Phillips adds an edge to matchup
By Jerry Sullivan
Updated: 10/04/07 8:22 AM
Ralph Wilson says he isn’t bitter. He actually likes Wade Phillips. He considers him a good football coach. He exchanged pleasantries with Phillips and his wife at the owners’ meetings. There is, however, one tiny matter that continues to stick in Wilson’s craw: “He quit!” Wilson said Wednesday by phone from Detroit. “I read everywhere that Wade Phillips was fired. I didn’t fire Wade Phillips. He wanted to keep — who was that guy? Ronnie Jones. I told him to let this fellow go. He was just incompetent.”
As Wilson recalls, a week went by and Jones still hadn’t been fired as special teams coach. Wilson called Phillips and asked why he hadn’t let Jones go. “He said, ‘If he goes, I go,’ ” Wilson said. “I was stunned. I put the phone down for a moment. Then I picked it up and said, ‘What was it you just said?’ He said, ‘If he goes, I go.’
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll see you down the line,’ ” Wilson said.
“Down the line” has arrived. Monday night, Phillips returns to Buffalo as a head coach, bringing his unbeaten and heavily favored Cowboys into Ralph Wilson Stadium to play the Bills on national TV. Phillips, who regaled the Buffalo media in a funny and prolonged teleconference later Wednesday, insists he isn’t bitter, either — though he made sure to remind the press he had a 29-19 regular-season record in Buffalo.
Still, you have to think Wilson would love to give his former coach his first loss of the season, not to mention Dallas owner Jerry Jones, who might be Wilson’s chief nemesis in his lonely crusade to get the NFL’s larger markets to share more revenue with their less-privileged brethren.
If he didn’t know better, Wilson might be tempted to call it his personal Super Bowl, the way he did when the Bills played San Diego and deposed GM John Butler six years ago. “No, no,” Wilson said with a chuckle. “I’m not saying it’s just any game, but I don’t want to beat [Jones] more than any other owner. Hell, he’s not the only one. Philadelphia, New England, there’s a few others in the same camp. It’s all the big markets, not just Jerry Jones.”
Wilson is mainly concerned that his Bills put on a decent show in their first Monday night home game in 13 years. “You know how the team stands,” he said. “If we could put up a good showing and maybe get a win, that would be great.”
If Trent Edwards has another big game and the Bills stun the Cowboys, Wilson might make Edwards part owner. The Bills are 10-point underdogs, a huge number for a home team in today’s NFL. That line says the Bills are capable of a national embarrassment. “It’s possible,” Wilson said. “We’re picking up guys other people cut, players who were on the street.”
I don’t care what Wilson and Phillips say. They parted on bitter terms, and it gives this meeting a definite edge. The same goes for the Wilson-Jones subplot. You can’t tell me that ESPN didn’t take those little animosities into account when they scheduled this game.
Maybe they can bring out tape of the Bills’ last Monday night appearance, at Indianapolis in December 2000. That was the night Phillips said both teams were essentially out of the playoffs, though both were alive with three weeks left. Indy wound up getting in. Phillips quit a few weeks later. Or he got fired. Phillips probably would have been fired, anyway, when Wilson brought in Tom Donahoe as his new GM. Wilson didn’t want to pay Wade, but lost in an NFL arbitration decision.
“Well it was in all the papers up there that I got fired,” Phillips said. “If he didn’t fire me, I wish he’d told me sooner. I might still be there.”
Updated: 10/04/07 8:22 AM
Ralph Wilson says he isn’t bitter. He actually likes Wade Phillips. He considers him a good football coach. He exchanged pleasantries with Phillips and his wife at the owners’ meetings. There is, however, one tiny matter that continues to stick in Wilson’s craw: “He quit!” Wilson said Wednesday by phone from Detroit. “I read everywhere that Wade Phillips was fired. I didn’t fire Wade Phillips. He wanted to keep — who was that guy? Ronnie Jones. I told him to let this fellow go. He was just incompetent.”
As Wilson recalls, a week went by and Jones still hadn’t been fired as special teams coach. Wilson called Phillips and asked why he hadn’t let Jones go. “He said, ‘If he goes, I go,’ ” Wilson said. “I was stunned. I put the phone down for a moment. Then I picked it up and said, ‘What was it you just said?’ He said, ‘If he goes, I go.’
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll see you down the line,’ ” Wilson said.
“Down the line” has arrived. Monday night, Phillips returns to Buffalo as a head coach, bringing his unbeaten and heavily favored Cowboys into Ralph Wilson Stadium to play the Bills on national TV. Phillips, who regaled the Buffalo media in a funny and prolonged teleconference later Wednesday, insists he isn’t bitter, either — though he made sure to remind the press he had a 29-19 regular-season record in Buffalo.
Still, you have to think Wilson would love to give his former coach his first loss of the season, not to mention Dallas owner Jerry Jones, who might be Wilson’s chief nemesis in his lonely crusade to get the NFL’s larger markets to share more revenue with their less-privileged brethren.
If he didn’t know better, Wilson might be tempted to call it his personal Super Bowl, the way he did when the Bills played San Diego and deposed GM John Butler six years ago. “No, no,” Wilson said with a chuckle. “I’m not saying it’s just any game, but I don’t want to beat [Jones] more than any other owner. Hell, he’s not the only one. Philadelphia, New England, there’s a few others in the same camp. It’s all the big markets, not just Jerry Jones.”
Wilson is mainly concerned that his Bills put on a decent show in their first Monday night home game in 13 years. “You know how the team stands,” he said. “If we could put up a good showing and maybe get a win, that would be great.”
If Trent Edwards has another big game and the Bills stun the Cowboys, Wilson might make Edwards part owner. The Bills are 10-point underdogs, a huge number for a home team in today’s NFL. That line says the Bills are capable of a national embarrassment. “It’s possible,” Wilson said. “We’re picking up guys other people cut, players who were on the street.”
I don’t care what Wilson and Phillips say. They parted on bitter terms, and it gives this meeting a definite edge. The same goes for the Wilson-Jones subplot. You can’t tell me that ESPN didn’t take those little animosities into account when they scheduled this game.
Maybe they can bring out tape of the Bills’ last Monday night appearance, at Indianapolis in December 2000. That was the night Phillips said both teams were essentially out of the playoffs, though both were alive with three weeks left. Indy wound up getting in. Phillips quit a few weeks later. Or he got fired. Phillips probably would have been fired, anyway, when Wilson brought in Tom Donahoe as his new GM. Wilson didn’t want to pay Wade, but lost in an NFL arbitration decision.
“Well it was in all the papers up there that I got fired,” Phillips said. “If he didn’t fire me, I wish he’d told me sooner. I might still be there.”
posted by The Gryphon at 11:02 PM
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