Wade Phillips Does Not Appreciate The UFL's In-Game Interviews

A fun thing about watching the United Football League is that we get to hear from coaches and players in real time. But the mid-game interviews are a lot cooler for the fans than they are for the coaches — especially old-school guys like Wade Phillips.

The former Super Bowl champion defensive coordinator is now the head coach of the UFL's San Antonio Brahmas. And during their April 15 game against the St. Louis Battlehawks, Phillips did not appreciate a reporter questioning his decisions.

In the UFL, a team can retain possession in the fourth quarter by converting a 4th-and-12 from its own 28-yard line after a scoring play. It's the league's alternative to the NFL's onside kick. Faced with this dilemma down 7 to the Battlehawks, Phillips decided instead to kick the ball away.

Immediately, ESPN’s Cole Cubelic's asked him why.

Phillips seemed bothered that Cubelic would even question him. He answered, "Three time outs!" before walking away from the sideline reporter.

San Antonio did eventually get the football back, so his decision was justified. But the Brahmas failed to score on that final possession, and they lost the game 31-24. Still, a few days later, Phillips headed to Twitter / X to share why he thought the question was out of line.

"We stopped them and had 2 timeouts left when we got the ball back," he wrote. "Stupid question."

And he doubled down one more time in a follow-up post: "I didn’t appreciate being second guessed in a critical moment in the game when tv guy was obviously wrong."

It's no surprise that a 76-year-old former NFL coach does not appreciate being second-guessed in the middle of a game. Imagine doing that to Bill Belichick or Nick Saban.

But in Cubelic's defense, he was simply asking what all the fans at home were thinking. That's the UFL, baby!