Total Pro Sports
Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson disclosed the brutal punishment he put on the Dallas Cowboys’ players after they lost a game, and let’s just say he wouldn’t last a week in the modern NFL.
On Tuesday, Netflix will release its highly anticipated eight-episode documentary “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.” The documentary tells the story of Jerry Jones’ early ownership years and the team’s dynastic run in the 1990s.
Jerry Jones purchased the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million and immediately made significant changes, firing legendary head coach Tom Landry and replacing him with old friend Jimmy Johnson. Fast forward 36 years, and the Cowboys are the NFL’s most valuable franchise at $10.1 billion.
Ahead of the documentary’s release, Netflix dropped a 39-second preview showing Johnson explaining how he punished his players after a loss (the exact game wasn’t specified).
“After that loss, we get on the plane, and I am just fuming because of the way we played. So, the flight attendant starts to serve the meal. And I say, ‘No, no meal. They don’t deserve to eat.”
That was followed by multiple ex-Cowboys players expressing their disgust over Johnson’s punishment, with one even calling him “a dictator” and “a**hole.”
“I wanted ’em to expect to win every single time they go out,” Jimmy Johnson explained. “I want ’em to be nauseated, to be sick at their stomach when they lose. Because, that’s how I felt.”
“No meal. They don’t deserve to eat.”
This story of Jimmy Johnson not letting the Dallas Cowboys players eat on the plane after a loss is wild 😳
America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys drops August 19. pic.twitter.com/Uiy7vcUmJ1
— Netflix Sports (@netflixsports) August 18, 2025
Johnson led the Cowboys to consecutive Super Bowl championships in the 1992 and ’93 seasons before leaving after personal differences with Jones. The latter then hired Barry Switzer, who coached the Cowboys to a third Super Bowl championship in 1995 to become a dynasty.
Johnson spent more than two decades at Fox Sports as an NFL analyst, working alongside fellow legends like Michael Strahan, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Rob Gronkowski. In March, Johnson announced his retirement from broadcasting.
