Johnson Will Find Long Roads Come Before Freeways

Is Friday the day Jimmy Johnson calls Dan Marino into the office and asks, “Have you ever thought of taking a year off? Spend quality time with your family. Rest your body. Go fishing. Borrow my boat. The tank is full.”

Probably not. “Quality time with your family” is not in JJ’s phrasebook. Still, that would be the best way for Johnson to rebuild the Miami Dolphins. Start from scratch. Give his quarterback a sabbatical. Run bodies in and out of Camp Huizenga. Then come out smoking in 1997.

The scorched-earth policy is how Johnson rebuilt the Dallas Cowboys back in 1989. He sent a rookie quarterback named Troy Aikman out to risk his life behind a new line, and Aikman couldn’t complain when the marauders came pouring in.

Football being a war of attrition, who is to say that the ringing inside Aikman’s helmet did not begin back in 1989, when Johnson had just come over from the University of Miami?

There is a difference between Johnson in Dallas and Johnson in Miami. As general manager, he can afford to change all the bodies he wants, but he cannot afford to stockpile his going-on-35 quarterback for a better-time-a-coming.

When he was officially hired by the Dolphins on Thursday, Johnson said, “Wayne overwhelmed me with his desire to be the best.”

What coach, in any sport, has ever replaced two great Mount Rushmore-profile icons like Tom Landry and Don Shula? Johnson was a raging double-Super Bowl success before owner Jerry Jones decided there was room for only one egomaniac with the Cowboys, and Jerry was it.

Now Johnson will try to replicate his Dallas success in Miami. He’s got a long way to go before they name a freeway for him, the way they did for Shula. There were times this year when it looked as if Dolphins fans - ingrates, as all fans are these days - were going to yank the Don Shula Expressway signs right out of the ground.

Shula earned his expressway fair and square - winning Super Bowls in the 1972 and 1973 seasons and lifting Miami to the top of the nation’s consciousness, beyond the “come on down” hominess of a winter haven.

He made Miami a winner. He was there before the neon-lit, fairy-tale towers that change names periodically as companies get swallowed up or their reigning hot-shots get in trouble with regulatory agencies.

Don Shula was real. He endured, right up until Huizenga went for George Steinbrenner’s old trick and menaced Shula’s assistants. Shula quit gracefully, which means he can still come around and hear the applause.

Because Johnson is such a slick character, he probably has it in his contract that if he wins a couple of Super Bowls in Miami, he gets his expressway near sparkling waters and luxury homes, not out near the airport.

Johnson needs three Super Bowls to beat Don Shula. Johnson is 52 himself, and he’s trying something that doesn’t often work - taking the show to another town.

Vince Lombardi never had enough time to see if the Green Bay dictator could win inside the more temperate zone of the Beltway. Bill Parcells hasn’t been able to bring his bullying New Jersey magic to the New England Patriots.

Pat Riley came within a final-quarter loss of poise of winning a ring for New York after four in Los Angeles. And Chuck Daly appreciated his Detroit Pistons even more when he tried teaching something, anything, to Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson.

The category is “famous coaches who didn’t quite get it done in the next town.” And who says they should? By definition, all were older the second time around. For all aging coaches, there is always a new breed.

Johnson’s success with the Miami Hurricanes came from giving his young charges plenty of leeway off the field. He was vaguely aware the Hurricanes were connected with a university - he heard rumors of admissions officers and final exams and grade-point averages - but he never investigated them too closely, and nobody down there cared, anyway.

When he switched to outright professional football, Johnson made sure he had rapport with his best players. But he didn’t pander to them, and he worked hard, and he was a smart, emotional game coach. People in Dallas are appreciating him all the more since Jerry Jones brought in Barry Switzer.

Did time pass Don Shula by? The Dolphins are still a playoff team in a league that places only 12 teams in the postseason. He had to know that if he could keep changing linemen and receivers, the owner could change coaches.

New coaches make more changes than incumbent coaches. Hey, Marino, strap on the flak jacket, you’re in for a rough ride.