When the Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowls in a four-year stretch between 1992-95, they enjoyed a 5-0 record in home playoff games. Aside from the three neutral-site Super Bowls, they played just one postseason road contest in those three seasons — and it was easily a favorite moment for former Cowboys fullback Daryl “Moose” Johnston. After the 1992 season, Dallas went to San Francisco to face the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
“Nothing compared to beating San Francisco at Candlestick the first time we went,” Johnston told Athlon Sports. “The other two championship games were at Texas Stadium, and those were fun. But I tell ya what, beating San Francisco in San Francisco, it made that Super Bowl so much more special.”
For the record, Johnston — who was known more as a terrific blocking fullback who helped clear the path for Emmitt Smith to win rushing titles — scored the 4-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter that broke a 10-10 halftime tie in that game. Dallas went on to win 30-20; two weeks later, the Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills for the first of their three Super Bowls in the ‘90s.
“Winning at home, that’s expected,” said Johnston. “But winning against a good team, in playoff football, at their stadium and just watching the air go out of that place, it’s one of the more enjoyable things for me.”
Johnston isn’t just reminiscing about his moment of glory 35 years later. In his current role as executive vice president of football operations for the upstart United Football League, he’s pumping up that “road warrior” pride to motivate a couple of UFL teams that might have to relinquish home-field advantage in the upcoming postseason.
With one week left in the regular season for the UFL — the spring football league that formed in 2024 as a merger between the XFL and USFL — the conference championship matchups are already set. In the XFL Conference, it’s the DC Defenders against the St. Louis Battlehawks. In the USFL Conference, the Michigan Panthers taking on the Birmingham Stallions.
The conference championship games are set for June 8. One problem, though: Both DC and Michigan have venue conflicts on that date. Seeding is still up for grabs, but it’s possible that DC and/or Michigan can be No. 1 seeds forced to play on the road in their conference title games.
“We let them know about the conflict early on and they know what could happen,” said Johnston. “They’ve both kinda embraced not having the opportunity to play a playoff game at home. It’ll be pretty cool to see them earn that right. To have to go into enemy territory and find their ways into the championship game.”
Johnston, who was with the Cowboys for all of his 11 NFL seasons (1989-99), has been a fixture on NFL broadcasts as a color analyst — he began his broadcasting career at CBS in 2000 and has been with Fox Sports since 2001. It wasn’t until 2019 that he started getting involved in spring football. After stints as a team executive with two Texas-based franchises in different leagues, he was named executive vice president of football operations for the relaunch of the USFL in 2021. Three years later, he was tasked with playing a key role in the formation of the UFL.
“We're only year two,” Johnston said from the UFL’s headquarters in Arlington, Texas. “We're basically the second year of a startup professional football league in an environment and an area that few, if any, have really had any sustained success. So I think what we've done to this point is good work, but there's a lot more to do.”
For his part, Johnston said he’s having a ton of fun, though he acknowledges a big difference between life as a pro football player and life as a league executive. As a player, the season is like Groundhog Day — every day is mapped out perfectly from morning until night. As a league exec? Not so much.
“Mondays and Tuesdays are something that you have to really get used to,” Johnston said. “Because you have a plan when you go in Monday morning to start your week, and you get about 15 minutes working towards that plan when everything starts to unwind and blow up and all the issues from the weekend come pouring in. It is not boring, to say the least, and it's very challenging, which I really enjoy.”
Kickers Brandon Aubrey (Cowboys) and Jake Bates (Detroit Lions) are just two examples of recent spring footballers who have made a successful transition to the NFL. Still, as the UFL grows, Johnston is quick to dismiss the idea that the UFL wants to be looked at as the NFL’s farm system.
“No, we push back on that one,” he said. “I think a lot of people look at us and they see minor league baseball for MLB, or they see the G League for the NBA. They see the farm system for the NHL. That's not who we want to be. We want to be a standalone professional football league that plays our games in the spring.
“We understand the developmental component to our league. We always talk about the league of opportunity. But our first and foremost job is to make sure that our league is successful and sustainable.”
Johnston said the league is more than happy to see its players develop and advance to the NFL. But he’s equally proud to establish the UFL as a worthwhile option for players that may never get a chance to reach the NFL, players that aren’t ready to turn the page on the football part of their lives.
