Over the past few months, we've covered the
progress of former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson on CBS' reality show, "Survivor," his
early exit from the competition and his
life back in the real world as an analyst on FOX NFL Sunday.
Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, the folks over at Crown Royal hooked us up with an hour-long roundtable discussion with the former NCAA National Championship and Super Bowl-winning coach to chat about everything NFL, "Survivor" and NCAA BCS.
Johnson is promoting the first-ever
Crown Royal Jimmy Bowl, a video contest on
CrownRoyal.com where fans can upload entries showing their football passion and the two winners will be flown to Dallas for the Super Bowl in February with their 4-person flag football teams competing at Cowboys Stadium with Johnson as their coach, the day after the big game. You can check out all the contest rules and some funny videos from Johnson
here.
Below is part one of our three part interview with Johnson. We focused the first section of the discussion on his participation on CBS' "Survivor" and will post a NFL Q&A on Wednesday and a NCAA chat on Friday.
The 67-year-old
joined the cast of the show's 21st season which taped over the summer in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Johnson was one of the
oldest contestants to ever appear on “Survivor,” which is his favorite TV show. The
Miami Herald reported last year that he was almost a contestant on "Survivor: Gabon" (which aired in 2008), but he failed a physical. Johnson was the third person voted off of the island this season and here is what he had to say about the experience in Nicaragua.
Do you think you were portrayed accurately on “Survivor?"“Yeah, I think so. It really is 300 to 1 in the amount of footage they have to what they use. CBS cameras are on you 24 hours a day and they film you while you are sleeping. So there is a lot of footage that they leave on the cutting room floor. They pick and choose and find some pretty good sound bites.”
How difficult was it to fall asleep with cameras on you?“It isn’t really about the cameras on you, it is more about the surroundings, the weather and the stress of the game. You are laying on hard bamboo with rocks everywhere. A pretty uncomfortable situation for you.”
How do you compare coaching the “Espada” tribe to your Cowboys teams of the past?
“When coaching football, I was the ultimate authority with my players. If they didn’t listen or do as I asked, they were gone or cut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t cut anyone in Nicaragua. My expertise is in football, not in survivor skills, so once my tribemates saw that, we were all on the same level.”
Describe your relationship with Jimmy T.? (Jimmy T. was a member of the “Espada” tribe who was very outspoken against Johnson’s participation on the show)“Not everyone is born with the same intelligence. He told us that he was a fisherman back home, but he couldn’t even throw a net. He was actually a fish inspector or something. He was a rather volatile person and irritated everyone. In fact, he was the first one that everyone wanted to vote out the first night. I convinced everyone that he would be valuable in physical challenges. Unfortunately the early competitions weren’t very physical so we really didn’t need him.”
Of your former players, who would make the best “Survivor” contestant?“Some of the real competitive individuals that didn’t mind getting dirty or being hungry or thirsty might be able to do it.”
How would Michael Irvin hold up on the island?
“I don’t think Michael could do “Survivor.” All of those guys are so spoiled, as I was. When you’ve lived the soft life for a period of time, you would think,
‘why the hell am I out here.’”
As one of the oldest contestants on this season of “Survivor,” were you a little relieved to be voted off?
“To be honest, I was ready to get a cold beer as soon as I left. It was nice to get a shower and brush my teeth. After a few days, I broke off a palm from and used that to floss my teeth.”
Could anyone on your FOX NFL Sunday show compete on “Survivor?”“Definitely not. All those guys live the soft life. Terry (Bradshaw) would be the only guy that might be able to manage out there, since he is a country guy and wouldn’t do so bad in the outdoors.”
What was your wife thinking during the show?“She actually teared up when I was voted out. She really enjoyed seeing me on the show but to be honest, she didn’t really want me to do it. David Hill (Fox Sports President) gave me the best advice when he said
‘enjoy your adventure, but don’t be stupid. Don’t push it further than you should.’”
Was there anything you ate while you were on “Survivor” that you didn’t expect?“In the pre-production meetings, the producers went through things that you could eat, kill, etc. while on the show. The informed us about all the plants, animals and fish around the area and showed us how to boil water properly. They actually showed us a fruit in Nicaragua that you could eat while on the island. The very first day, we found a lot of them around camp, a few of us ate them and got so so sick. It was the only fruit that we had out there and we couldn’t eat it after all.”
If you could do it all over again, what would you change in your strategy and game play?
“I definitely would have formed a strong alliance. I think there at the end, I could have formed an alliance with Jane and Holly and possibly Yve and Tyrone. That definitely would have protected me be a bit more but also given me a team concept and a responsibility to those people to hang in there. I didn’t have an alliance with anyone and I think that was ultimately my downfall.”
Would you compete on “Survivor” again?“No, I wouldn’t. I had my adventure. If I was 20 or 30 years old, I would try and do it again. But I had all of the adventure that I wanted. As I told them on the show, I am not going to win a million bucks. While I was playing, I wanted to see what the dynamic of the game was, check out the behind-the-scenes and compete in the challenges.”
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