Phillips not quite following dad’s footsteps
BY RAY BUCK
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Dallas Cowboys Coach Wade Phillips turns 60 on Thursday.
“It’s just a number,” he said.
“To me, 60 means you have a lot of experience.
“ So, I’ll be emphasizing experience at this point in my life. When I was 30, I was emphasizing enthusiasm.”
Wade is almost as glib as his father, Bum, who coached in the NFL until he was 62. In 1985, he left the New Orleans Saints to give ranching a try.
“I thought I might as well while I could still enjoy it,” said Bum, now 83, raising cutting horses in Goliad, Texas, with his wife, Debbie. “I still loved coaching when I quit, but I wanted to do something else.
“ That’s what you start thinking about when you get about 60. Of course, Wade ain’t thinking of that. He’s thinking about coaching until he’s 75.”
While the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Phillips family, there is a subtle difference.
Bum: Football and ranching.
Wade: Football and football.
“Wade doesn’t have anything else that he loves to do,” Bum said. “He doesn’t care anything about horses or cows or ranching. He just loves football. It’s been his whole life since he was 6 years old.”
The similarities between father and son are immense. They share a common honesty and unpretentious nature... and, oh yeah, a stubbornness.
Bum walked away from coaching with four games left in the 1985 season, when a female fan poured beer on his head — not once but twice — after games at the Louisiana Superdome.
“And one of the games we won !” Bum said. “I got mad — real mad. The second time she did it, I decided, ‘ This will be the last time I ever walk into this stadium. ’”
And it was.
When the Saints returned from backto-back road games at Green Bay and Minnesota, Bum walked into owner Tom Benson’s office and resigned. Wade finished out the season as interim coach.
“Every now and then, Wade gets hard-headed,” Bum said. “But that’s OK — he’s like me that way. Sooner or later, somebody backs you up against a wall, and you have to push off that wall and make something happen.”
This segues nicely into that nonsense you keep hearing that Wade is soft and that his players will be undisciplined. That’s a crock. His teams readily rank in the NFL’s top five in least number of turnovers.
“I think people get confused about discipline,” Wade said. “To me, it’s what your team does. I’m like my dad that way. I’d rather have a guy be self-disciplined than have to have me holler and scream at him to do something.
“ Because when it comes down to it, he’s not really going to do it unless I’m standing there.”
The Phillipses are a logical bunch.
And now, Wade has his 28-year-old son, Wes, serving as offensive assistant / quality control, just as Bum started Wade out on the Houston Oilers staff in 1976.
Bum and Wade coached together for 10 NFL seasons in Houston and New Orleans.
“I cherish those years,” Wade said. “Of course, I’ve been 20 years in other places.”
The season in which Bum turned 60 — the 1983 Saints — Wade was defensive coordinator. That team, featuring Ken Stabler at quarterback and the NFL’s fifth-ranked defense, would barely miss being the first in franchise history to post a winning record and make the playoffs.
Rams kicker Mike Lansford’s 42-yard field goal on the final play of the final regular-season game dealt the Saints a 26-24 home defeat. They finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs.
Bum’s remembrance of those events is a somber one: “We got beat. That [loss ] just did everything to me.”
So, here’s a birthday wish to Wade: that your season ends on a better note than your dad’s when he was 60... and, for that matter, your predecessor’s last January.
As you might have heard by now, Valley Ranch has changed. The players are almost giddy. Tuna Talk isn’t the only voice being heard anymore.
Two dozen Cowboys employees — coaches, trainers and the like — were treated by Jerry Jones to a 48-hour getaway to Las Vegas last week before the real work begins in San Antonio next month.
When Wade was reached on the 15 th hole in Las Vegas, he answered his cellphone and said: “Best I’ve played golf in two years... of course, it’s the only time I’ve played in two years.”
Valley Ranch is fun again.
And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Dallas Cowboys Coach Wade Phillips turns 60 on Thursday.
“It’s just a number,” he said.
“To me, 60 means you have a lot of experience.
“ So, I’ll be emphasizing experience at this point in my life. When I was 30, I was emphasizing enthusiasm.”
Wade is almost as glib as his father, Bum, who coached in the NFL until he was 62. In 1985, he left the New Orleans Saints to give ranching a try.
“I thought I might as well while I could still enjoy it,” said Bum, now 83, raising cutting horses in Goliad, Texas, with his wife, Debbie. “I still loved coaching when I quit, but I wanted to do something else.
“ That’s what you start thinking about when you get about 60. Of course, Wade ain’t thinking of that. He’s thinking about coaching until he’s 75.”
While the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Phillips family, there is a subtle difference.
Bum: Football and ranching.
Wade: Football and football.
“Wade doesn’t have anything else that he loves to do,” Bum said. “He doesn’t care anything about horses or cows or ranching. He just loves football. It’s been his whole life since he was 6 years old.”
The similarities between father and son are immense. They share a common honesty and unpretentious nature... and, oh yeah, a stubbornness.
Bum walked away from coaching with four games left in the 1985 season, when a female fan poured beer on his head — not once but twice — after games at the Louisiana Superdome.
“And one of the games we won !” Bum said. “I got mad — real mad. The second time she did it, I decided, ‘ This will be the last time I ever walk into this stadium. ’”
And it was.
When the Saints returned from backto-back road games at Green Bay and Minnesota, Bum walked into owner Tom Benson’s office and resigned. Wade finished out the season as interim coach.
“Every now and then, Wade gets hard-headed,” Bum said. “But that’s OK — he’s like me that way. Sooner or later, somebody backs you up against a wall, and you have to push off that wall and make something happen.”
This segues nicely into that nonsense you keep hearing that Wade is soft and that his players will be undisciplined. That’s a crock. His teams readily rank in the NFL’s top five in least number of turnovers.
“I think people get confused about discipline,” Wade said. “To me, it’s what your team does. I’m like my dad that way. I’d rather have a guy be self-disciplined than have to have me holler and scream at him to do something.
“ Because when it comes down to it, he’s not really going to do it unless I’m standing there.”
The Phillipses are a logical bunch.
And now, Wade has his 28-year-old son, Wes, serving as offensive assistant / quality control, just as Bum started Wade out on the Houston Oilers staff in 1976.
Bum and Wade coached together for 10 NFL seasons in Houston and New Orleans.
“I cherish those years,” Wade said. “Of course, I’ve been 20 years in other places.”
The season in which Bum turned 60 — the 1983 Saints — Wade was defensive coordinator. That team, featuring Ken Stabler at quarterback and the NFL’s fifth-ranked defense, would barely miss being the first in franchise history to post a winning record and make the playoffs.
Rams kicker Mike Lansford’s 42-yard field goal on the final play of the final regular-season game dealt the Saints a 26-24 home defeat. They finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs.
Bum’s remembrance of those events is a somber one: “We got beat. That [loss ] just did everything to me.”
So, here’s a birthday wish to Wade: that your season ends on a better note than your dad’s when he was 60... and, for that matter, your predecessor’s last January.
As you might have heard by now, Valley Ranch has changed. The players are almost giddy. Tuna Talk isn’t the only voice being heard anymore.
Two dozen Cowboys employees — coaches, trainers and the like — were treated by Jerry Jones to a 48-hour getaway to Las Vegas last week before the real work begins in San Antonio next month.
When Wade was reached on the 15 th hole in Las Vegas, he answered his cellphone and said: “Best I’ve played golf in two years... of course, it’s the only time I’ve played in two years.”
Valley Ranch is fun again.
And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:13 PM
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