Wade Phillips - Son of Bum: Lessons My Dad Taught Me About Football and Life

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Wade Phillips is an innovative football coach with a long and successful career in the NFL. As Defensive Coordinator, he helped the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl in 2016 with a smothering and punishing defense, considered one of the best of all time. In thirty-four seasons as both a coordinator and a head coach, Wades defenses have finished in the NFL top ten in twenty-four of them. In 2015, the Associated Press voted him the NFLs Assistant Coach of the Year. Wade is currently the Defensive Coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams.

Vic Carucci has covered the NFL as a writer and broadcaster for thirty-seven years. Vic covers the NFL for the Buffalo News and is a regular cohost for SiriusXM NFL Radio. He is a former columnist for NFL.com and NFL Network contributor. He has received multiple honors from the Associated Press and the Pro Football Writers of America. He is the author of nine previous books about pro football.

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Copyright 2017 by Wade Phillips with Vic Carucci
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Cover photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr. Houston Chronicle. Used with permission.
Back cover photo: Jeff Lewis, courtesy of LA Rams.
Image credits: page 137 by Amy Headington/Images of Grace Photography; pages 5, 170, 194, and 206 by Bart Bragg; page 203 property of Eric Bakke; page 151 property of Wyatt McSpadden; page 130 property of San Diego Chargers. All other photos from the authors personal collection.
Quotations from He Aint No Bum, by O. A. Bum Phillips and Ray Buck, are marked with an asterisk (*). Used with permission.

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First Diversion Books edition May 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68230-807-3

To my wonderful wife and best friend, Laurie, who has stood beside me through forty-eight football years; to my daughter, Tracy, and son, Wesley, who have been the best children a parent could ask for; to my friend, Vic, the talented writer who spent countless hours making this my story; to my friend and agent, Gary, who encouraged me to do this project to tell the story of Dad and me. Most of all, to my dad, for being the kind of man who made me want to tell about our relationship and my love for him. And love you, Mom, for raising me right.

Wade Phillips

To Rhonda, who gave me Kristen and Lindsay, who married Larry and Ryan, who have been two incredible sons to this bum; to my four-legged Coach, who spent countless hours curled up in his usual spot on the green chair as I tapped away on my keyboard. Miss you, buddy!

Vic Carucci

There are four things in life I know somethin about: pickup trucks, gumbo, cold beer and barbecued ribs.
Bum Phillips from He Aint No Bum

Friday night is normally date night for my wife Laurie and me. But it wasnt going to be any normal Friday night on October 18, 2013.

I was the defensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, and we were getting ready to play the Chiefs in Kansas City. The Friday before a Sunday game is an early day for everyone on an NFL team, because most of the preparation is done by Thursday night. On Friday, you practice in the morning and you have the afternoon off.

The time allows coaches and players to get caught up on stuff they havent been able to do all week with a schedule that has everyone coming in early in the morning and going home at night, sometimes late depending on when youre putting together the game plan and your meeting schedule. Friday afternoons during the season are good for running errands, maybe getting a haircut.

My plan after leaving work that day was to get in the car and drive two hours to Goliad, Texas, where my father, Bum Phillips, lived. Bum was a coaching legend in Texas, first at the high school level and then in the NFL. He was one of the most beloved men in the business, a giant figure who did things to revolutionize the way the game is played and especially the way its coached. He left his mark all over the league, but none bigger than the one he left on me.

At the time, I wasnt thinking about Bum Phillips, the legend. I was just thinking about Bum Phillips, my dad. He was dying and I had to be with him.

His health had taken a bad turn earlier that fall and he was getting hospice care at his home, which was a ranch. He had always dealt with asthma and lung problems. They were things he had lived with for a long time, and as he got older, they started catching up with him. A month earlier, right around the time of his ninetieth birthday, he sat down with two of my sisters and Laurie and me, and told us that he had lived a good life, that he felt good about everything he had done and about all of us.

I have a great family, Daddy said. Im not giving up, but I know Im in bad health.

That was hard for me to hear. I cried, along with everyone else sitting around him.

He was just lying in the bed when I got there on Friday. He really didnt acknowledge anyone or anything. I just kind of held his hand. He looked peaceful.

I stayed for a while and nothing really changed. I told him I loved him, then I got back in the car and drove two hours back home on Interstate 10 to Houston.

That night, the two Texas high schools where Daddy coached were playing each other, Port Neches-Groves and Nederland. These are neighboring towns; you cant tell where one ends and the other begins. Bum Phillips Way runs from Port Neches through Nederland, so it was a huge rivalry, dating all the way back to 1925. When Bum was at Nederland, he beat Port Neches-Groves every year. Then Port Neches-Groves hired him to beat Nederland, and he did. Today their game is called the Bum Phillips Bowl, and theres a giant trophy that goes to the winner.