Zach Thomas remembered something Jimmy Johnson told him after the Dolphins legend got engaged.
“I don’t do funerals, I don’t do weddings,” Thomas recalled the retired coach saying.
In other words, it’s not often that you’re going to pull Johnson out of his house for a life event. It’s for that reason the Hall of Fame-bound linebacker was so blown away that it was Johnson who told him he was getting the call.
Thomas returned home from lunch with his mother one day to find Johnson in his gold jacket in his living room alongside family and friends. The 49-year-old was in tears before Johnson even gave him the news that he was heading to Canton.
Appearing on “Hochman and Crowder,” Johnson shared what that moment meant to him.
“It was very powerful,” Johnson said. “Especially for Jimmy to be here, I couldn’t even get up the stairs and I couldn’t breathe. When I walked up the stairs – my mom set me up, she took me to lunch – I walk up the stairs, I see Jimmy in that gold jacket and man, I cried, man. I cried. … For a guy that gave me everything, for him to be there – you can’t get Jimmy out of his house, man.
“…For him to get out of his house to surprise me. Man, it was a powerful moment, one moment that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
We’ll soon see Johnson and Thomas in gold together. Thomas said he’s planning on having his former coach be his presenter at the induction ceremony.
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