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Phillips Denies Ripping Patriots

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The Associated Press

Published: October 13, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips insisted Friday that he never said New England's three Super Bowl championships were tainted.

Two days before the already much-hyped matchup of 5-0 teams, when the Patriots play in Dallas, Phillips denied making such comments after New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team lost a draft pick for videotaping an opposing sideline this season.

'I think it's ludicrous to demean a team, an organization that has done a great job and won all those games, and deserved every bit of it,' Phillips said. 'They won all those championships. They deserve every bit of what they got.'

On HBO's 'Inside the NFL' program this week, Peter King claimed in a discussion about the Patriots that Phillips suggested to King that their three Super Bowl titles in four seasons were tainted because of the spying allegations.

'The league, the Patriots, everybody, they just want this spygate thing to go away,' King said. 'But Wade Phillips this week told me something that I think a lot of coaches around the league and a lot of people around the league are still thinking, and that is, 'Hey, New England was caught cheating and it is a black mark on their success.''

Phillips acknowledged talking to King, but insisted that isn't what he said - or even inferred - during their conversation.

'To quote me as saying black mark, that's an Eastern term. That's a Connecticut term,' Phillips said. 'I might use smudge or something like that from Texas. ... I'm sure he misconstrued what I said.'

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