watching, and no doubt cheering these guys on. After all, there are a few players who really did give him everything they had to the bitter end, like Jay Ratliff and Keith Brooking and Terence Newman and a few others.
But there are many more guys who Phillips fell on the sword for over these last couple months, the coach always eager to take the blame and the pressure off their shoulders and heap it onto his own. That arrangement grew far too comfortable for quite a few of the players.
And there was Jones to talk to the players about "accountability" on Monday afternoon. Phillips hadn't held the players accountable for enough of their mistakes through these losses, and after taking on all the weighty blame he could, he finally succumbed because it was too heavy.
And these guys just sat back and let it happen.
"When I spoke to the team, I talked of accountability," Jones said. "Because it was such a vivid example of somebody that we all thought a lot of that we're making a change with. That's Wade. And I spoke to the realization that it's not just about yourself - it impacts others.
"So we all have our maker. We all have our judgment. And Wade today is a vivid example of accountability."
