FanHouse Wade Phillips

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

---

Wade Phillips isn't much to look at, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn't hire the Son of Bum to model puffy jackets. He hired him for his football acumen. The bloodlines and several successful stints as a defensive coordinator suggested he was up for it, even if Phillips doesn't exactly exude confidence.

I often think owners and general managers fall in love with potential head coaching candidates because of their assistant coaching track record, even though the biggest part of the job usually has more to do with, in Mike Tomlin's words, "leading men," than it does with Xs and Os.

Which goes a long way in explaining why some fans aren't sold on Phillips as the long-term answer in Dallas. And some media types, too. Like, say the Dallas Observer's Richie Whitt, who uses a recent Phillips radio appearance to illustrate the point.

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

---

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

Consider this hypothetical: what if two coaches met in a dark alley and threw down in a no-holds-barred brawl? Who would emerge victorious?

First, some background: back when I was in high school, when my friends and I were pretty creative in finding ways to avoid actually paying attention in class, we'd create brackets (think NCAA Tournament) where we'd pit our teachers against each other**. Whoever we thought would win in a fight advanced to the next round. It always ended with our offensive line coach against our wrestling coach in the finals and a huge argument as to who would come out on top.

Anyway, last week, the Back Porch staff somehow ended up discussing whether Rex Ryan or Tom Cable would win in a old school playground scrap. I passed along the above information, and shortly after that, an idea was born -- NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament.

In Sunday's 26-20 overtime victory over Kansas City, Miles Austin caught a 59-yard touchdown pass with 2:16 left in the 4th quarter to pull ahead of the Chiefs. He wasn't done there though. When Kansas City forced overtime, Austin one-upped his earlier touchdown catch with a 60-yard touchdown reception to end the game.

Austin had ten receptions on the day with those two very important touchdown catches. He also set a Dallas Cowboys record when he tallied 250 receiving yards. Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning-News reported on Monday that head coach Wade Phillips said that Austin would now see an expanded role in the offense.

TAMPA -- There's a saying among bitter ex-Cowboys. If you can't say something bad about the Dallas offense, don't say anything at all.

Expect Terrell Owens' Twitter page to be very quiet the next few days.

What could he say about an offense that had three touchdown bombs, a quarterback who hit a career-high passing yards, and a head coach who actually looked like he knew what he was doing?

"Gee, maybe Dallas was right to dump me."

You'll hear that from T.O. when Mexico City freezes over. But perhaps by the time Buffalo freezes over, he'll go in a confessional box and tell a priest he wishes he were still a Cowboy.

Shocking as it may seem to him, not only is there life after T.O. in Dallas , the offense looks healthier than it has in years.

---

---

The season is finally here, and for some coaches, this could be their last year in the league. Or maybe their last few months.

The two coaches with the biggest challenges facing them are Bills coach Dick Jauron and Cowboys coach Wade Phillips.

Jauron fired offensive coordinator Turk Schonert last week in an effort to simplify the offense and to give his players a chance to relax. A source said Schonert was aloof and rubbed several players the wrong way. Alex Van Pelt, the new offensive coordinator, and running backs coach Eric Studesville are both well liked and respected in the locker room.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The video board at the Cowboys' new stadium became a big part of the story for the first-ever NFL game played here on Friday night.

Following Dallas' 30-10 victory over the Titans in this $1.2 billion palace, there was a general sense that the gigantic video board is a problem -- but it depends on who you ask.

We might never know what really happened to the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility, which got torn down in a storm on May 2.

Federal investigators are at the Irving, Texas complex studying wind currents, rain, the structure and the people who built it. They are still trying to figure out why it fell, sending 12 people to the hospital, paralyzing assistant coach Rich Behm and breaking the back of special teams coach Joe DeCamillis.

But while federal investigators do their work, so does DeCamillis, who got his neck brace taken off on Monday for the first time since the accident.

Summer is heating up and so is NFL football, so FanHouse is at Cowboys training camp to get you the rundown on the 'Boys as they get ready for the '09 season.

SAN ANTONIO --The head coach's job is on the line. That's just the way it is in Dallas.

Losing 44-6 to the Eagles to end the 2008 season, with a playoff berth on the line, put Wade Phillips in this situation.

But a funny thing happened to Phillips on Tuesday afternoon -- Jerry Jones supported him.