Troy Aikman

"I enjoyed the fish," Johnson says, "but it wasn't only that. I saw this as an opportunity to get to know Troy better."

Later Aikman flew down to the Bahamas for a vacation and stayed at a resort that Johnson had recommended. While there, Aikman phoned the Cowboys' strength coach, Mike Woicik, and said, "Tell Jimmy I'm killing 'em in the casino down here. Tell him I'm getting after 'em pretty good."

The next evening, as Aikman was getting off the boat after deep-sea fishing, somebody told him, " Jimmy Johnson's waiting for you in the casino." And that was where Aikman found him. "Go get cleaned up and come back down, and we'll play," Johnson said. They spent about seven hours together, most of it gambling. Johnson left in the morning for Orlando and the annual NFL owners' meeting, at which he would have a tense barroom encounter with Jones. "That was the last time I saw Jimmy as head coach of this football team," Aikman says. In the days that followed, Johnson stepped down as coach and Jones replaced him with Switzer.

"Troy carries more pressure now with Jimmy being gone," Laufenberg says. "Jimmy was such a dominating and domineering figure. He was the guy who cracked the whip. There isn't that person with the Cowboys anymore. Barry's style is real laissez-faire. He sees it as the players' team, where Jimmy said, 'Hey, this is my team.'"

"Yeah, but you know what?" says Irvin. "What Troy is doing now is what he's done all the time. It's just being noticed more because Jimmy's not here. Jimmy was always talking to the media. And Barry's not like that. Barry sort of fades into the background. People say, 'Well, who's leading the team?' It's the same people who've always led the team. It's Troy. Troy leads this team."

Switzer seems content with that. These players are adults, after all, professionals. And with Aikman, Switzer says, there's no real coaching left to do: "The only area where Troy could improve is maybe to relax a little. I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself. But then so much is expected of Troy. So much is expected that it's difficult for me to give him a game ball. I mean, I can give one to almost anybody else. But Troy and Emmitt and Michael--they're at such high performance levels. You go out and complete 67 percent of your passes--hell, that's what you expect of Troy. That's a day at the office for him."

And days like that have made Aikman what he is: America's quarterback, vying for yet another Super Bowl and dealing with the surprises that fame brings. "People ask me, 'How many would you like to win?'" he says. "I tell them, 'I'd like to win five. It's never been done by a quarterback.' But right now my attention is on winning this week, and after I win this week, it'll be on winning next week.

"I've heard athletes who've retired say, 'Well, there was nothing left to prove. I've done it all, and that's why I'm getting out.' I don't buy that. I've won two Super Bowls, and now there's a third to win. And if I win that one, there will be a fourth and then a fifth. There's always another one to win, in whatever it is you do."