When Wade Phillips was fired as Cowboys coach halfway through this season, it likely ended the last chance he’d ever get at being an NFL head coach. But Phillips still sees himself as, first and foremost, a football coach.

“I still want to coach, so we’ll see what happens,” Phillips told Channel 8 in Dallas, which caught up to him while he was watching a high school playoff game.

The 63-year-old Phillips has been in the NFL since joining his dad’s Houston Oilers staff in 1976, but he spent some time coaching high schoolers before that, and if he wants to be a head coach in 2011, maybe he ought to consider high school.

“I love football, I like all kinds of football, but Texas high school football is where I started, so it’s nice to come out to a game,” he said.

Phillips said he watched the Cowboys’ nail-biter Thanksgiving game with the Saints and was sorry to see them lose.

“I’m excited about them,” Phillips said. “I’m disappointed about Thanksgiving but we had some earlier like that, where it felt like we should have won, but we didn’t.”