Jimmy Johnson?
The hot name swirling around San Diego Monday night to replace fired Marty Schottenheimer as coach of the Chargers is one Jimmy Johnson. The Chargers would need to find a way to coax Johnson off his fishing boat in the Florida Keys and out of the final year of his cushy Fox studio gig to make it happen.
Johnson is 63 these days and hasn't coached in the NFL since 1999, his final season with the Dolphins. Johnson built his reputation as a top-flight coach with the University of Miami, where he went 52-9 and won the 1987 national title.
Johnson then moved to the NFL to work for his old Arkansas college teammate Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Johnson was only 44-36 in the regular season with Dallas but he won back to back Super Bowls and went 7-1 in the playoffs.
He retired after the second Super Bowl victory, primarily because of his inability to work with Jones. He returned to coaching in 1996 with the Dolphins. But it was an underachieving tenure pocked by his inability to get along with quarterback Dan Marino. In his final game in 1999, the Dolphins lost to Jacksonville in a Divisional Playoff, 62-7. Johnson finished 26-21 with the Dolphins.
Johnson replaced Tom Landry in Dallas and Don Shula in Miami, two of the greatest coaches the NFL has ever known. Schottenheimer, one of only five coaches with 200 regular season wins, isn't far behind.
Johnson, 80-64 in the NFL overall, is said to be close friends with the Spanos family, owners of the Chargers.
A caller to XX Sports Radio in San Diego Monday night said he was dining at a restaurant that is both owned by a man who has a minority ownership stake in the Chargers and frequented by Chargers staff. The caller said all the buzz in the restaurant was about Jimmy Johnson coming to coach the team. The caller said he overheard a group of Chargers front office-types saying that it was essentially a done deal.
As quickly pointed out by radio host John Kentera, the Chargers would first need to interview a minority candidate before any hire to satisfy the NFL's Rooney Rule.