​FOXBOROUGH, MA – DECEMBER 01: Troy Aikman on the panel for ESPNÕs Monday Night Countdown in warm up before a game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants on December 1, 2025, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire NFL, American Football Herren, USA DEC 01 Giants at Patriots EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon482251201051 ©IMAGO/Icon SportswireBack in the early 1990s, the Dallas Cowboys were at the zenith of NFL success. For better or worse, that credit mostly went to their rather new owner at the time, Jerry Jones, and his decision to bring in his Arkansas teammate and Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson. But the law of gravity got to them. And that blame, unsurprisingly, also goes to Jones.Just five years in, Jones, the owner and general manager of the team, wanted to funnel some coaching decisions under his umbrella and take credit for the team’s dramatic turnaround. Johnson, a through-and-through football coach, wouldn’t cede control. The breakup resulted in one of the biggest what-ifs of modern NFL. While the Cowboys Nation saw the dynasty fall apart on the outside, Troy Aikman recently revealed what was going on inside the locker room.“The frustrating thing for me, and I think I can speak for my teammates, every year Jimmy would address that if we do things we are capable of doing as a team, there would be enough credit to go around for everybody,” Troy Aikman reminisced on the Your Dark Companion podcast on Monday. “And so, our team did put the ego aside — myself, Emmitt (Smith), and Michael (Irvin), and the others. Unfortunately, the two that were the leaders of the group, they couldn’t do the same, and that’s the disappointing thing for me.“But I have a belief that when ego gets in the middle of anything, it’s usually not for the better, and that was a classic example as to that being true, and it was the demise of what could have been really a tremendous run. Of course I’m asked, and I know a lot of Cowboys fans would like to think that we would have won ten Super Bowls had Jimmy stayed, and who knows, maybe we would have, but that’s something we will never know the answer to, but it sure ended a lot sooner than it should have.”The rumbling started as the team was vying for a back-to-back Super Bowl title in 1993. Things started to change, and the tension between two competitive masterminds over decisions, credit, and money became visible. But that’s the thing about competing: if you lose, no one wants the blame. If you win, though, everyone wants the credit.Johnson ultimately left after that season. To make matters worse, Jones brought in his rival, Barry Switzer, as the replacement. The team won another title in 1995. However, Aikman is not the only one who wonders what would have happened if Johnson had stayed.The many what-ifs about the Cowboys dynasty and why it all crumbled downIn August last year, Irvin came forward with his review on the Netflix d