- Troy Aikman and Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl together.
They did so with enough drama to fill a book.
Which is exactly what Skip Bayless did.
(3 seconds of intense music)
Aikman was an incredible high school athlete
and he knew it.
He had the opportunity to go pro in football or baseball.
Told the Mets when they wanted to draft him
that he'd need a $200,000 signing bonus,
and when they declined,
he headed to college to throw the pig skin.
Aikman went to Oklahoma in 1984.
An opportunity that arose on his first encounter with
Barry Switzer.
- I offered him a scholarship first time I ever saw
Troy Aikman even walked up to him and said
I want you to start thinking about playing for the Sooners
you'd be a great player for University of Oklahoma.
First time I ever saw him throw a football.
- [Narrator] He was six foot four with a cannon for an arm
which considering how much Switzer liked to run the ball
made for a somewhat surprising pairing.
Switzer had been coaching the Sooners since 1967.
Making his name as their offensive coordinator
with his Wishbone offense.
Thanks to this,
Oklahoma was pretty good.
They averaged over 472 rushing yards per game
in 1971.
And in 1973 he was named Head Coach.
He abandoned the Wishbone in the early 80's
to make use of running back Marcus Dupree's skillset.
But by the time Aikman stepped on campus,
they're back in an offense that would use the QB's legs
more than his arm.
Entering 1985 Oklahoma was ranked number 1
with National title hopes.
But in their fourth game of the season,
Miami came to town led by Jimmy Johnson and Michael Irvin.
In the second quarter,
Aikman took this sack by Jerome Brown
and suffered a broken fibula.
While he missed time,
Freshman Jamelle Holieway stepped in.
Oklahoma went out and beat Penn State
for the National Championship.
Switzer's third.
Watching this success from the sideline,
Aikman knew that he needed to get out of Norman.
He wasn't all that pleased with how he was being used.
Having come to Oklahoma thinking
Switzer would actually use him for his arm.
But before the game against Miami,
Aikman was only throwing the ball 13 times per game.
He met with his coach who called up some schools
and Aikman headed to UCLA.
That move allowed Aikman to play to his potential
and in 1999 he was selected first overall
in the NFL draft.
Starting his journey in Dallas.
A few months later,
Switzer also had a change of scenery.
He resigned from Oklahoma
as the Sooners were put on probation
for a lengthy list of NCAA violations,
which included their quarterback being arrested
for selling cocaine to an FBI agent.
Aikman's pro career got off to a rough start in Dallas.
His new head coach Jimmy Johnson
didn't quite believe in his abilities.
And even brought in his quarterback from Miami
to compete with former number one
overall draft pick.
They managed to find their way
after a couple Super Bowl wins,
but then a separate beef led to this
- We have mutually decided
that I would no longer be the head football coach
with the Dallas Cowboys.
- Unfortunately, Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones
never really talk about what happened.
They like to keep all their feelings to themselves.
So, we're left talking about Jimmy's replacement.
Jerry Jones believed that any coach
could lead this team to another Super Bowl.
In his mind Jimmy didn't do anything special.
It was the players that he had hand picked
who did the winning.
So with his players in mind
he thumbed through his Rolodex
and found his man.
- We gotta job to do and we gonna do it baby!
(laughter)
- [Narrator] Jerry hired the guy that Aikman
had already gotten away from once.
From the start the quarterback
already wasn't at ease.
While he did endorse the coach,
Aikman also told the media that
"I'll be here for seven more years.
I don't know if Switzer will be here that long."
Switzer on the other hand
wasn't too concerned with how he and Troy
would get along.
- We're not letting him transfer.
(laughter)
- Jerry made sure of that when he paid him
50 million so..
- [Narrator] Both of them wanted success
and as Troy put it,
there was only one thing that mattered
to keep things afloat.
That was the way that it had been
under Jimmy Johnson who had set a standard
that Switzer now needed to match.
Aikman said that with Jimmy,
winning was a way of life.
When Jimmy said we needed an extra practice
or tougher practice
we knew he was right.
We gained a respect for his insight
into what would make us better.
This is something Barry has to achieve.
Easier said than done.
Before he had even coached a game,
there were questions about Switzer's leadership.
- What a lot of players are saying
and what a lot of coaches are saying,
that assistant coaches are having problems
with assisting coaches and players want you
to step up and stop it!
- I think you don't know what you're talking about!
And they don't either Dale Hansen!
There is no problem here on this staff
in the Dallas Cowboys.
- The Cowboys did end up going 12 and four
in each of the first two seasons under Barry Switzer
So, good job Barry!
But in December of 95 it started to become more clear
that those wins came in spite
of some slow cooked beef.
