Cowboys Try to Clear the Air : Angry Johnson, Jones Meet, Will Get Together Again Today

While this city held its breath, hoping for the best, and 27 other NFL teams hoped for the worst, embattled Cowboy owner Jerry Jones and his angry coach, Jimmy Johnson, held high-level talks that produced . . . nothing.

After 2 1/2 hours of clearing the air, they decided only to meet again this morning.

Said Johnson: “We had a very productive meeting. We talked about the last five years. We were candid about the last five years. Nothing was resolved, and we’re going to get back (today) to talk about where we go from here.”

Johnson then plowed through a pack of minicams to the parking lot, got into his Corvette and drove away.

Said Jones, more courtly if no more informative: “Jimmy and I have had a pretty extensive visit this afternoon--I think over two hours--and it gave us a real opportunity to discuss the last five years and some things even before that.

“From that perspective, it was very thorough. And nothing was resolved, but it was a real addressing of the past together, every aspect of our relationship and how we worked together in the past, positives as well as negatives. (Today) we will meet, should meet about 7:30 and we’ll start meeting that time about the future.”

Jones then plowed through the minicams to his Cadillac and drove away.

Johnson has been angry since March 21, when he heard that Jones had told several writers and bystanders that 500 coaches could have won the Super Bowl with the Cowboys, and threatened to replace his coach with Barry Switzer, late of the University of Oklahoma.

The conversation occurred at the NFL meetings in Orlando, Fla., late at night in a bar. However the two men, once friends and teammates on an Arkansas national championship team, have long been at odds over control of the Cowboys.

Johnson’s contract has five years left at $1 million per year, and a clause barring him from coaching anywhere else. Johnson has said he wouldn’t quit unless he is paid off and allowed to coach.

Johnson, who had been in Florida since the NFL meetings, returned to Dallas this weekend.