Phillips Is Named Coach of Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys yesterday ended a 2 1/2- week coaching search in which owner Jerry Jones sorted through 10 candidates by hiring San Diego Chargers defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

Phillips signed a three-year contract with a team option for a fourth season. He replaces Bill Parcells, who announced his retirement from coaching after four seasons with the Cowboys in which he reached the playoffs twice but failed to notch a postseason victory. Phillips inherits a Cowboys team that reached the playoffs this past season, but suffered a first-round defeat at Seattle when quarterback Tony Romo, serving as the holder for place kicker Martin Gramatica, mishandled the snap on a would-be go-ahead field goal late in the game.

"I think [Jones] feels like and I feel like I'm the right fit," Phillips said at an evening news conference at the Cowboys' headquarters in Irving, Tex. "When you look for these opportunities, they don't come around very often."

Phillips was hired as a coaching complement to Jason Garrett, the former Cowboys backup quarterback and Miami Dolphins quarterbacks coach who was hired by Jones as the club's offensive coordinator soon after Parcells's exit. Garrett was a candidate for the Cowboys' head coaching job even after being hired as offensive coordinator and apparently is the team's head coach-in-waiting. Phillips coaches the three-linemen, four-linebacker defensive scheme that Jones prefers for this Cowboys club.

"We needed to get it right," Jones said. "In my mind, we've gotten it right."

Phillips is the former head coach of the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos. He also had stints as the interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons.

"I didn't know if I would get [another head coaching] opportunity or not," he said. "Really, my publicity guy hadn't done a great job over the years. I do think football people recognized I was a good coach."

Phillips said he would work with Jones to assemble his coaching staff. He referred to Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens -- regularly called "the player" by Parcells during their season together -- by name, even pointing that out, and said he regarded Owens as a member of his "family."

He was the fifth of the 10 candidates interviewed by Jones, a process that concluded Wednesday with Indianapolis Colts quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell. Jones waited until after the Super Bowl to interview Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera and Caldwell.

San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Norv Turner was reported to be the front-runner for the job. He had failed head coaching stints with the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders but was the Cowboys' offensive coordinator when they were winning Super Bowls under former coach Jimmy Johnson. Instead, Jones called Phillips on Wednesday night to begin negotiating.

Jones also interviewed 49ers linebackers coach Mike Singletary, Saints defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs and three assistants on Parcells's staff -- Todd Haley, Tony Sparano and Todd Bowles. The Cowboys were the last team in the league to have a head coaching vacancy. Six clubs have hired new head coaches this offseason, meaning that half the league -- 16 teams -- will begin next season with head coaches in their first or second seasons with their clubs. Phillips's hiring in Dallas means that the Chargers have lost both their coordinators this offseason. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was hired as the head coach of the Dolphins.