We’ve seen NFL players retiring to become coaches. Sometimes we’ve even seen players and coaches retire and become NFL analysts or broadcasters. But what after that? This is a question a very few have had and fewer have answered. There would be some who would just love to sit back and enjoy their legacy. On the other hand, some still think that rest is for the weak and set off on adventures. Trying to accomplish things they couldn’t while they were working. Sometimes even getting stopped by the US Coast Guard under suspicion of international smuggling. Former Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson falls in the second category.

He had a coaching career spanning around 35 years from 1965 to 2000, after which he became an analyst and broadcaster. During his career, he quite literally completed football, having coached High School, College, and ultimately, the NFL. He’s also one of the very few coaches to have won the National Championship (with Miami in 1987) and the Super Bowl (twice, with the Cowboys, in 1992 and 1993). Despite having achieved almost everything there is to achieve, he’s still not done. But, in his defense, what he’s setting out to do now isn’t really work for him. It’s leisure.

Appearing on a podcast on the YouTube channel Science of Fishing, Jimmy talked about his plans after leaving FOX NFL SUNDAY. During his appearance, Jimmy talked about the love of his life: Fishing. On being asked if he had any plans of going out fishing in the near future, Jimmy revealed his career change. “You know, I recently retired from Fox NFL Sunday. And so I plan on doing a little bit of fishing during the football season this year. I didn’t fish much during the season last year, or really for the last 30 years. So, I’m going to be picking up my fishing a little bit now,” he said.

Such is his love for fishing that you can often find him on his boat during any free time. Just sailing around, often alone, catching fish in silence. Sometimes he would just sit on the tower of ‘Three Rings’ (that’s what he calls his boat) and just enjoy the waves and the calming sea.

Jimmy’s love for fishing is so immense, he once even rejected a meeting with Bill Clinton, then President of the US, after winning the second Super Bowl. All because he had a plan to go fishing in Florida. Recalling this incident, he said, “We had a phone call and Jerry Jones, the owner, put the phone up to my ear and it was President Clinton. And he said I want you to come to the White House, and congratulations on winning the Super Bowl. I said I’m sorry, Mr. President, I’m going to the Florida Keys and I’m going fishing. Jerry Jones grabbed the phone out of my hand and he says, ‘Yes, Mr. President, we will be at the White House.'”

In fact, Jimmy was once almost arrested while on a fishing trip. It was during his trip to Cay Sal with some friends when they had wandered off into international waters. “We had done enough fishin’, so we start headin’ back. We’re in international waters, off the coast of Cuba. So the coast guard sees us and starts following us. When we got back in U.S. waters, a Blackhawk helicopter comes down next to us. ‘Slow down, slow down,’ they’re telling us. They use an inflatable to board my boat. They get on and say, ‘Oh, coach, we didn’t know it was you. You got all your papers and everythin’?’ They thought we were smugglin’ Cubans (cigars),” he told Dan Pompei of The Athletic.

With such wonderful and hilarious memories, it will be hard for Jimmy to ever leave fishing. While he indulges his favorite pastime, it seems that he has found yet another work commitment already. This time, featuring in a documentary about football in the 50s and the 60s.

Jimmy Johnson will be in a new football documentary

Let’s take a small trip in the time machine. To the US in the 1950s, specifically Texas. Segregation is rampant. White and black kids have their own colleges, their own football leagues, and even play on different days. White-only schools play on Fridays, while black kids often play on Wednesday or Thursday. The practice of segregation also resulted in the formation of PVIL (Prairie View Interscholastic League). This league did the same job as the UIL (University Interscholastic League) of governing high school athletic, academic, and music competitions.

This continued till 1954, when Segregation was banned in Brown v. Board of Education. This led to PVIL and all its schools being shut down by the end of the 1970 spring semester. Closing the doors on the football teams and rivalries that were played through the 60s. This league was never covered extensively by the media back then, with very few photographs remaining. Director Mark Burns, a Texan native, has set out to recapture this lost history, revealing his new documentary.

In a post on X, Burns highlighted a trip he took with NFL writer John McClain, Rob Lynch, and Scott Nethery. It was during this trip that they interviewed Jimmy Johnson for the documentary. He wrote on X, “Just returned from a fun road trip to Key Largo w @McClain_on_NFL, Rob Lynch & Scott Nethery to interview @JimmyJohnson for a new documentary project that I’m working on… “The PVIL Story”. More to come on this very soon. What a great interview & gentleman HOF Coach Johnson is!” Mark also apparently took a stop at Johnson’s restaurant, ‘Big Chill’.

Reposting the tweet, Jimmy also expressed his excitement and wrote, “Going to be an outstanding documentary!” However, this is not his first documentary. Johnson will also be a part of the Netflix documentary ‘America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys‘. The show releases on 19th August, 2025. The documentary will tell the story of Jerry Jones buying the Cowboys and their 90s glory. A glorious throwback for ‘America’s Team’, but one that their fans no doubt wish to relive at the earliest.