Bum Phillips' Autobiography feels like hanging with the great coach as he tells the story of his life

 

Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian – Bum Phillips, w/ Gabe Semenza (2010)

            In Texas, there are two legendary professional football coaches.  One is Tom Landry, a favorite of mine, who was a long-time coach of the Dallas Cowboys (who are NOT a favorite of mine. Boooooo!).  The other, and my own personal favorite NFL coach ever, is Bum Phillips, who coached professionally with the Houston Oilers and the New Orleans Saints and helped create the phenomenon known worldwide as the Luv Ya Blue era of Houston sports.  A true Texan original through and through, in word, deed, and spirit, Bum Phillips brought an energy and mindset to professional football coaching that went directly against the hard-ass, in-your-face, overly-demanding, workaholic, military-asshole “ideal” for football coaches.  In all my years as a fanatic of Bum Phillips, both as a coach and as an awesome human being, I have yet to hear, see, or read of anyone anywhere who has any type of negative comment about the man, including former opponents!  This is a rarity in the world.  My lovely wife knows of my deep admiration for coach Phillips, and surprised me with this book (a signed copy too!).  What a great gift for a football loving book nerd such as myself!

            I normally approach biographies and autobiographies with trepidation, having been burned before by self-aggrandizing, superfluous, and wildly rote works co-authored with ghost writers.  I was very excited about this book, however, because the co-writer aiding Mr. Phillips, Gabe Semenza, is someone who knew Coach Phillips for years.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear Bum Phillips’ voice in my head as I read this book.  Much like Coach Vince Lombardi, another legend of professional football, Bum Phillips’ voice lives on in my head, so when I read this book, I distinctly hear it in Coach Phillips Texan drawl.  Because of this, reading this book was an immense pleasure.  I immediately lost myself in the pages as I heard Bum’s voice inside my head while I read.  Gabe Semenza did a great job putting this book together, not covering up Coach Phillips’ voice, and allowing his natural cadence to exist on the page and propel the story of his life.

            The byline of this work states that Bum Phillips was a coach, a cowboy, and a christian.  Besides family itself, these are the three pillars upon which Coach Phillips built his life.  Coaching came natural to Bum Phillips, and he rose through the ranks of high school, Jr. College, Universities, and professional teams due to his love of the game itself, his ability to learn and apply wisdom gained while working for legendary college football coaches, and his own particular philosophy about how to lead men.  This personal belief stemmed from his experiences as a Marine in the second world war.  The verbally abusive drill sergeants taught Bum that their way was not the correct way to teach and train a grown man.  Yelling insults, demeaning a human being, essentially abusing them until they act as you want, these things seemed patently ridiculous to Bum Philips, and he swore that, if he ever got the chance to lead men, he would do it differently.  To paraphrase Coach Phillips, if you have to yell and cuss at someone to make them learn they will NOT learn.  They will just appease you until you shut up.  It was this core value that, through his professional life, made Bum Phillips stand out and be appreciated by those who worked for him.  He truly cared and loved about his “kids” as he called them.  He treated each one individually, as a human being, and achieved great things because of it, not the least of them being that nearly every single human that ever worked for or was coached by Bum Phillips feel they gained a father-figure, not just a coach.

            One great example of how Bum fostered a family atmosphere around the Houston Oilers was his policy for Saturdays.  Most NFL games are held on Sunday, and Saturday is usually treated as a dress-rehearsal of sorts.  Bum’s mindset was that, after working hard Tuesday through Friday, installing the gameplan for the upcoming Sunday, there was not much that could be changed or added on Saturday without messing everything up.  He treated these men like men, not like overgrown children.  Respect was given AND earned.  On Saturdays, Bum would tell the team, coaches, and staff to bring in their significant others and family to the Saturday practices.  For those players too young to have families, he encouraged they bring their pets!  The team would do a quick, pad-less run-through of the gameplan, then the rest of the day was spent listening to live music (famous country & western stars would come hang out and jam with the players!), playing dominoes, cards, and goofing around, and feasting on Texas barbeque or delicious Mexican or Tex-Mex food that Bum would have catered in.  The footage of these times seems ridiculous in its looseness and carefree nature.  No other team had such conviviality ingrained into their very essence.  This made the Oilers a family, and the City of Houston immediately understood it, loved it, and latched onto it as their defining trait.  Once Bum Phillips drafted the legendary Earl Campbell from the University of Texas, everything coalesced into the collective dream/fantasy we all know as the Luv Ya Blue era in Houston.

