From the day  Jimmy Johnson was announced as one of the castaways on Survivor: Nicaragua, the longtime football coach and sports commentator was seen as a target for early elimination. After all, how could the 19 others competing for $1 million not vote him off?

"I told the rest of the tribemates, 'Listen, no jury is going to award me a million bucks. My goal is for one of you to win a million bucks. I'm here for the adventure,'" Johnson told reporters on a conference call Thursday.

"I don't know that they really trusted me on that part. They said, 'We know what kind of a competitor you are.'"

However, after watching every season of the series, it was only a matter of time before Johnson wore them down.

"A lot of them would say — when things were kind of rough and we were lying there on the bamboo at night — 'Jimmy, give us a football story,'" Johnson said. "Because of the credibility of some of the successes I've had in the past and because some of the individuals were football fans, they actually listened to me. That gave me a head start as far as building relationships."