon Marbury making bizarre, and at times creepy, web videos of himself and basically sabotaging his own NBA career to the point where he has little other choice but to play in China.

But it’s another thing to seeing one of the greatest coaches of my lifetime, if not of all-time and who is still highly respected in the sport – and, more importantly, is still gainfully employed – doing things like pushing male enhancement products and participating in reality television shows.

I honestly can’t figure it out. Is he desperate for attention? Is he going through a mid-life crisis, now that he’s 67 years old? It just doesn’t make any sense.

In the end, it’s simply disappointing to see a guy like Johnson doing these kinds of things.

It’s one thing to see people like Rose, Canseco and Marbury finding ways to embarrass themselves; that’s to be expected. It’s another thing to see someone like Johnson, who has no reason to put himself in that situation, doing the exact same thing.