Johnson feels good about the Saints

How ‘bout them Saints? Are they now officially America’s team?

That second question was posed to Jimmy Johnson, who was the Dallas Cowboys’ coach when they won back-to-back Super Bowls and lived up to their billing as America’s team.

“That whole America’s team thing was mostly a creation of the fans and the media that started before I got there,” Johnson said by phone Thursday from his home in the Florida Keys fishing hot spot of Islamorada.

But, he conceded, “This year’s America’s team is the New Orleans Saints.”

Johnson will be in Chicago on Sunday for the NFC championship game between the Bears and Saints, working alongside Joe Buck, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long on Fox’s pregame show, which begins at 11 a.m. Buck and Troy Aikman will call the game, which begins at noon.

The AFC title game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, to be announced by Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, will be on CBS at 3:30 p.m. after a half-hour pregame show.

Of the Saints, Johnson said, “When you consider the tragedy of Katrina and the fact that the Saints are sort of an underdog without a great history, it’s really a feel-good story. And as I said on the air last weekend, they have gone from a feel-good story to a really good football team. That’s the reality of it.”

Johnson, who won a national championship at Miami in 1987, coached the Cowboys to back-to-back championships and created a national catchphrase by proclaiming, “How ‘bout them Cowboys?”

Johnson was the first to coach national champions in college and in the pros. Barry Switzer became the second when the Cowboys won again two years later. Switzer became the Cowboys’ coach after Johnson stunned the football world by retiring in March 1994, after the second of the Cowboys’ consecutive Super Bowl victories.

Johnson became a studio analyst for Fox, although he left that job to coach the Miami Dolphins from 1996 to 1999, succeeding Don Shula. He then returned to Fox. Now 63, he has another year left on his contract. After that, who knows?

“When you get to be my age, everything is year by year,” he said. But when asked about possibly coaching again, he emphatically said, “No.”

Johnson’s success in the NFL has been well documented. It is not as well known that he was 52-9 at Miami, which not only won the national title in that stretch but also won two Orange Bowls and twice finished No. 2.

David Hill, Johnson’s boss at Fox, said, “I believe what made Jimmy such a great coach at both levels is his ability to communicate his strategy to his players. And that ability to communicate is what makes him the best television analyst there is.

“No one can break down the component parts of a game as succinctly and clearly. And, he’ll hate me for saying this, but Jimmy is the nicest, most down-to-earth human being you’d ever want to meet.”

Johnson’s coaching success in college and the pros makes him a rarity. Lots of successful college coaches have not done well in the NFL. Pete Carroll was 33-31, Nick Saban 15-17, Lou Holtz 3-10, Dennis Erickson 31-33, and Steve Spurrier 12-20.

Johnson left his Dallas job with a 44-36 regular season record and was 7-1 in the playoffs. Overall, including his Miami Dolphins stint, his regular season record is 80-64.

Asked what advice he would give a college coach who might be considering going to the next level, Johnson said, “I’ll tell you what I told Butch Davis when he was considering leaving Miami for the Cleveland Browns. I told him, ‘If you want a great family life and security for 10 to 15 years, then stay at Miami. If your ego is such that you want to give it a shot to make a few more bucks, then be prepared to work 17-hour days 11 months a year and -- after three years be ready to go back to college football.’ ”

So if Johnson believes the college jobs are better, why did he go to the Cowboys?

“We had lost only two regular-season games in two years, and I thought I was pretty good,” he said. “Then my first year in Dallas, we won one game. It’s tough winning in the NFL. In college, if you’ve got good players, you can flop around and turn the ball over five times and still win a game. You can’t do that in the NFL.”

Short waves

The greatest moments in L.A. sports last year, as determined through fan voting conducted by the L.A. Sports Council, will be named at the “L.A. Sports Awards” show Sunday night at the Beverly Hilton. FSN Prime Ticket will televise it live at 8. Bill Macdonald and Petros Papadakis will serve as the masters of ceremonies and Vin Scully is among the scheduled presenters.

The best in horse racing will be named Monday night at the Eclipse Awards at the Beverly Wilshire, to be televised live by the horse racing network TVG. The coverage begins at 5 p.m. with a red-carpet preview. The emcee will again be actor Jerry O’Connell, who stars as detective Woody Hoyt on the NBC series “Crossing Jordan.” O’Connell says he is a huge horse racing fan, mainly because his father, Michael, used to take him to New York-area tracks. “I could win an Emmy or a Nobel Prize, and that wouldn’t make him any prouder of me than he is when he watches me emcee the Eclipse Awards,” O’Connell said.

Longtime L.A. sportscaster Stu Nahan began treatment for lymphoma Thursday. He was scheduled to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Feb. 6, but that has been postponed.

Nahan’s wife, Sandy, said the prognosis is good and the plan is to reschedule the ceremony.

larry.stewart@latimes.com