People, usually men, often oversimplify Niccolò Machiavelli when they say that for a leader, “it is better to be feared than loved.” Bum Phillips, the head coach of the Houston Oilers from 1975 through 1980 and the subject of Luv Ya, Bum!, an unintentionally timely documentary that premiered at this year’s SXSW, scoffed at the notion. He’d say, in a much folksier way, that there’s nothing stronger than the fear of letting down someone you love. And for five magical years in Houston, everyone loved Bum.He was born Oail (pronounced Uhl) Andrew Phillips Jr., in tiny Orange, Texas, in 1923, and grew up playing football. Bum was “a nickname, not a description,” he said, one of his many Yogi Berra–esque quotes. Phillips, who died at ninety in…
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