            Coach Philips takes us through his life, his efforts to learn more about football, and the endless job-hopping that is required of a sports coach in Texas.  He details his travels as he sought to always find work in the state of Texas.  He was either a head or an assistant coach at so many places, from West Texas State (Now UTEP), to high schools in Nacogdoches, all the way to an assistant coaching position with my alma mater, the University of Houston, where he was fortunate to coach his own son Wade Phillps, himself eventually becoming a respected and Super Bowl winning NFL defensive and head coach.  He discusses how his work life superseded his family life, and even though his children seem to understand and to accept who their father was, it still manages to draw a lot of regret and pain in Coach Phillips.  He understood the conflict that exists when the passion within you helps you succeed at your chosen profession to the detriment of your family life, and time spent with the very people you are working hard to provide for. 

In the mid-1980’s, Coach Bum Phillips retired from coaching and went back to the original love of his life, ranching and raising cattle.  Houston grew so fast and so big that what used to be a quaint ranch outside the city limits was quickly encroached by civilization.  Bum and his wife found a beautiful ranch property in South Texas and that is where he chose to spend the remaining decades of his life, with his friends, family, and animals.  It was around this time that a fateful phone call from an old Oilers player, Mike Barber, drew coach Phillips to a greater relationship with his spirituality.  Bum Phillips, along with many men of his generation, was a good man who sought to only do good in the world, and who wished no ill on anyone for anything.  However, he was not a “religious” man.  Coach Phillips lived a christian life, a true christian life, and did so because he felt it was right, not because of any religious or dogmatic requirements.  Everything changed when Mike Barber invited him to join him on one of his prison ministry visits.  Mike Barber had ministered to the incarcerated for a long time, and he knew that hearing from someone as respected and loved as Coach Bum Phillips could help start the healing for inmates.  Coach Phillips joined Mike as he visited the maximum security prison in Beeville Texas.  It set the course for the remainder of his life.  Until his dying day, Bum Phillips joined Mike Barber’s ministry and visited countless small and large correctional facilities. 

Coach Phillips truly lived a life of service.  All coaches are teachers, and the very best coaches become family.  Bum Phillips wanted to live life the right way, and through his example he shaped not only countless high school, college, and professional athletes, but also the very essence of Houston Texas, a city much misunderstood by the nation at large.  The City of Houston took on Bum’s persona, and it has never left.  This is still a humongous melting pot, and through good times and bad, the citizens of Houston try to treat each other like human beings.  This state of mind was reinforced by our beloved sports coaches, all of them more concerned with fostering family as a way to win than with winning itself, whether it be Bum Phillips with the legendary Houston Oilers, Rudy Tomjanovich with our beloved Houston Rockets, or DeMeco Ryans with our latest craze, the Houston Texans.  Bum Phillips did more good in the world in his 90-something years trodding the Earth than most people can imagine doing, and his method was human love and honesty.  There is no greater tribute to a man than to say, without any hyperbole, that he was universally loved, admired, and respected.  Sadly, it may seem that there are not many of those men left in our world, but we are out here, seeking to help those we can, support those we can, and attempting to foster brotherhood and community rather than rancor or divisiveness.  There are few true saints in our world, and I am very fortunate to have shared this life with Bum Phillips.  We all are.

(This wonderful book can be purchased used and new here: https://www.abebooks.com/9781935909026/Bum-Phillips-Coach-Cowboy-Christian-1935909029/plp )

The Best Book About American Football I Have Yet to Read

A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football – Paul Zimmerman (1970)

Man, I love NFL football.  I once read an article on the New England Patriot’s coach Bill Belichik which described his vast library of books about football, many of which he inherited from his father who was a head coach at the US Naval Academy for 34 years.  His library contains books on football history, tactics, coaching methods, and training techniques.  I bet he has this book in his library. 

The previous book I reviewed was a first-person diary of the life of an NFL offensive lineman during a full season.  This book is told from the vantage point of a sports journalist who has made his career covering the pro football ranks.  Paul Zimmerman is a bit of a legend in sports writing circles (known as Dr. Z for the past couple of decades), since he has first-hand knowledge of the last 50-60 years of pro football.  His writing is always incisive, humorous. and informative.  He rarely veers into sentimentality or nostalgia.  The best part of this book is the detail that Mr. Zimmerman provides regarding the specifics of playing each position on the field.

