Inside the Feud: Why Jerry Jones Forced out Jimmy Johnson After Cowboys’ Super Bowl Wins

If you lived through the 1990s and knew anything about the NFL, you knew that the Dallas Cowboys were on top of the world. Under the steady hand of owner Jerry Jones, the team became more than a winning sports team; they were a cultural sensation.

Coach Jimmy Johnson made sure that sensation was winning every game possible along the way.

But just as suddenly as the team rode its meteoric rise to fame, a crack appeared at the heart of the team between Jerry and Jimmy, with the coach finding himself suddenly out on his rear amid a growing feud between the pair.

So why did Jerry fire Jimmy? Here's what we know about the decades-long feud and the documentary that looks back at the glory days of the Cowboys.

If you can recall what the uniforms and cheerleaders for the Cowboys looked like back in the '90s, you can probably also conjure images of Jerry and Jimmy, triumphantly side-by-side as their boys brought home yet another major win.

So, what happened between the duo that led to Jimmy's ouster and a 30-year feud that splintered the fandom?

According to Sporting News, the rift started when Jerry wanted to have more involvement in the day-to-day activities of the team. Typically, owners hire managers and coaches and keep their hands off the nitty-gritty of the team's daily affairs. But Jerry, enamored of his team and its trajectory, wanted to be more involved with decision-making.

Jimmy, ever the competitor, likely felt chaffed by Jerry's interference. Ultimately, tensions between the two and an inability to agree led to Jerry firing the legendary coach.

In a 2016 interview looking back on how Jerry's involvement may have thwarted Jimmy's ability to coach, Jerry mused, "I lost my tolerance for a lot of things. I probably should have had a little more tolerance with Jimmy Johnson. Seriously." (excerpt via Sporting News).

Fans seem to agree that this should have been the case, believing that Jimmy was capable of driving the team to even greater heights if he had been left to his own devices.

But the past is the past, and a 2025 Netflix documentary series looks back at how the Cowboys rose during the heyday of the '90s.

America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys is all about the decisions Jerry made along the way to the Cowboys' greatness, both the good and the bad.

And while people may have some pretty strong feelings about his decision to let Jimmy go, one thing is clear: the Cowboys thrived anyway.

There are few teams as commercially beloved as the Cowboys, and much of that has to do with how well they were marketed, and how efficiently they became a force larger than a sports team, all under Jerry's guidance.

In 2025, Jimmy was finally, finally awarded honors by being recognized in the Cowboys' ring of honor. And it seems as though Jerry is ready to put the past behind him.

The businessman told ESPN, "I never had a time when I didn't have an appreciation for [Jimmy's] confidence and skill level. Ever. I've always had that appreciation when we parted. I did that at that particular time. So that has never been an issue. But, frankly, we were so tight and so strong, and when you use the word, saying 'competitive,' we didn't have a lot of time to talk about the old times when we first got involved."

He added, "In our first four years, this thing, every day was Pearl Harbor on and off the field. But it was a great atmosphere. Great. Again, his being in our ring of honor does, in my mind, say that."

And the fans would likely agree.