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Jim has posited that Johnson will have to dial down his personality in order to succeed on the show. I don't agree with him on the point. Ordinarily, I am a fervent believer that strong leaders, particularly alpha males, need to step back a bit and make themselves less threatening to the competition. This will not be the case with Jimmy Johnson and the older tribe. Everyone there will know who he is, what he has accomplished a life and what his presence could potentially mean to the group. It's the same situation as with Boston Rob last season. Sure, some people may have been jealous of him, but all of the Villains recognized that he made them a lot better and that they needed him. As such, he was left alone until such a point as the minority alliance in his tribe had no choice but to attempt an overthrow. Rob had cleverly created a firewall to protect himself, but he was a victim of back luck in that scenario.

His elimination prior to the merge notwithstanding, Rob was clearly the leader of his group and he was allowed to acquire enough power that he easily could have made it to the final vote if not for a few bad breaks. Jimmy Johnson needs to play this season in the same way. It would be disingenuous of him to step back and let other, inferior leaders assert control of the group dynamic and if he cannot see that for himself, I'm relatively certain that his tribe mates will point it out to him. Everyone should want to align with him, because they know that there is something about him that makes him a winner in everything he does in life. Can he actually win this competition? Probably not. Everyone knows he doesn't need the money and that's problematic. Can he make a deep run in the game and thereby once again prove himself to be one of the most engaging competitors of the past century? Hell yes.

The primary point about Jimmy Johnson's presence on Survivor this season is this. On paper, a game that skews toward strong physical performances should heavily favor a younger group over older competitors. This is the explanation as to why in the twenty season history of the show, only one person older than 41 has won. Since the casting department is unlikely to find 10 Bob Crowleys, steps had to be taken to restore the competitive balance. Jimmy Johnson does just this, giving the elder group an achiever who can lead a naturally disadvantaged group to perform better as a sum total than their individual parts should allow. Whether they like it or not, all of the members of the older tribe have to recognize this on a fundamental level. They need Jimmy Johnson and if they were to do something as foolish as voting him out early on, this is going to be a very dull season prior to the merge.

Daron Aldridge: Being from Dallas Cowboys land (but not a fan at all), I can attest that Jimmy Johnson is deified here and if someone comes out as a fan of the Cowboys, then Jimmy will have a blindly loyal recruit/ally right there. But as is the danger with celebrities, the money factor will probably come into play at least when it comes down to the finals and he may get ousted. This is provided he makes it that long, which I think he can as long as the team recognizes what they have in him as a leader and for the many reasons David mentioned. I do like the idea that taking him to the end has the built-in “he doesn’t need the money” argument but that didn’t work out too well for Russell last season sitting between two previous winners. Of course, Jimmy isn’t a egomaniacal troll with the social skills of the Unabomber.

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