Excellent, recent article here...
https://africa.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/ ... l-campbell
Yes, "players' coach" does indeed have a stigma attached to it. It, apparently, means that such a coach is too friendly to his players thus preventing full winning potential. And a head coach who also is a GM...too tough to be successful being the multi-task-ed-ness, at hand!
Yet, I would have to anoint Bum as the 'Godfather' of "players' coaches"! Also one of the better all-time HC/GMs as well!
Not bad at
all considering the
'78 & '79 Steelers, mind you, being the reasons they don't represent the AFC in either of those years (
absolutely no crime) and - despite winning 10 of 10 otherwise - not getting into the playoffs in '75 because of the, arguably,
best-team-EVER and Paul Brown's arguably best Cincy squad BOTH being in their same division!
A city rallying, waiting at the airport, after their team loses a Super Bowl - as was actually the case with Buffalo after SBXXV,
cheering for Norwood - is one thing; but a city making a 'Beatles-arriving-at-JFK' after coming back from a...34-5
conference championship defeat?? And then making an even GREATER presence the
following year???? Yes! Brings a tear to my eye after reading about that and this from a, here,
Steeler-fan!!
Being that they DID split with the 'Burgh in the '78 & '79 seasons ('77 too), beating the Cowboys at Dallas on Turkey Day '79 has to be considered the 'heart' of the 'Luv ya Blue' Era! Campbell-vs-Dorsett ('76-vs-'77 Heisman winner)! NFL Films doing
such justice in portraying the contrasting silhouetted Stetson & Fedora figures via the light from the 'hole' in the roof (so God can see "his team" play)! I do remember Turkey Day '79! It was the first month living at my new house; beginning of 3rd grade, Iran Hostage Crisis suddenly taking over, etc! But I didn't follow sports yet! That would be the
following fall!
All that I remember was that after dinner, my bedroom was being moved from the second floor up to the third floor (to my little sister's dismay, the whole entire floor to myself)! Sure enough, the game was on in the living room! I simply should have sat in front of the tube and witnessed some history! I have, however, seen that the entire game is currently available on a well-known resource! Commercials included, I think. Perhaps I can check out that Classic 30-24 affair there!
Although they did get another year older, and Pastorini now off to the west coast, I'd like to think their regular season in '80 wasn't a far step down from the years prior. #34's Tour De Force year, after all, was that very season! His football card was the ever-so-elusive 'Ace of Spades' of football cards! My best-friend, years ago, hooked me up with a very vintage 1980 rendition of his white road jersey!
Yes, Stabler was now the QB and was now past his prime. Oilers also grabbed a past-peak Casper too. 'The Snake', of course, was a Raider through-and-through. But if he HAD to play elsewhere (if he HAD to play elsewhere)...a Bum Phillips team, and the laidback/'fun' atmosphere it entailed, was clearly the fit!
They didn't beat as many quality teams in ’80 as they did in '79. But, in fairness to them, they didn't have the opportunities! They missed the Bills, Chargers, and Raiders only having to play the Browns & Steelers twice (splitting with both), the Pats on MNF (whom they beat, I watched the game at the time; I consider it the 'heart' of their '80 campaign), and only having to play (and also beat) the 9-7 Vikings cross-conference!
With the Steelers now out-of-the-way, the Oilers again finished 11-5 as did every other AFC playoff-qualifier in 1980. But
another team still won the division anyway! And it didn't help that the Lombardi-winner-to-be had to be their
first playoff opponent as opposed to not having to meet them until the AFCC!
Following sports for the very first time, I learned that a coach can actually get fired despite having a good season when, after coming back from Christmas vacation, my 4th grade classmates informed me that Bum Phillips got fired because Houston lost the playoff game! I believe he was on Merv Griffin right after that. How
nervy it was for Adams to actually ask Wade to still be on their staff!! Really?? I then, recently, hear that the firing was because Bum failed to report a player's drug-use not until after the season ended. And also because he didn't want to fire an assistant.
In either event, in a parallel life, I would have been a fan as well thus still feeling nostalgia for that period (their uniforms were close-to-
perfection). And likely would have stopped being a fan after the firing. I had a friend in 4th grade who was an Oiler-fan at the time but suddenly became a Dallas-fan afterward. I did, indeed, blame him for picking Dallas, but maybe not blame him for jumping off the Biles ship.
For what it's worth, the 4-2 start in '81 could be seen as an 'extension' of 'Luv ya Blue' before finally crumbling for good until...Glanville. It must be painful for Houston football fans who are still bummed that the Oilers left and simply don't want to jump to Big D. The Texans still have yet to mimic that '75, '78-thru-'80 magic! The opener over Dallas in 2002, and JJ Watt, simply hasn't been enough!