Crossroads at Ford Field

By Mark Brown/Converged Citizen Staff

 

The Detroit Lions have reached a crossroads.
While there have been many turning points for Detroit’s NFL team in almost 60 years of futility, the events that occurred on Nov. 5 could have consequences for the Lions for years, even decades to come. The events, however, did have to happen.
The Lions fired team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew just days after the Lions were embarrassed in London with a 45-10 drubbing at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs to fall to 1-7 on the season. This is the latest in a series of goings-on that show a franchise in crisis, a cycle that began last season with the death of longtime owner William Clay Ford Sr.
When Ford died in March 2014, at age 88, his widow, Martha, took a controlling interest of the team. Each of their four children, members of what many consider to be Detroit’s royal family, hold a stake in the Lions. Many fans and football commentators believe this is where the problem begins.
Don’t get me wrong. I am a true believer in loyalty. If you put in the time you should be rewarded. The Ford family has owned at least a controlling interest in the Lions since 1963. However, the Fords have not been known for their proactive approach toward running an NFL franchise with many fans believing their only interest in the Lions is financial. The team is a cash cow considering their pathetic football product. Forbes listed the Lions’ worth at over $1.4 billion in September of this year, the third least in the NFL.
Consequently the Fords are blamed for every personnel decision that goes wrong. The most glaring one? The hiring of Matt Millen as general manager.
Millen was a football commentator with no sports management experience when the Fords hired him in 2001. His tenure was marked with terrible drafting (Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington, Mike Williams) which resulted in poor on-field performance. After the team went 0-16 in 2008 he was fired, and his 31-81 record is the worst by a GM over an eight season span in NFL history.
To try to clean up Millen’s mess, Lewand was named the Lions’ president and Mayhew the GM. To their credit, the team’s draft record improved and the team’s on-field record got better as well. But it did not translate into postseason success. During the tenure of Lewand and Mayhew the team reached the playoffs twice but did not win a playoff game. That’s something the team hasn’t done since 1991, one of the longest active playoff victory droughts in the NFL.
The firing of Lewand and Mayhew follows the firing of three of the Lions’ offensive coaches including Joe Lombardi, the offensive coordinator. Certainly that shakeup did nothing to reverse the team’s current fortunes as shown by the nightmare this past weekend in the UK. For what it’s worth, head coach Jim Caldwell will continue in his role through at least the end of this season.
The Lions definitely need a top-to-toe housecleaning. The firing of their president and general manager is a good step, but the Lions need an ownership that puts loyalty as a secondary quality to on-field performance. William Clay Ford Sr. was too passive as an NFL owner. If the Fords want to keep owning the Lions they need to keep making proactive decisions that are only going to benefit the franchise.