'Our entire life has been football': Mother's Day is game day for wives of UFL head coaches

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- There's no offseason for the wife of a football coach.

"Our entire life has been football," Laurie Phillips, wife of San Antonio Brahmas head coach Wade Phillips, said.

"There's no getting out of it," Angel Johnson, wife of Houston Roughnecks head coach C.J. Johnson, said while smiling. "I just try to take the road that I enjoy the journey."

Angel Johnson and Laurie Phillips said that being married to a coach means that family is football, and the helmet-clad players coached by their husbands aren't the only ones wearing headgear.

"You have to wear a lot of different hats," Angel Johnson noted. "A great attitude helps the process, believing in your husband and wanting to see the success of the team."

Combined, they have been coaches' wives for eight decades. The Phillips have been married 55 years and the Johnsons 25.

They each have children and grandchildren of their own.

As brides to the big whistle, they inherit more kids: the players. Being the head coach's wife makes you the de facto team Mom.

"I love being able to see them and get a little idea of how they are off the field," Laurie Phillips said of learning about her husband's players. "I do feel kind of motherly to some of them."

For these ladies, family is football - but football is also family. And for Mother's Day, families will gather in a familiar venue: a stadium.

The Houston Roughnecks will host the San Antonio Brahmas in the United Football League at Rice Stadium.

"He's been coaching for over 40 years," Angel Johnson said of her husband. "So these are the latter years, and we're enjoying it and savoring every moment."

"There are way more good times than bad," Laurie Phillips said of being a coach's wife. "It's given us so much joy and so much fun and also enabled us to include so much family - because everybody gets on board with football."

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