What’s Next? : Cowboys Made Moves They Had to Make to Win This Super Bowl, but to Win Unprecedented Three in a Row, More Moves Are Necessary

The ending Sunday night was nothing short of glorious: men dressed in blue and silver walking across a field below cheering masses, taped fists pointed to the sky, eyes watering, flashbulbs popping.

Emmitt Smith reminded everyone Monday that it began with a couch, a television set and an anxiety attack.

Such was the perilousness of the Dallas Cowboys’ seven-month journey, which culminated in their second consecutive NFL championship Sunday night. Nothing that looked so easy has ever been so hard.

“This was as difficult a year, in a good year, as I have ever been through,” Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson said.

On the masterpiece that was the Cowboys’ season, their 30-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII represented only the signature.

The body of the work was shaped throughout the fall and winter, by quick maneuvers and impulsive decisions that sometimes occurred far from the field.

This aggressiveness and ingenuity helped the Cowboys survive everything from football’s most celebrated holdout to its most celebrated blooper.

They didn’t arrive at their place in history Sunday night at the Georgia Dome simply because they were pro football’s best team.

By leaps and bounds, they are also its best organization.

“Everybody around here is in agreement that we do whatever it takes,” Johnson said.

Here’s how:

--They lost Smith for the first two games of the season because of a holdout . . . but re-signed him one breath before disaster.

Both games were unpleasant defeats, both watched by Smith on television at his home in Pensacola, Fla.

After the Cowboys fell to 0-2, Smith saw a televised shot of the hole that frustrated teammate Charles Haley had placed in a locker room wall with his helmet.

He then saw Johnson give an interview and noticed how red his face looked.

Three days later, he signed a $13.6-million contract that could have been considerably bigger if he had waited longer.

“When I saw what happened on TV, I knew then I had to get in there to relieve the tension,” Smith said.

When asked if he had sold himself short, he quickly answered: “Yes.”

Five months later, he became only the fourth player to win both the NFL and Super Bowl MVP awards in the same season.

--Johnson suddenly, angrily fired popular kicker Lin Elliott after two games and two missed field goals . . . but quickly hired veteran Eddie Murray.

Murray is notoriously weak on kickoffs, but Johnson didn’t care. He simply hired faster special teams players--Elvis Patterson and Joe Fishback--on Murray’s flanks.

Murray kicked 28 field goals in 33 tries during the regular season and was six for six in the playoffs, including three Sunday.

--The Cowboys lost a Thanksgiving game to the Miami Dolphins when Leon Lett touched a blocked field goal and gave the Dolphins another chance, which they converted for a victory that damaged Dallas’ divisional title hopes.

But when Johnson saw Lett weeping on the trainer’s table afterward, he consoled him. Later,he said Lett would be a Cowboy as long as Johnson was the coach.

Sunday, Lett made perhaps the play of the game by stripping the ball from Thurman Thomas, leading to a 46-yard fumble return for a touchdown by teammate James Washington.

“That’s why I say some of the things I do,” Johnson said.

--Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman was on the sideline because of a hamstring injury . . . so Johnson signed Bernie Kosar two days after he was released by the Cleveland Browns.

The Dolphins needed Kosar more then the Cowboys, and wooed him first.

But when owner Jerry Jones threw $1 million at Kosar for half a season, Johnson promised Kosar he could play in his first game as a Cowboy and for as long as Aikman was hurt.

Four days after joining the team, Kosar led the Cowboys to touchdowns on his first two drives in a victory over the Phoenix Cardinals.

Two months later, he threw the game-clinching touchdown pass in the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.

“People thought we overpaid for Bernie, but look what he did for us,” Johnson said.

--With a home-field advantage in the playoffs on the line against the New York Giants in the final game of the season, Smith separated his shoulder in the first half . . . but Johnson allowed him to play the rest of the game and in overtime.

Smith gained 78 yards after the injury--229 yards counting rushing and receiving--in the most courageous performance by a player this season.

The Cowboys won on Murray’s field goal and were never threatened in the playoffs.

“Sometimes it comes down to the bottom line,” Johnson said. “We can’t be thinking about shoulders and backs and hamstrings. As a team, we have to look for that bottom line, and that is winning when you have to.”

Of bottom lines, Monday’s news conference was only 11 minutes old when somebody--it was Smith--first mentioned three-peat .

Can the Cowboys become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowl championships?

“I think we have to try to keep this team together,” Smith said.

The Cowboys will have 19 unrestricted free agents, including starting offensive linemen Nate Newton, Mark Stepnoski, John Gesek and Kevin Gogan. Fullback Daryl Johnston is alsofree.

Because of the advance payments made in contracts given to Smith and Aikman, there should be room under the salary cap to keep the team intact.

But Jones can also expect that Michael Irvin, scheduled to make $1.17 million next year, will threaten to stay out if he does not get a new deal worth at least $2 million.

And even Smith said he would not rule out a renegotiation.

“Who knows, maybe Jerry will come to me now,” Smith said. “Maybe we’ll see a side of Jerry that nobody knows.”

Johnson agrees. He said Monday that, instead of following the recent Cowboy tradition of outfoxing the league in the draft, his coaches were going to concentrate on free agency.

With no rules stopping them from signing as many top free agents as possible, look for Johnson to seek a pass rusher--possibly Clyde Simmons--and some offensive linemen to replace any he loses.

“We will not hesitate to bring someone in here to upgrade us,” Johnson said. “We will not close the door on any top player.”

He will also be looking for an offensive coordinator to replace Norv Turner, who is expected to become head coach of the Washington Redskins this week.

“I do think we’ll score a touchdown or two next year,” Johnson said, already throwing in a dig even before Turner leaves the building. “Norv is a great coach . . . but we do have eight Pro Bowl players on our offense.”

And what about Johnson staying with the Cowboys? He repeated that he was happy in Dallas, for now.

“I don’t have any thoughts right now about doing anything else,” Johnson said. “But it’s never 100% that I’ll do anything.”

Less than 12 hours after the hugs between Johnson and Jones, they are disagreeing again.

Jones wants to accept President Clinton’s invitation to visit the White House. Johnson wants to flee to his boat off the Florida coast.

“Jerry wants to go. . . . I’ll do what I have to do,” Johnson said.

He can at least be pleased that the only thing a national TV audience saw more than Emmitt Smith last weekend was the commercial in which Johnson and several players drive past Jones on their way to Atlanta, leaving him choking on dust.

“That was a fun commercial, and it was Jerry who had the idea that we not pick him up,” Johnson said, smiling. “I guess he wanted to make it as realistic as possible.”