New Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips took to Deadspin to share an excerpt from his book, Son of Bum.
More than anything, the writing Phillips referenced pointed to what has to be considered an up-and-down point in his career when he coached the Dallas Cowboys from 2007-10.
It focuses on having to deal with then offensive coordinator Jason Garrett getting paid more than him and contract issues between Phillips and owner Jerry Jones.
While the long-time NFL coach had some words of praise to throw Jones’ way, more often than not the excerpt was a way to call Jones out publicly.
“Jerry can do what he wants to do as owner, obviously. I just didn’t think it was right that an assistant coach (Garrett) was making more than a head coach,” Phillips wrote. “He could have paid me more. He had plenty of money. Still does. But he’s a businessman and his business side made that decision.”
To be clear here, Phillips had mentioned that Garrett received a head-coaching offer from the Baltimore Ravens prior to the then offensive coordinator signing an extension. Still, it is rather interesting that an assistant was making more money than the team’s head coach.
Phillips goes on to detail how his tenure in Dallas ended with Jones calling him into the office towards the later part of the 2010 season to fire him. Phillips asked Jones to keep him on for one more game so he could go out on a winning note, at which point the owner firmly denied said request.
There’s not a whole bunch that came out of this excerpt other than Phillips airing some dirty laundry between himself and his former team. That’s an odd thing to do when you are still employed in the NFL and seen as a colleague of those you chastise publicly.
Though, its surely does feel like Phillips himself has some hard feeling over what happened in Dallas. This seems to magnify that to a T.