Troy Aikman recently joined his former offensive coordinator, Norv Turner, and Turner’s daughter, Stephanie Turner, on The Family Business with Norv and Steph podcast. And you could bet, during the conversation, Stephanie couldn’t resist bringing up her cherished memory of the Dallas Cowboys‘ 1994 Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills in Atlanta.
“When you guys won and we all, I think, you had come down from the press box,” Stephanie said to her dad, “and you brought us down onto the field and confetti and everyone’s running on the field and all the families and the players and Troy (Aikman), I remember you picked me up and you gave me your wristband that you had worn and it was just this like such a special moment that and a memory like a core memory that I have of, you know, what an amazing thing to be part of and to be close to all of you during that time.”
Stephanie was just 9 back then, the same age her own daughter is now, and getting swept up in that Super Bowl celebration turned into one of those core childhood memories you never shake. But for Troy? That same year hit different. Because while he was riding the high of another ring, he also had to watch Norv and Stephanie move on, marking the end of a chapter that made those Cowboys years so special.
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After back-to-back Super Bowl wins with the Dallas Cowboys, Norv joined the Washington Redskins as their next head coach in 1994. And let’s just say, for Troy, it was an end to all the fun times. The Cowboys’ legend admitted it himself.
“I will say that a lot of what you remember Stephanie about the fun times, they even though I continued to play for the Cowboys, a lot of those fun times ended about the time your family moved to Washington,” Aikman recalled with a slight grin on his face. “So, but it was, you know, I look back, it was obviously, in my professional life, it’s as good as it ever has been.”
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After that ’93 Super Bowl run, Aikman did grab another Lombardi a couple of years down the line. Only difference? This time, there was no Norv on the sidelines and no little Stephanie running around to share the moment with. By then, Turner had taken the Washington job, and while he stuck around for seven seasons, the postseason only came calling once.
That’s why Aikman keeps calling his bond with Turner unique. He even pointed out that the team owner, Jerry Jones, and then head coach, Jimmy Johnson, probably didn’t appreciate it as much at the time, mostly because that early success came so fast. But Turner? He got it, and he appreciated just how rare it really was.
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“Norv has said it, Jimmy has said it, Dave Wannstedt, a number of coaches who were on that staff that they coached a long time afterwards. And what we had was unique, and you and I think that maybe for the people that you, whether it’s Jerry Jones or Jimmy Johnson, it happened so early in their time in the NFL that they probably didn’t appreciate it as much as someone like Norv did, who had been in the NFL already.”
While Aikman indeed admitted that he was also in the same category as Jones and Johnson, the Cowboys’ legend was thankful that he had the opportunity to be a part of those successful years and that Super Bowl win.
Troy Aikman calls out Jerry Jones on the Cowboys’ priorities
Jerry Jones has always had a flair for making headlines through controversy rather than championships. And his latest move of trading the league’s top pass rusher, Micah Parsons, was no exception. Dallas sent Micah to Green Bay for a draft-focused package, and you can bet the Dallas faithful weren’t thrilled about losing him right before the season.
And one person who didn’t hold back his frustration? Former Cowboys QB Troy Aikman. “I saw Jerry talk about the fact that, having the Cowboys as a discussion point is meaningful to him. And if people aren’t talking about the Cowboys then he’ll do things to stir it up. So he kind of walked into that and has given the impression that that supersedes winning,” Aikman said.
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“In some ways, I’m sure Jerry and the Jones family, and everyone is tired of the fact that they haven’t been to a championship game, let alone a Super Bowl in 30 years. So then when you deflect that, that’s essentially the valuation of your franchise. Or the attention and the exposure, or the drama. Or as Jerry said the fact that the Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year, that then becomes the scoreboard.”