Jimmy Johnson’s weekend of honors and surprises didn’t end on Saturday with the Dallas Cowboys (finally!) placing the coach in their ring of honor. His Fox NFL crew had a special guest waiting for him on Sunday’s pregame show before the Week 17 slate kicked off.
Yep. It was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
The two former Miami Hurricanes finally had a chance to reconnect more than 25 years after the coach began recruiting him to The U. While The Rock eventually played defensive tackle at Miami — and was part of the school’s national championship in 1991 — he did so without Johnson on the sidelines.
The coach left for the Cowboys in 1989, just before The Rock committed to the Hurricanes. Which meant when The Rock delivered his letter of intent to play at Miami, it wasn’t to the coach who recruited him. It was instead addressed to Johnson’s replacement, Dennis Erickson.
On Saturday, The Rock finally got to rectify that in a heartfelt way.
🥹 @TheRock dropped by with some heartfelt words for @JimmyJohnson and a special gift at the end 🧡💙 pic.twitter.com/Zu2zeBF2JP
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 31, 2023
What an awesome moment for these two. You can tell how much it meant to both of them to reconnect on this level all these years later.