There are glory players in football.  The receivers, running backs and especially the quarterback are all glamorous, flashy positions, with thousands of words written about every single detail of their practices, and game-day performances.  However, the meat and potatoes of American Football takes place in the trenches, in the pit, in the shit, as players describe it.  This is the collision zone between the offensive and defensive lines.  This is where the fates of the quarterbacks, receivers, and runners hang in the balance.  If the offensive line does not hold, the passes will not be successful.  Either the QB will be rushed in his throw, or he will be crushed by 300lb behemoths coming full speed.  If the offensive linemen do not block properly, the runners can gain neither yardage nor glory. 

Because of their anonymity, these linemen seldom get recognition for their work.  They are scorned when they fail an assignment, but rarely are they praised if they did their jobs well.  Mr. Zimmerman goes into great detail about how the different line positions must function, what coaches look for in a player for these positions, and who has been a great player at each position.  His discussions get very specific partly because he was an old offensive lineman in his youth, and partly because these positons are so much more complicated than the average fan understands.  This allowed me to better understand the roles these giant men play as the team seeks victory.

Another area that Mr. Zimmerman sheds light upon is the worlds of the coaches, scouts, and general managers.  The coaches are responsible for game-plans, and tactics.  The scouts have the task of seeking out new talent.  The general managers are the men who make personnel decisions at draft time, trade time, and when the teams have to make the dreaded “cuts.”  Their world is at once simple, and exceedingly complex.  They spend untold hours scrutinizing every last detail of an opponent, watching reel after reel of game film, and then trying to put everything they have learned into a game-plan which they then have to teach to their players.  This happens week in, week out.  It is an exhausting life.

As a lover of pro American Football, the parts of this book that most resonate with me are when I can feel Mr. Zimmerman’s enthusiasm as a fan of these athletes.  The sections where he discusses the greats of the game, or the legendary coaches, or the early stars of the sport all fill me with a deep admiration for the men who helped create this game which I so love now.  The final chapter of this book is dedicated to the player whom Mr. Zimmerman, as well as many others, considers the greatest football player they ever saw.  That would be Mr. Marion Motley, a monster fullback who also played offensive line and defensive linebacker.  The only person who could compare is the great Jim Brown, who played almost a decade later.  Mr. Brown did not play both ways though, and was not feared as a maniacally powerful hitter.  The old days when the players played both ways will never come again, but they still inspire.

A few years ago Mr. Zimmerman suffered a series of bad strokes which caused him to lose his ability to speak, and much control of his body.  He had to stop writing.  He lives with his wife (who he would affectionately refer to as “the Flaming Redhead” when he mentioned her in his columns) and has had to go through rounds of physical therapy.  He may never again regain his ability to speak or write, but he has given the world decades worth of high-quality writing and analysis.  He has written several books.  He has shared his deep passion for the sport with all of us lucky fanatics.  Thank you Dr. Z.

(This book can be purchased here: AMAZON  )

A Year in the Life of an NFL Offensive Lineman

Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer – Jerry Kramer, Dick Schapp (1968)

            I have loved the sport of American Football, specifically the National Football League, ever since I was a youngster.  It was one of the first “American” things that I fully embraced after my family moved to Houston, Texas from Ponce in Puerto Rico.  I remember the bike I got for Christmas that year.  It was a Houston Oilers BMX-style bike.  I loved that bike!  The Oilers were my favorite team right away, even though it took me quite a few years to actually understand even the basics of the sport.  In fact, to this day I still watch games and learn something new nearly every single time.  The complexities involved have kept me deeply interested.  Even though I have loved football for over 35 years now, I never took much interest in reading about the sport itself.  I read magazine articles and articles online, but I never dug into the vast library of published work on American Football. 

            What I have seen countless times are any and all NFL Films programs put together by the Sabol family.  I learned the game’s history from these films.  I appreciated the stories about teams that won championships when my father was only a decade old.  I especially loved seeing the yearly re-runs that ESPN would air before the Super Bowl.  They consisted of 30 minute highlights of each Super Bowl leading up to the current one.  I saw the great Vince Lombardi and his Green Bay Packers win the first two Super Bowls.  I saw Broadway Joe lead the Jets to a guaranteed victory.  I saw the shots of what seemed to me to be grizzled old men, fighting it out on the gridiron for the championship.  These men were younger than I am now, but to a young kid or teenager, they were ancient-looking warriors!  I learned not only about the past greats, but also the lore of each team, of the league itself, from the Doomsday Defense to the Purple People Eaters.  I learned about players and teams from before the Super Bowl era.  I memorized the names of the great coaches and the great athletes, and I dreamed of seeing my team win the big one.

