October 12, 1989: It was the day the Dallas Cowboys parted ways with the one player who embodied the star on their helmet. They sent Herschel Walker, a Pro Bowler and Heisman Trophy winner, to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a haul of draft picks. The move, orchestrated by Jimmy Johnson, was a gamble in that era, and for years, the coach carried the weight of that decision, absorbing the backlash from fans who simply didn’t agree.

But behind the scenes, Johnson never quite saw Walker the way the rest of the world did. While others were captivated by the back’s power and pedigree, the coach had a different vision; one built around quicker, more elusive backs rather than power runners. And in that locker room, Walker, as great as he was, simply didn’t align with the chemistry Johnson was trying to create. Now, almost four decades after his controversial decision, the former coach has acknowledged a reality that ultimately helped turn the franchise from a 1-15 roster.

“A BIG trade but only 1 of 51 made those 5 years…,” wrote Johnson under an IG post by Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill, explaining the reality about the trade that shook people.

The post referenced the iconic trade that is regarded as one of the biggest events in the Cowboys’ history. The caption of the post read, “One of the greatest trades in NFL history — the Herschel Walker deal 🏈🔥”

On paper, the deal looked massive. The Cowboys sent Walker to the Vikings along with their third and 10th-round picks in 1990 and a third-rounder in 1991. In return, they received a package of players: Jesse Solomon, David Howard, Alex Stewart, Darrin Nelson, and Issiac Holt, as well as Minnesota’s first, second, and sixth-round picks in 1990. But buried within the fine print was the real genius of the move.

Each player came tied to a conditional draft pick if he was cut before February 1, 1990. That’s where things took a turn, and the deal became more than just a trade. Jimmy Johnson quietly positioned himself to get exactly what he truly wanted. He didn’t want the Vikings’ players and had no intention of starting them. He simply wanted the draft picks. This brilliant move went on to be known as ‘The Great Train Robbery’.

The story didn’t quite end there, though. Mike Lynn of the Minnesota Vikings and Jimmy Johnson went back to the table and quietly reshaped parts of the deal. It was an adjustment that eased the draft-pick burden on Minnesota while allowing the Dallas Cowboys to hold on to Solomon, Howard, and Holt.

All that said, the coach never stopped after the Walker trade. That was just the beginning. He kept constantly flipping and reshaping assets. As per ESPN, over his five years in Dallas, he pulled off 51 trades, nearly all centered around draft picks.

“I was playing fantasy football before there was fantasy football,” Johnson said back then, clearly satisfied that things were moving in the right direction.

All those moves, all that constant maneuvering, finally came together exactly how Johnson had envisioned. Out of the chaos of picks and trades, he landed the kind of talent he had been chasing all along: the elusive Emmitt Smith out of Florida in 1990. Then came cornerstone pieces in the years that followed: Russell Maryland from Miami in the first round of 1991, Kevin Smith of Texas A&M in the first round of 1992, along with Darren Woodson in the second round and Clayton Holmes in the third that year.

Walker, during his time in Minnesota, helped the team reach the 1989 playoffs but lost to the 49ers in the first round. The franchise lost five players, and that created a rift in the locker room. And in the next few years, they had no choice but to stand aside and watch Johnson’s team win the championship in the 1992 and 1993 seasons. It has been 37 years since ‘The Great Train Robbery,’ but it all worked out for Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys.

How a daily jog led to one of the biggest trades!

Early in the 1989 season, Jimmy Johnson was out on a daily jog through the Valley Ranch neighborhood that wrapped around the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility. He was along with his assistant coaches, and that’s when he touched upon the subject of dangling Walker. Of course, the assistants couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

“My offensive coaches said, ‘We can’t trade Herschel Walker; we won’t score a point.’ And I said, ‘I can care less about scoring a point. We’ve got to get better two or three years from now.'”

So, Johnson put Walker on the table, and the league took notice. The Cleveland Browns stepped forward with an offer built around premium draft picks. But then came something even bigger. From Minnesota, Mike Lynn sent over a fax that tipped the scales, a proposal that was simply too compelling to pass up. It was a no-brainer.

“I didn’t see the players. I saw the picks,” Johnson said back in the day. “And so we go to the press conference and I said, ‘We just had the great train robbery.’ You know, I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm because I knew what we were going to do. I couldn’t even tell my coaches what we were going to do.”

And that’s how the coach was able to do an extreme makeover for the Cowboys. After stumbling to a 1-15 record in 1989, the Dallas Cowboys transformed. Under Jimmy Johnson’s vision, the team surged back into relevance and quickly climbed the ranks. They captured three Lombardi Trophies in a four-season span and completed one of the most dramatic turnarounds the league has ever seen.