"Shaun Phillips has shut up and stepped up. "Sometimes your mouth gets so big," Phillips said. "Less talk is more action. I like to say I'm one of the best outside linebackers in the league. But how can you say your one of the best when you haven't been to the Pro Bowl? I said, let me shut my mouth and do a little more." In the days after one of the best games a defender could play, Phillips this week talked about his not talking. He did so, in part, because NFL players are required to make themselves available to the media at least once a week if requested. But also, he had pledged months ago to discuss with the Union-Tribune the past and the present when both parties were ready. Now seemed like a good time. See, Phillips after last season imposed on himself a media ban widely interpreted as his being unhappy with coverage of his personal foul that aided a New York Jets' touchdown in the Chargers' playoff loss last January. (Thursday, for the first time, he addressed his head butt of D'Brickashaw Ferguson head-on: "I made a mistake. I made a bonehead mistake. Definitely it was an important play ... He pushed me, I went to hit him back. You don't just let people push you. This is stuff that goes on back and forth every single play. It's if you get caught. I got caught. It was a mistake.") The never-shy Philips maintains his silence was simply him trying "something different, take the attention off myself" as he attempted to elevate his game. If so, it has worked so far. His four sacks, interception and return for a touchdown, two passes defended, four quarterback knockdowns and six tackles Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals constituted what was by far the best game of his seven-year career. Only Leslie O'Neal (twice with five) ever had more sacks in a game for the Chargers. Just 25 have players have had more in any NFL game. And of the 99 other players who have had four or more sacks in a game since 1982, none ever combined it with an interception return for a touchdown. Said head coach Norv Turner: "It would be hard to play much better than that." Phillips, who left the locker room quickly Sunday, received texts from teammates and coaches congratulating him and saying they'd been waiting for that type of performance." http://www3.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/08/philips-playing-his-best-quietly/