“We provide an opportunity for that player to continue to chase his passion of the game of football while others are still chasing the NFL dream. That's a player that gets lost in the shuffle.”
Among the examples of that, Johnston noted Birmingham Stallions quarterback J’Mar Smith. The former Louisiana Tech player signed as an undrafted free agent with the New England Patriots in 2020 but was waived before training camp ever started. He played for the Stallions from 2022-24, but wasn’t on the roster when the 2025 season began. While working at Dunkin Donuts, Smith continued to train and stay in shape in case he might get another opportunity. Sure enough, a string of injuries to Birmingham quarterbacks created that opportunity — first as a backup and currently as the Stallions’ new starting QB.
“We have a number of guys like that in our league that are just playing for the love of the game,” said Johnston.
Back to the idea of the UFL as a stepping stone to the NFL, it’s not just players. Former NFL quarterback Bruce Gradkowski started his coaching career as a volunteer high school coach in 2017. After one year in college, as an offensive analyst for his alma mater, Toledo, in 2022, he was hired in 2023 as offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Battlehawks. This February, after Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was hired to be the Chicago Bears’ new head coach, Detroit hired Gradkowski as its new OC.
And it’s not only coaches, either. Johnston is happy to see UFL staff of all kinds grow and advance.
Johnston said that he’s on a call each week of the season with Brad Campbell, the UFL’s director of video. For the last few weeks, Campbell has started off the call reporting that he “lost another video guy.” The most recent defection was hired by the Arizona Cardinals.
“We're in that time right now where the NFL is getting ready to get prepared for OTAs and everything as they get ready for their season,” Johnston said.
So if the UFL is a proving ground and an opportunity for all of the league’s employees to receive NFL consideration, what about someone who works in, say, football operations?
“I'm 59,” said Johnston. “I don't know if that window is still open for me at that level. I've really enjoyed my ability to progress through the spring landscape.”
Besides, if the NFL hired Johnston, there’s no way they’d let him keep his other gig as a Fox broadcaster. And as much of a grind as it’s been to manage his time between Fox and the UFL, he has no plans to cut back.
“Everybody has been fantastic, they respect my schedule,” he said. “This will be my fifth year doing both. So, you've kind of gotten into a routine. You just get up early Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you have your time that you set aside for your game prep, you have your time set aside to do your UFL business, and then you wrap things up at the end of the day tying up any loose ends with your personal stuff, with the broadcast, and the travel comes on Friday or Saturday. So, for me, it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday are the days that I have to juggle a little bit. And everybody has been very, very respectable, knowing when my windows are, when to get in touch with me.”
Of course, while Johnston can hearken back to his playing days with the Cowboys to inspire teams and players in the UFL, he will always be asked for an opinion on the current Cowboys. And while he was surprised to hear that his old teammate, Troy Aikman, thinks Dallas can be a Super Bowl contender in 2025, Johnston doesn’t see it.
“I don't think I'm as positive on the Cowboys as Troy is right now,” he said. “And it's probably not them individually as it is what the NFC East has become over the last couple of seasons and what the NFC conference as a whole has become.”
Johnston was quick to note that after Dallas lost quarterback Dak Prescott for a chunk of last season, finishing 7-10 wasn’t all that bad.
“There was the opportunity to lose a team in that scenario,” he said. “And Mike McCarthy did a great job of keeping that group together. They were competitive down the stretch.”
Which is why Johnston thought it was a mistake to let McCarthy go. His contract was up, so it felt inevitable that Jerry Jones was going to bring in someone else. While Johnston preferred to keep McCarthy, he is a fan of new head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
“Philadelphia won the Super Bowl because they dominated Kansas City along the line of scrimmage. That's what Brian Schottenheimer wants to do,” said Johnston. “That's what his father (Marty Schottenheimer) did at Kansas City, at Cleveland, at San Diego. Those teams were always good up front. Those teams were always good defensively. Those teams were always good at running the football. And so that's what I think we're going to see from Dallas is kind of getting back to what you saw from Philadelphia. You've got to be able to control the line of scrimmage.”
The Cowboys certainly were in control when Johnston played for them. Now the man called Moose is looking to bring that level of success to the UFL.
