Swagger: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs—A Memoir

NFL coach Johnson examines his legacy in his self-assured debut. Born in Texas in 1943, Johnson developed a love of football early, played college ball, and received accolades as head coach at the University of Miami in the 1980s. In 1989, Johnson became head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and subsequently led the team to Super Bowl wins in 1993 and 1994. His tenure, he notes, wasn’t without conflict, and he resigned in 1994 after learning that owner Jerry Jones discredited his victories in a drunken conversation with a reporter (“It was all the tiresome antics with Jerry,” Johnson writes). Johnson later coached the Miami Dolphins, but success eluded him. Johnson is unapologetic about his triumphs (“My style was never to act humbly in victory the way the old unspoken rules read”), and he candidly recounts the negative consequences of his “addiction to football,” including the end of his 26-year marriage and his younger son Chad’s alcoholism. His obsession looms large over the narrative; after the death of his mother, he skipped her viewing because the act of mourning “folded into the suffocating idea of football over family, of football over life.” Cowboys disciples and football buffs will drink up this warts-and-all confessional. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary Agency. (Nov.)