Wade Phillips Interview

I've had such a delightful week watching some documentaries, thumbing through some books.

I mentioned I have Malcolm Gladwell's newest, Talking with Strangers, but I also have Son of Bum, authored by our next guest. One of the best defensive minds in the history of the sport, one of the more entertaining follows among football coaches on Twitter. And somebody that I've been wanting to talk to for some time now, it's Wade Phillips with us, the book again, Son of Bum.

It's chalked with a ton of great football stories from his dad, Bum Phillips, and Earl Campbell to his days coaching, nowadays in the NFL. Coach Phillips, give me a sense for those who don't know what your campaign, the STOP campaign is. Hey, Josh, good to talk to you, man. Well, you know, I just wanted to put it out there, we need to stop. You know, the government and everybody's telling us, hey, the right thing to do is stop. And I just kind of carried it over to save the old people, you know, so SDOP.

Stop the virus, SDOP, save the old people. So I think it would be great if we go have some fun on the show because I think fun is what we need right now. But I also am interested in a lot of things regarding football in today's game. How much do you think the lack of OTAs, if they are canceled, can hurt a team like the Panthers with a new head coach and also a team with a new quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater? Obviously, it depends. You know, we had a strike one year where we didn't have the OTAs when I was with the Texans and I had first gone there and so it was a new team.

Similar situation. I'm just saying good things could happen because they were 31st in the league in defense when I went there. We didn't have OTAs.

We had a new staff defensively and we ended that second in the league and being in the playoffs and winning playoff games in which they had never done. So good things can come out of it. You know, you just got to it's got to be your teaching progression. It's got to be very good. And that's the key.

If you can teach players to play your system or what you're doing and then utilize their talents quickly, you'll get it done. He's on Twitter at Son of Bum. I saw you tweet this this week. Just picked up my Republican or Republic barbecue. Great to be back in Texas. Now, I've been all across the country eating barbecue left and right. I had some in Houston a few months ago and in North Carolina, we got our own special kind of barbecue. What's the best barbecue you've ever had?

Well, since I'm talking to you, North Carolina. What about the best steak? See, everybody remembers the best steak they've ever had.

For me, it was in Bird City, Kansas, middle of nowhere. The steak, it overlapped over the sides of the plate. What sticks out to Wade Phillips? Well, you're you're my kind of guy, man. Big meat eater. Yeah.

Oh, gee, I don't know. I mean, we could cook up some pretty good steaks around here. So, yeah, I like to grill them out there.

And they taste pretty good to me. Wade Phillips is with us here. He's on Twitter at Son of Bum. That's also the name of his book that you certainly can enjoy.

It's available where books are sold. How surprised are you that Cam Newton is still available based on the experiences you had against Cam? Yeah, I'm surprised.

Well, you know, yeah, I'm obviously surprised. You know, he's such a great player. And even though we had success against him, it was tough. He was a dominant. Well, he was the MVP of the league that year. So, I mean, it's a shame he's had the injuries he's had.

And maybe that's what everybody's looking at. But he I think he's a winner. I think he's a guy that can make plays. So, you know, we saw Peyton Manning kind of go through the same thing, you know, changing teams and they felt like he was hurt and so forth. And then ended up winning the Super Bowl. So, you know, I wouldn't put it past Cam doing well. What sticks out to you those two weeks in prep? You get the extra week you're preparing for Cam in the Super Bowl. What sticks out to you as the defensive coordinator that eventually had more success against Cam than anyone had that year? What what stood out to you those two weeks? Well, you know, you get to remember we had a pretty good defensive team.

Oh, yeah. We beat Roethlisberger and beat him up pretty good. And then we beat Tom Brady before we played that game.

And we hit Tom Brady 24 times in the game, which somebody said it was the most anybody court, not just him, but any quarterback that had been hit in the game in the last 10 years. So we had a pretty good rush. And, of course, we got seven sacks in the Super Bowl. So, I mean, you know, our rush was that team was exceptional defensively.

So, you know, I had a lot to do with it. And and we played really good against the run. We we average three point three against the run that year, which was probably the best. And and they had they had a really great running game with the quarterback running it.

And we stopped the running game, forced them to throw the ball. So that was really key. Wade Phillips with us, his book, Son of Bum, writing a book with stories about your dad. What lessons did you most want to express to readers that you had learned from him? Well, some things about life, certainly, but I also wanted to do it for coaches and.

To let them know what kind of what coaching is, what real coaching is to me, and there's a chapter in there, I think it's the second chapter that says coaching and pitching in it. And that's what he taught me, too, is coaching and griping about things. You know, you start coaching and all of a sudden the guy makes a mistake or doesn't do well. And you start griping at him, you know, yak, yak, yak, that kind of thing. Well, the reason he didn't do well is you didn't teach him in most part.