Reports surfaced that the pair had
some philosophical differences.
Aikman still seemed to be upset about
Johnson's departure and wanted to make sure
the team didn't get too comfortable.
He also felt like no one else
was doing the same.
- Why don't we have a (beep) coach
that gets over there and does something about it?
Instead we wanna go over and pat everyone
on the ass and haven't done a (beep) job
all night!
Guy's out there (beep) off
and nobody says anything about it.
We got a head coach who won't
say anything about it.
We got coaches offensive who won't do anything about it!
- Troy, troy.
- [Narrator] He viewed Switzer's being too easy
on players.
While Switzer saw Aikman as something
other than a leader on the team.
Former assistant coach John Blake
who at this point had departed from Oklahoma,
had told Switzer that Aikman called
one of his receivers a racial slur.
Blake warned that there's a belief
in the locker room of Aikman getting on
his black teammates more than
his white teammates.
During a team meeting in the regular season,
Switzer brought up this incident.
That upset Aikman who responded by telling Switzer
that he was part of the problem.
All of this went public during the lead-up
to the Cowboy's Super Bowl appearance
against the Steelers.
The rest of the team had to shift their focus
from the game to discussing the situation
with the media.
With everything in the open
when Switzer was asked about his relationship with Aikman
he didn't sugar coat it.
- Am I happy with my relationship with Aikman?
As I've told you before
you know, I don't know if Chuck Noll
had a great relationship with Terry Bradshaw or not
it wasn't important they won four Super Bowls right?
That's the bottom line.
Am I gon' drink RC Colas and double date with him?
We're not going to do those things.
It's not part of the game.
It's not important.
- [Narrator] Dallas would go on to win the Super Bowl.
The pair even shared a handshake on the sideline.
But despite Aikman saying they'd be good
as long as they were winning
this victory magnified the feud.
Things became even more public
thanks to a mutual frenemy.
Do people still say 'frenemy?'
- I don't know Will can you just read the script?
- Okay.
Enter Skip Bayless.
He'd been researching his next book
about the Dallas Cowboys.
He interviewed both player and coach
and as they gave their answers,
he wanted to make sure the other
had a chance to respond.
Getting juicier and juicier comments
in the process.
This snowballed until Aikman reached out
to Switzer to talk in mid-March of 96.
Which is reportedly the first time
they spoke off the field in four months,
since the meeting when Barry called Troy out.
Aikman through his interviews
with Bayless had learned that
someone from Switzer's camp
had encouraged the writer to look into
Aikman's sexuality.
An often talked about topic within
the Dallas media.
They were essentially dumbfounded
that a man who is the Cowboy's quarterback
and viewed by many as "handsome"
wasn't married.
Bayless's source was using Aikman's
sexuality to try and damage the QB's
macho image in hopes that this
would benefit Switzer when Aikman
inevitably went to Jerry Jones
to give the Cowboy's owner a "him or me"
type ultimatum.
Switzer was convinced that Aikman
along with his friends in the media
were trying to get him fired
and bring in Norv Turner.
Not an unreasonable thought.
Considering Aikman was quoted in saying
"I don't give Barry any credit for our wins,
nor do I blame him for any of our losses.
Really, I'm not sure what he does
as head coach."
Switzer who inherited a great team
had been really just trying not
to ruin it.
Unfortunately the leader on that team
couldn't do more than coexist with him.
A couple months after their talk
Switzer apologized for how he handled
the John Blake caused incident
before the Super Bowl.
Aikman said he wasn't dwelling on the past.
They both moved onto the 97 season
where they went 10 and six
and Aikman got his final playoff victory.
That was followed up with a six and 10 campaign
Switzer's first ever losing season as a head coach.
He'd retire not long after.
As soon as the Cowboys hired Chan Gailey
as Switzer's replacement,
Aikman let everyone know how excited he was
about his new coach.
As for Switzer it was clear he still had mixed feelings
about his former quarterback.
He admitted he liked him,
but thought Troy had demons which caused him
to do things the way he does.
Once Switzer retired,
Aikman didn't speak much about the feud,
and even acknowledged the former coach
in his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech.
Just without much flare.
Aikman didn't deny that Switzer
was a good coach.
But unlike the rest of the Cowboys,
he knew what Switzer used to be.
- The Barry Switzer that I played for
at Oklahoma was not the Barry Switzer
that I played for with the Dallas Cowboys.
- [Narrator] Barry had lost his intensity.
Which is what Aikman felt the Cowboys needed
at that time to avoid complacency.
While they proved they didn't have to get along to win
it probably would've been easier if they tried.
Or at least it would have delayed
Skip Bayless from becoming a household name.