You Know Jimmy ... (Jimmy Johnson)

Country Music singer, Shania Twain,
had a song titled; 

"That don't impress me much".

It perfectly describes my wife Lorraine's attitude toward sports or entertainment people who may be well known or super rich
or who have some well-disguised reason for being famous.

She barely takes notice.

When I was working and travelling on business I stayed in some very nice hotels.
I spent 17 years travelling to Miami,
starting in the 1980s.

When the downtown area was a little dangerous.
After one bad downtown hotel experience,
I moved to the Eden Roc Hotel at Miami Beach.

The Eden Roc on Collins Ave. was and still is spectacular. 

Its art deco look and eye-popping lobby, designed
by Morris Lapidus, was the standard by which 
other Miami Beach hotels were compared.  

Sinatra and every other big-name performer were regulars in The Eden Roc's dining rooms. The "Rat Pack" all entertained there as individual performers. 

The Eden Roc was in a category of its own.
Classy. It couldn't be compared to something as common
as a Las Vegas hotel like The Sands.  

My suite was always on the 5th or 6th floor facing the ocean's waves and the manicured soft-powder sand of Miami Beach.

And, directly below my balcony was an olympic size swimming pool. I couldn't wait for every morning to wake up to witness sunrise kiss the beach.

Also on the property was a one-story restaurant/beach bar with another swimming pool on its roof. The diner was called "Jimmy Johnson's".

You know Jimmy.

Football coach for Dallas and Miami, won two Super Bowls, now works for FOX NFL Sunday.

Big Smile. Big voice. Really big hair.

On a summertime business trip to Miami,
Lorraine joined me. Incidentally, I never had a problem securing business meetings and appointments in summer. It's the last place traveling business people want to visit during Miami's summer heat.

On day-one at Eden Roc, we went to the Jimmy Johnson restaurant for lunch.
We arrived a little early and there was nobody there. It gave me a chance to take a look around. It doesn't take long for it to hit you ... how they really capitalized on the owner's name.

Jimmy Johnson was everywhere. One whole wall just had pictures of Jimmy Johnson with US presidents. Another wall was Jimmy Johnson photos with every imaginable movie star - even Gregory Peck. And yet another wall of Jimmy Johnson and shots of him and his players. You quickly got the impression that his star was bigger than theirs.

The backs of our chairs even had
Jimmy Johnson's 
signature carved into them.

The table tent-card menu offered
Jimmy Johnson
lunch suggestions and specials.

There was a flashing neon sign offering the
Jimmy Johnson
cocktail-of-the-day.

There were a dozen TV screens mounted
in the ceiling with a Jimmy Johnson
frame around each one.

There were Jimmy Johnson plastic soda glasses, swizzle sticks, napkins and every table had a freshly made jar of Jimmy Johnson's own salsa.

At the time Jimmy was the head coach of the Dolphins and if his Eden Roc
restaurant was any indication, Jimmy was very, very big in Miami.

Two days later we returned to the Jimmy Johnson restaurant for lunch again.
I saw another dozen Jimmy Johnson related items that I somehow missed the first time. We ordered Jimmy Johnson burgers with Jimmy Johnson curly fries.

On Friday of the week, we went back for one last time but the front door was locked. The sign said, "please use the side door". We'd never used that door before and it took a little while to find it.

I went ahead of Lorraine to make sure we were in the right place.

When I opened the door, I saw something I hadn't seen.

A blow-up photo that was 10' wide and 7' high.

It was a picture of the Dallas Cowboys players standing on the sideline --
it looked like the photographer had taken the shot from across the field with a high powered lens. It looked like it was taken during a game.

Standing in the middle of the players was Jimmy Johnson ... head-set on, big-big hair, veins popping out of his neck while screaming orders to players on the field.

Jimmy was resplendent. 

It was a day-game but he looked like there was a special spotlight shining just on him. He was wearing a super-white team shirt with the Cowboy logo and blue and white checkerboard-coloured trousers. His pants looked like something you may find on a golf course but if one of your foursome showed up with them on, they'd probably be playing alone.

The picture of Jimmy hit me like a flash bulb going off in my face.
I said, Wow! Out loud.

I turned to Lorraine beside me and said ... look at that picture of Jimmy.

She said, Jimmy who?