MIAMI (WSVN) - Former Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins head coach Jimmy Johnson promoted his new book at the Miami Book Fair which includes his thoughts on the growing relationship he saw between Mike McDaniel, head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and Tua Tagovalioa. Mike DiPasquale had an exclusive interview with the Hall of Famer.
Mike: A lot of people, including myself were wondering when were you finally going to write a memoir. And you did, entitled, Swagger.
Jimmy: I really didn’t have any plans on writing it. My attorney, Nick Kristen, said ‘Hey, listen, so many people come down to the Keys, coaches general managers, owners, etcetera, you need to write the story,’ and so they met with me to tell me that we have a basis of a good book here. So we go into it and I started spending a lot of time with him and when we started telling the story, we actually started to enjoy it. Then we got into the struggles and the sacrifices that the family made. The reviews have been fantastic.
Mike: In the book, you talk about your success. What about the regrets? You mention in your book that winning and being so focused on football caused you to miss dinners with your family and you never really got a chance to see your two sons play football.
Jimmy: That’s the thing you might say I do regret and in some ways, the book is an apology to my sons and to my family that I wasn’t there.
Mike: I want to talk about your former team, the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovalioa. The relationship you see, a lot of people doubt that Tua can be at this point where he is right now. Talk about the relationship you see as a coach.
Jimmy: Well, I said on FOX NFL Sunday a couple of weeks ago that the executive of the year has to be Chris Greer because not only did he bring Mike McDaniel, bringing in a supporting cast, he built an outstanding team. Mike is putting Tua in a position to be successful. He’s running a style of offense with Tyreek Hill, with Jaylen Waddle that they can go ahead and have success. Three weeks ago, Terry Bradshaw said that Tua might be the MVP of the league and you look at them and they’re at the top of the NFC East right now. I would say they’re a playoff team at least they’re done a great job at Miami.
Mike: I want you to go back to when you coached the Dolphins, you had Dan Marino. Describe that relationship to me because some people will say it was chilly at times.
Jimmy: People said different things, even when I was with the Dolphins. They always wanted to put a wedge between us, but Dan and I were great. We’re great today. When I first went there, Dan said, ‘Coach, I don’t care if we throw the ball to down.’ He loved to throw the football, but he said ‘As long as we win let’s run it. Let’s do whatever it takes to win.’
Mike: You talked about your experience with the Canes in the National Championship. When you look at the Canes right now, where do you see them? Mario Cristobal came in after his success in Oregon with a lot of hype. He played with the Canes at one time and was a grad assistant for the Canes at one time, but he’s taking a lot of heat right now.
Jimmy: He shouldn’t be taking heat. All of us, including myself, we’ve wanted overnight success. That’s today’s society, everybody wants it now. Nobody’s patient. It didn’t happen overnight but I know he’s recruiting very well, I know he’s got a good staff. Mario has got the right stuff to get the thing done. There’s no doubt in my mind that Mario will get it done.
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