After A Long
Summer Of Work And Loads Of Diet Dr. Pepper,
Wade Phillips Is Slimmer And Energized For
The New Season
Sports Radio Interviews.com
Irving, TX.,
Friday,
September 10, 2010. Even though he’s not yet
accomplished what he was hired to do, guide
the Dallas Cowboys to the Super Bowl, you’ve
got to at least give Wade Phillips a modicum
of credit for the job he’s done in Dallas
since being hired three years ago. The
Cowboys finally broke their playoff drought
with a win in the Wild Card round. They
couldn’t advance any further though, meaning
Phillips’ job may not be secure past this
season unless the Cowboys make it to the Big
Game early next February. Jerry Jones can be
demanding like that.
Phillips joined
KRLD in Dallas to talk about his impressive
weight loss story this offseason, how he did
it (thanks Diet Dr. Pepper!), the challenges
of having an extended training camp and an
extra preseason game this year, why the
Cowboys decided to trade Patrick Crayton,
how he feels the Cowboys have the best wide
receiver group since he’s been in Dallas,
just how difficult it is making the final
set of roster cuts each summer, and who he’s
been most impressed by amongst the lesser
known crop of young Cowboys players.
On how much
weight he’s lost this offseason:
“I actually
lost about 40 pounds. I was a little too
heavy obviously, but I think it’s about 40
pounds.”
On how he was
able to successfully shed so many pounds:
“Well, Diet Dr.
Pepper, you know? I used to drink a lot of
Cokes and stuff, and when I went to Diet Dr.
Pepper, that helps some. Obviously working
out, and I actually did NutriSystem some. So
a combination of things.”
On what the
hardest part of this year’s offseason has
been for the Cowboys:
“I think just
having the longer training camp and having
more games in the preseason. It stretches it
out longer than teams normally go, and our
team normally goes. So we had a longer
training camp, and I think that’s part of
the challenge.”
On the decision
to trade Patrick Crayton – whether it was a
money decision or something else:
“No, I feel
like now, that we have the best receiving
corps that we’ve had since I’ve been here.
And we’ve had groups all along. It also
depends where their career’s at. I’m saying
that, we had some of the same guys: we had
Miles Austin for awhile, but he hadn’t
played. But I think at this point, right
now, we have our best receivers that we’ve
had overall, so I think that’s a real strong
group for us and we feel real good about
it.”
On how hard it
is make the final roster cuts, knowing he
has to make professional decisions about
young men he’s worked so closely with:
“It’s hard to
separate the two things. You realize how
hard guys work, and how much it means to
them, and then you tell them, ‘hey you don’t
have a job because of ability more than the
person themselves’. I mean, some guys you
really, really like, and some guys you’ve
had for awhile that you care about on a
personal level. I mean, I think that’s part
of coaching – you care about the guys who
are playing for you, and playing so hard,
and working so hard. So yeah, it’s not an
easy thing.”
On if there’s
been a player or two that has really
surprised him and the rest of the Cowboys
coaching staff with their play this
offseason:
“Well, probably
the new players on our team, especially the
undrafted free agents, because we had a
solid team coming back and a lot of good
players. I was surprised that some of these
guys were able to unseat some of the
veterans on our team and make the team as
free agents. So, just the free agent group
that we have.”
On how close he
thinks Marc Colombo is to returning if ‘he
had to make an educated guess’:
“Well, I’m not
educated on that. I really…it’s so hard to
tell on injuries, and it really comes from
the doctors first and our athletic trainers
as to where they feel the player is. And the
player himself. All the players want to get
better and want to say they’re ready. And
sometimes our trainers overrule it, and
sometime the players overrules it and says
really, I’m not ready. So, we just have to
see where they are.”
