Any story on Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips, what football means to this third-generation NFL coach, and what that, in turn, means to Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell must include the tale of a retired Marine Corps sniper named Lee Hays waking up in the desert in 2004 in the passenger's seat of an old state police car that had been donated to West Texas A&M's Division II football team.
Hays was the school's second-year offensive coordinator. Phillips, 25 and 12 years younger, was the first-year quarterbacks coach.
"We're on a recruiting trip from Amarillo, Texas, to San Francisco, down to San Diego and back to Amarillo," Hays said.