You didn't teach him to do the things beforehand that would make him more successful. So, you know, they want to blame it on the players because they don't they don't make the play. But a lot of times it's the coaching part that would have helped them.

So just that just that mindset, I think, is important. What kind of pet peeves do you have about coaching nowadays and how it's changed versus when you coached two decades ago? Heck, even three or four decades ago. Yeah, I've been in the NFL 42 years.

So, yeah, I've seen it all. You know, I think it's mostly that guys that want to holler, holler and scream at guys that for making mistakes. And then to me and one of the chapters in there is the mistakes are mine. And that's what I've always preached with the players is, hey, we're going to get everything taught. We're going to we're going to work your heart and get everything taught to you. And then you go out and play as hard as you can play.

Don't worry about the mistakes because the mistakes that you make are mine. And I think they play harder that way. What trait stands out to you about the Panthers new quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater? Yeah, you know, he's been when we played him last year when I was with the Rams and because he had to come in. Yeah, Breeze got hurt with the hand that game.

Yeah. During the game. So I didn't know much about him now. I mean, I knew about him in which study, but we thought we're going to play against Breeze. But but he showed a lot of good things, you know, under pressure. You know, he's not a runner, but he's you know, he's been in a good system and he's talented.

So, you know, once he had that injury, I thought, man, this guy's career is over for sure. So he showed me a lot just coming back and being able to play, trying to stop quarterbacks. Wade, what sticks out to you about how the game's changed over the last decade? Because I believe quarterback play.

It seems like it's it's been it's never been this good or this easy. Of course, they're being aided by rule changes. College offenses being implemented more and more.

But also you're talking about I mean, I mentioned Malcolm Gladwell a short while ago. Ten thousand hours, more quarterback camps, more guys who are more prepared heading into high school. What have you seen where have you noticed the quality of quarterback play improving more and more as time's gone on?

Yeah, I think it has. And the reason for it is so wide open in college. I mean, when you get a quarterback, you want a guy that can throw the football. Well, now they're throwing the ball in high school, too. But I mean, they're throwing the ball so much that I think they're getting better. You know, it's not reading defenses as being able to throw accurately. If you get a guy throw accurately, you can get him teaching to read defenses.

And Mahomes is a great example of that. I mean, the guy, you know, is a really accurate quarterback. And, you know, he's not I'm sure he's not great at reading defenses yet, but he makes plays because he can throw the ball so well.

He said this last year, coach, he said last year or two or three weeks ago that halfway through this past season, that's when he first started to learn how to read defenses. Yeah, I believe that, you know, because he's a great talent. I mean, he's a Brett Favre talent. He's not just your normal guy coming out.

No, he's exceptional. But still, like I say, they're throwing the ball so much. And I know high schools are emulating colleges. So kids are throwing the ball now more and more and more.

And you're bound to get better players the more you do something. Get his book, Son of Bum. It is Wade Phillips spending time with us here. Do you have a go-to karaoke song? I'm not big on karaoke. There's a good reason.

There's a good reason for that. I think it's my voice. Oh, yeah. But if you were going to sing, what are we singing here? What are we going to sing if you had to?

Oh, gee, I don't know. Give me a good story. Before we let you go. When you're scouting, you have to go all over the place. You've got to keep an eye on Clemson. You've got to keep an eye on the state of Texas.

Got to stay a high. Keep an eye all across the country what's going on with college football. Do you have a good story or a prospect that sticks out being in the southeast? Obviously, football is so big down here.

State of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Anything stick out over the years recruiting or, excuse me, looking at prospects over the last few decades in this area? Yeah. Well, I looked at a guy, a running back that was pretty good out of South Carolina named George Rogers one time. He was really something. He was a rookie of the year. We drafted him into the Saints. He was a rookie of the year and really a great, great player. Now, there was a guy from North Carolina who played linebacker at the same time that we didn't end up taking, Lawrence Taylor. Yeah, I've heard of him.

Yeah, both those guys were pretty good. Well, you were pretty darn good as well and I hope you're finding ways to be productive amid a difficult time. I think your Twitter handle, your book are good ways to put smiles on faces and that's exactly what we need in times like this. So, appreciate the time, Wade. It's appreciated. You bet. Just Twitter me at Son of Bum if they read the book or ask questions. I'll be glad to answer.

We're not doing anything else, that's for sure. You're the best. Thanks, Wade. Alright, you too.

That is Wade Phillips on Twitter at Son of Bum. Very modest, non-assuming. Yeah, we did a nice job against the Panthers. We did a nice job against camp. I'd say they did too. Von Miller getting around the edge and winning Super Bowl 50. That's pretty cool, man. Alright, I think that the coronavirus pandemic is going to affect the Carolina Panthers more than any other NFL team. I believe that. That and a sports hub time machine are next.