Johnson Lands Pair Of Assistant Coaches

Sporting a new black jacket with the Dolphins logo embroidered right over his heart, Jimmy Johnson started his new job Monday.

Johnson, in Mobile, Ala., to scout college talent on hand for Saturday’s Senior Bowl but also to assemble his new coaching staff, didn’t waste any time starting on the latter. Johnson landed a pair of fellow assistants from his early days at the University of Arkansas - former Oklahoma State head coach Pat Jones and former Georgia Tech head coach Bill Lewis.

Jones will probably work on defense, his specialty to be determined later, and Lewis will oversee Miami’s defensive backs.

Johnson also began to dismantle the old staff. Offensive line coach Monte Clark, 58, was released.

Williams defends block

Dallas Cowboys offensive tackle Erik Williams insisted he did nothing wrong Sunday when he cut-blocked Green Bay defensive tackle John Jurkovic from behind in the second quarter.

“I felt, and my teammates felt, that it was a perfectly legal block,” Williams said. “I asked the guys after the play how it looked and they said it was perfectly legal.”

Williams chop-blocked Jurkovic from behind as Jurkovic was trying to make a tackle on Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith late in the second quarter. Jurkovic tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on the play and sat out the rest of the game. His loss severely hampered the Packers’ ability to stop Smith, who rushed for 150 yards on 35 carries in the Cowboys’ 38-27 win.

Steelers take the cake

A day after defeating the Colts for the American Football Conference championship, the Steelers’ headquarters in Pittsburgh was transformed into the setting of a Fellini movie.

Linebacker Greg Lloyd was walking his pit bull through the locker room when the dog and its leash became entangled in a reporter’s legs. After a few anxious seconds, both the reporter and the dog parted without exchanging bites.

Moments later, a local bakery delivered a 500-pound cake in the shape of a football field, complete with goalpost and congratulatory messages, and deposited it in the lobby of the team’s offices, right in front the four glass-encased silver Lombardi Trophies emblematic of the team’s Super Bowl victories.

Colts want Marchibroda back

Ted Marchibroda’s contract with the Indianapolis Colts is about to expire. His players want him back.

Marchibroda tied Don Shula as the winningest coach in franchise history with playoff triumphs over San Diego and Kansas City. But his bid for a record-setting 74th victory ended with Sunday’s 20-16 loss to Pittsburgh in the AFC title game.

“Ted is one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever been under. He’s great. I would love to be under Ted anywhere he would be,” wide receiver Floyd Turner said of the 64-year-old Marchibroda, who has been coaching in the NFL for 33 years. “He’s an asset to the game.”

“Just because we haven’t signed Ted doesn’t mean we don’t plan to do that,” said Bill Tobin, the Colts’ director of football operations. “We’ll address his future in the near-future.”

End zone

Minnesota defensive coordinator Tony Dungy has emerged as a the front-runner to become coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dungy met with Bucs General Manager Rich McKay for the second time on Monday… . Singer Glen Campbell will host the Jan. 28th Super Bowl pregame show in Tempe, Ariz., which will include performances by the Doobie Brothers and representatives of Arizona’s 21 Indian Nations. The national anthem will be sung by Vanessa Williams… . Four busloads of Browns fans left for Atlanta, where they will try to persuade NFL owners to block the team’s move to Baltimore in meeting on Wednesday.