            Out of all those films, none made the impression on me that the Green Bay Packers’ films did.  There was only one reason for this, and that was Coach Vince Lombardi.  Here was a man who seemed on the verge of a histrionic fit, screaming at his men, shouting about their mistakes and errors, but his men all loved him, admired him, and would do anything to please the man.  He seemed, and still seems, like the epitome of a great coach.  His voice alone was thrilling.  In 1967, the Green Bay Packers won their second consecutive Super Bowl and their third consecutive NFL championship.  Coach Lombardi retired after that year.  In reading articles from sportswriters, they would sometimes quote a book by Green Bay offensive lineman Jerry Kramer.  Mr. Kramer was asked before the season began to use a tape recorder to take down his thoughts daily as the preseason and then the season progressed.  This is the book that resulted from those recordings.

            A wonderful aspect of this book is that it is purely episodic.  It is a nearly daily diary of the events that occurred in Packers training camp and during the season.  There are eleven positions on both the offense and the defense of a football team.  Mr. Kramer played Offensive Line, specifically Left Guard.  That not only meant that he had to block the most fearsome lineman of the opposing team each week, but that he did so in obscurity and anonymity.  O-line players do not accrue stats.  They do not touch the football.  Their work is not glamorous and highly violent.  Anyone could have written a relatively entertaining account of what a quarterback’s season was like, or a running back, or a star defensive linebacker.  It is beautiful how this year’s tale is described by one of the men in the trenches.  This shines a light on a world that even a die-hard football fan sees little of and hears even less of. 

            Mr. Kramer discussed the doubts that come in training camp, whether he is willing to abuse his body once again, whether he can escape injury and make it through the whole season, whether or not he should just quit while ahead and leave the game behind.  He fears for the jobs of the marginal players, as the team rosters must be cut down by the start of the season.  He details life outside the game, and how little things like a group of teammates going to the local bowling alley to have a bottle of “pop” after brutal practices allowed them to feel human.  He describes his relationships with his teammates, with his coaches, and with the other NFL players.  He recounts his most fearsome opponents, men like Alex Karras and Merlin Olsen, huge brutes who were as fast and intelligent as they were massive and violent.  Greatest of all, he describes Coach Lombardi, with unflinching words.  He states flatly at times that he has hated no one more than Coach Lombardi, and then he describes how much love he feels for the man when Coach Lombardi breaks down sobbing after trying to announce his impending retirement.  He paints the full picture, and quotes the great coach liberally.  It is like being there in the locker room.  I got amped up at times just hearing Lombardi’s words echo in my head.  Having seen him on film so many times in my life, I carry his loud, Italian New Yorker voice in my brain with me.  I would guess anyone who worked for him or was coached by him has the same.

            One cool thing about the 1967 Green Bay Packers season is that the NFL Championship game that year was and is remembered as the “Ice Bowl.”  American Football has quite a few legendary games, each with their own nickname, and the Ice Bowl was one of the first I ever learned about from NFL Films.  The Dallas Cowboys and the Packers met in Green Bay and played a game in a temperature of 14 below zero, the coldest game on record at the time.  The game was evenly fought and was won at the last minute by the Packers who, after a masterful drive by QB Bart Starr, plunged into the end zone on a QB run with Jerry Kramer providing the lead block.  It was so cool to read Mr. Kramer’s descriptions of that day as I had seen it on video so many times. 

(*side note, in 2006 I drove by myself to Canton OH to see my old Oiler’s QB Warren Moon get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame alongside other greats.  The day after the ceremonies, I headed to the Cracker Barrel to go get some breakfast and who should I be sitting next to but the great one himself, Mr. Bart Starr and his wife enjoying some fried eggs.  It was like eating with royalty for me.  I did not bother the man, but wow.)

            Now I am hooked on reading books about American Football.  I hope they are all this great.  Mr. Jerry Kramer went on to have a great career as a TV analyst for games, and wrote one other book also.  I am glad he wrote this one.  As he describes in the end, the one thing he would miss upon leaving the game would be his teammates, his coaches, the people who he lived and fought and suffered with.  That is what brought him back year after year. 

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )