This week the Cowboys have the momentum of their first 4-1 start in six years while preparing to face reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle on Sunday.
Twenty-five years ago this week, the mood at Valley Ranch was decidedly different, which isn’t to say things were dull.
Dallas was 0-5 (en route to a 1-15 finish), but was on the cusp of finalizing perhaps the biggest blockbuster trade in NFL history — sending running back Herschel Walker to Minnesota for five players, six conditional draft picks and a 1992 first-round draft choice.
We will have much more in SportsDay on Sunday, which happens to be the trade’s 25th anniversary, but here is a preview snippet to help commemorate the Oct. 12, 1989 deal that — along with that year’s drafting of quarterback Troy Aikman — jump-started Dallas to Super Bowl victories in the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons.
“See, people to this day still don’t understand the Herschel Walker trade,” former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson recalled to The News.
In part, the trade eventually netted Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith and Darren Woodson, although Johnson says that only partially accounts for the elaborate web of moves that the Walker trade kindled.
“The whole trade, the end result, there’s no way you can track this player for that pick because (expletive), I made 51 trades in five years,” Johnson said.
“There’s no way you can say, ‘This player came from that trade.’ It never lines up that way.”
Notice, Johnson said “I” made the trades. As terrible as the Cowboys were during that first season of the Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson era, there was no doubt which “J” had the most resonating Valley Ranch voice in those days, though in this case Jones had to feverishly work behind the scenes with Walker and his agent after the player initially balked at the trade.
Johnson says he came up with the idea of trading Walker during his daily Valley Ranch jog with several Cowboys assistants.
“I said, ‘Listen, we are so bad, if we go by the standard old NFL ‘draft your player wherever your spot is’ and get a player or two each draft, we’ll be long gone before this team ever turns around,’ ” Johnson recalled.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to do something to jump-start this. What do we have that other people want?’ I said, ‘The only Pro Bowl player we’ve got is Herschel Walker.’
“My offensive coaches said, ‘Sheesh, if you trade Herschel, we won’t ever score a point.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not really concerned with scoring points this year. I’m concerned with getting good here in a couple of years.”
One of the least-known, more intriguing aspects of the Walker trade occurred shortly after that 1989 season. During the season, Johnson had instructed his assistants to use Vikings imports Jesse Solomon, Issiac Holt and David Howard in only part-time roles.
That way, the Cowboys would get the conditional draft picks from Minnesota. Johnson says he believes Vikings GM Mike Lynn figured the talent-short Cowboys would start Solomon, Howard and Holt, enabling Minnesota to keep most or all of the conditional picks.
“At the end of the year, I called Mike and said, ‘Mike, I’m going to cut all these players,’ ” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘Why don’t you and I work out some sort of deal? I’ll kick back something to you if you let me keep these players, but I don’t want to give up my picks.’
“He was pissed. Hung up the phone on me.”
Johnson says that after failing to get Lynn to return subsequent phone calls, he sent a certified letter to Lynn and a copy to the NFL office, notifying them of his intention to waive Solomon, Holt and Howard.
“So Mike called and said, ‘You’ve got me over a barrel; what can I do?’ Johnson said. “I said, ‘If you’ll let me keep the picks and these three players, I’ll kick you back.’ I think I gave him a three (third-round pick) and a 10 (10th-round pick), so I kept the three players. But, see, they were just transitional players.
“They were gone by the time we started winning Super Bowls. I didn’t care about the players. They could help us out while we were trying to get good.”
Twenty-five years later, as the Cowboys try to get good again, many no doubt will reminisce about the trade that helped forge one of the most dominant four-year runs in NFL history.
Twenty-five years ago this week, the mood at Valley Ranch was decidedly different, which isn’t to say things were dull.
Dallas was 0-5 (en route to a 1-15 finish), but was on the cusp of finalizing perhaps the biggest blockbuster trade in NFL history — sending running back Herschel Walker to Minnesota for five players, six conditional draft picks and a 1992 first-round draft choice.
We will have much more in SportsDay on Sunday, which happens to be the trade’s 25th anniversary, but here is a preview snippet to help commemorate the Oct. 12, 1989 deal that — along with that year’s drafting of quarterback Troy Aikman — jump-started Dallas to Super Bowl victories in the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons.
“See, people to this day still don’t understand the Herschel Walker trade,” former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson recalled to The News.
In part, the trade eventually netted Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Kevin Smith and Darren Woodson, although Johnson says that only partially accounts for the elaborate web of moves that the Walker trade kindled.
“The whole trade, the end result, there’s no way you can track this player for that pick because (expletive), I made 51 trades in five years,” Johnson said.
“There’s no way you can say, ‘This player came from that trade.’ It never lines up that way.”
Notice, Johnson said “I” made the trades. As terrible as the Cowboys were during that first season of the Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson era, there was no doubt which “J” had the most resonating Valley Ranch voice in those days, though in this case Jones had to feverishly work behind the scenes with Walker and his agent after the player initially balked at the trade.
Johnson says he came up with the idea of trading Walker during his daily Valley Ranch jog with several Cowboys assistants.
“I said, ‘Listen, we are so bad, if we go by the standard old NFL ‘draft your player wherever your spot is’ and get a player or two each draft, we’ll be long gone before this team ever turns around,’ ” Johnson recalled.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to do something to jump-start this. What do we have that other people want?’ I said, ‘The only Pro Bowl player we’ve got is Herschel Walker.’
“My offensive coaches said, ‘Sheesh, if you trade Herschel, we won’t ever score a point.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not really concerned with scoring points this year. I’m concerned with getting good here in a couple of years.”
One of the least-known, more intriguing aspects of the Walker trade occurred shortly after that 1989 season. During the season, Johnson had instructed his assistants to use Vikings imports Jesse Solomon, Issiac Holt and David Howard in only part-time roles.
That way, the Cowboys would get the conditional draft picks from Minnesota. Johnson says he believes Vikings GM Mike Lynn figured the talent-short Cowboys would start Solomon, Howard and Holt, enabling Minnesota to keep most or all of the conditional picks.
“At the end of the year, I called Mike and said, ‘Mike, I’m going to cut all these players,’ ” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘Why don’t you and I work out some sort of deal? I’ll kick back something to you if you let me keep these players, but I don’t want to give up my picks.’
“He was pissed. Hung up the phone on me.”
Johnson says that after failing to get Lynn to return subsequent phone calls, he sent a certified letter to Lynn and a copy to the NFL office, notifying them of his intention to waive Solomon, Holt and Howard.
“So Mike called and said, ‘You’ve got me over a barrel; what can I do?’ Johnson said. “I said, ‘If you’ll let me keep the picks and these three players, I’ll kick you back.’ I think I gave him a three (third-round pick) and a 10 (10th-round pick), so I kept the three players. But, see, they were just transitional players.
“They were gone by the time we started winning Super Bowls. I didn’t care about the players. They could help us out while we were trying to get good.”
Twenty-five years later, as the Cowboys try to get good again, many no doubt will reminisce about the trade that helped forge one of the most dominant four-year runs in NFL history.
