With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I thought I’d repost my January 24, 2012 article entitled, The Curse of Wade Phillips. After you read it, I’ll join you in hoping that your favorite team never hires Mr. Phillips in any capacity. If they do, per the curse, they have assured themselves of never making it to the Super Bowl. I don’t mean just while he’s coaching for a particular team, but I mean not making it to the big game even after he’s left. Think I’m kidding? Just ask the Texans, Cowboys, Bills, Chargers and Falcons how the curse worked out for them.
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Now that the Super Bowl teams have been selected, it’s time to observe that once again, a Wade Phillips team is not Super-Bowl bound.
On November 16, 2011, Sport Illustrated columnist, Kerry Byrne wrote a brilliant article on Doug Flutie and Wade Phillips. The article entitled “The Curse of Flutie strikes again with injury to Texans’ Schaub” should have been entitled, “The Curse of Wade Phillips.”
In his article, Byrne laid out a case that has ultimately proven true: Any team that has Wade Phillips on the payroll will not win the big one. Think I’m kidding? Just look at the teams Phillips has been with and see if you see a Super Bowl winner in the bunch during his tenure:
- Buffalo Bills (Head Coach – 1998-2000)
- Atlanta Falcons (Defensive coordinator – 2002-2003)
- San Diego Chargers (Defensive coordinator – 2004-2006)
- Dallas Cowboys ( Head coach – 2007-2010)
- Houston Texans (Defensive coordinator 2011 – Present)
All of these teams were thought to be Super Bowl contenders during Phillips’ tenure and all failed miserably because of coaching decisions Phillips made. Check out Byrne’s article. It is a fascinating tale of a man cursed by fate because he committed a coaching error in 1999 and the teams that remain cursed because they hired him.