If there's one thing I learned about covering Wade Phillips when he was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, it was not to be fooled by his placid demeanor. In a profession fool of thin-skinned men, Phillips ranked near the top.
He hates that his head-coaching career has been viewed largely as a disappointment, and that's why he's always willing to number-whip the doubters. Phillips decided to make a little statement about his replacement Jason Garrett via Twitter on Thursday. And in true Wade fashion, he was able to pay tribute to himself in the process.
"Jason Garrett is tied with Wade Phillips for 56 games as the @dallascowboys head coach. Phillips: 34 - 22; Garrett: 29 -27. #surprisesMe" is what Phillips tweeted. I took the liberty to clean up his spelling at the end, but you get the point. I am one of Phillips' 61,000 followers on Twitter, mainly because I like the heck out of the guy.
But once Phillips saw the reaction to his tweet, he tried to clean up the mess. He should've gone with the tried and true "I was hacked," but here's what he came up with instead:
"My surprise was that Jason and I had coached the same number of games. Not the record - time passes quickly - I wish Jason & Cowboys well."
That sounds like a load of bull to me. Phillips' original tweet was actually on the money. Everyone was ready to run him out of town when the Cowboys went belly up midway through the 2010 season. But his first three seasons were far superior to anything Garrett has accomplished during his first three full seasons. And Jerry Jones didn't have to spend a bunch of time letting Phillips learn on the job. He'd had moderate success in Denver and Buffalo as a head coach and got off to an excellent start with the Cowboys in 2007.
Phillips doesn't come across as a great leader, but his credentials as a defensive coordinator are impressive. After watching Garrett focus on the Cowboys' offense for the past seven seasons, Jones has made the laughable decision to have him spend more time with the defense in 2014. Garrett's making his annual trip to Duke this weekend to spend time with Coach K. And he's even taking quarterback Tony Romo with him this time around.
I would think most head coaches around the league would be focused on free agency this weekend since teams will be allowed to visit with prospective players. Garrett will be spending time with the Blue Devils instead.
Phillips said he was simply "retweeting" an interesting tidbit that someone had passed along to him Thursday. But what he was really doing was reminding Jones that Garrett hasn't been an upgrade from the Phillips era.
History will be kind to Phillips' time with the Cowboys. And Garrett's certainly doing his part in that process.
If only Jason would open a Twitter account.
