Back to the Buffalo Bills Newsfeed

Hansen finds life balance, but still close to the game

Phil Hansen’s days of bringing down NFL quarterbacks are long gone, but the former Buffalo Bill has found a unique way to channel that competitive fire inside of him.

A member of the Bills Wall of Fame, Hansen is now 48 and living in Minnesota with his wife and three adolescent children. Although most of his time is taken up with his kids, Hansen couldn’t stay too far away from the sport he loved. A few years after he retired from the NFL in 2001, Hansen became a high school basketball and football referee.

“I got asked to coach football and I’ve been through 22 years of organized football and it was just more than I wanted to do to be a coach,” Hansen said.