Under the new Pro Bowl protocol, designed to inspire a bit more interest in the NFL version of an all-star game, Wade Phillips, as the coach with the best record not to advance to the conference championship, will coach the NFC in the game scheduled for next weekend.
Phillips, a defensive mind, will coach against an offensive-guru familiar to Dallas fans in Norv Turner, in a game that is tilted toward high-scoring and not so much hitting; this meaning that the newly extended Phillips won't have his hands too full with game-planning for the best the AFC has to offer.
Speaking to the media recently, the old ball-coach sounded a little less than stressed.
"You can only play two coverages and you can only line up in one thing--4-3," Phillips said. "It's an offensive game."
Of course, that doesn't mean that the experience is a wash for Phillips and his staff, who see the game as a sort of indirect scouting opportunity.
"It gives our coaches an idea what a Pro Bowl player is like when you are drafting and looking at potential players," Phillips said. "It helps. When Cortez Kennedy, way back, and Ted Washington were there as a nose guards you saw what a nose guard looks like. In fact Ted Washington was with San Francisco and we ended up getting him Denver and I ended up taking him to Buffalo."
