LOS ANGELES -- Wade Phillips lost two seasons of high school eligibility because the rules of Texas stated that those who switch schools must sit the following year out. He was a coach's son, born into a life of constant movement and unstable employment.
From there, he became a coach himself. It began at the University of Houston as a graduate assistant in 1969. Then the carousel began: West Orange (Texas), then Stillwater (Oklahoma), Lawrence (Kansas), Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Denver, Buffalo, Atlanta, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Denver and, finally, Los Angeles.
"It sounds bad, but I think it’s like an army brat," Phillips said about the nomadic life of an NFL coach.