Wade Phillips

Wade Phillips

Record at Pro Football Reference

Wade Phillips (born June 21, 1947 in Orange, Texas) is the current head coach for the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys. He is also a former head coach of the New Orleans Saints, where his record was 1-3, the Denver Broncos, where his record was 16-17, the Buffalo Bills, where he was 29-21 and led the Bills to the playoffs in two of three seasons, and the Atlanta Falcons where he posted a 2-1 mark. His career winning percentage as a head coach is .572.

Personal life

Wade and wife Laurie have two children together, dancer/choreographer Tracy Phillips, who appeared as Helena in My Chemical Romance's music video for the song "Helena" and Wes Phillips, his son, is an assistant coach with the Cowboys. Wade is the son of former NFL coach Bum Phillips.

Playing career

Phillips attended Port Neches-Groves High School in Port Neches, Texas, and went on to the University of Houston, where he was a three-year starter at linebacker from 1966-68.

Coaching career

Phillips began his coaching career as graduate assistant to Bill Yeoman at the University of Houston in 1969. From 1970-72 he served as defensive coordinator at West Orange-Stark High School in West Orange, Texas. He then coached the linebackers at Oklahoma State University from 1973-1974, under his father who was OSU defensive coordinator at that time. In 1975, Phillips coached the defensive line at the University of Kansas.

NFL coaching

Phillips began his professional coaching career in Houston as the linebackers coach in 1976 for the team coached by his father, as well as defensive line coach in 1977-1980. He remained on his father's staff as the pair headed for New Orleans. Bum stepped down as head coach of a struggling Saints team in late 1985, and Wade stepped in as interim head coach. He spent the next three years as the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles and then four more in the same position for the Denver Broncos. Phillips replaced Dan Reeves as head coach for the Broncos in 1993, but was fired after a mediocre 1994 season in which management felt he lost control of the team.

The most successful coaching stop for Phillips was at Buffalo. He always kept the team competitive and in the playoff hunt. A loss to the Titans in the 1999 playoffs haunted Phillips for the rest of his time at Buffalo. In this same season he caused a controversy when he inserted Rob Johnson as starting quarterback at the last game of the season, after Doug Flutie was the starter the whole year and led the team to the playoffs.

He has the distinction of having been replaced by a father and a son from two head coaching positions – by Jim Mora at the New Orleans Saints and by Jim Mora Jr. at the Atlanta Falcons. He also has twice replaced Dan Reeves as a head coach.

On February 8, 2007, he was named the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, replacing the retired Bill Parcells. He was chosen after Jerry Jones interviewed 10 potential replacements, including former Cowboys and former San Francisco 49ers Offensive Coordinator Norv Turner, former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera and former Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett. His current record in Dallas is 13-3. In the 2007 Playoffs he led the Cowboys to another playoff loss making his playoff record 0-4.

External links

• Official Dallas Cowboys bio