Did Bill Ford, Jr. Save Jim Schwartz’s Job After LAST Season????

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By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
December 20, 2013

I really didn’t want to write this article at 11pm on a Friday evening. I was hoping that for once, the Detroit sports media would do their fucking job and save me from having to post this. Stupid me.

Yesterday, in my Detroit Sports 2013 Year in Review article, I referenced a report on the early Wednesday morning edition of Sportscenter by ESPN’s Ed Werder.

During that broadcast, the Mothership’s football reporter stated that after the 2012 season ended, Lions management wanted to fire Jim Schwartz. This decision — which was ostensibly made by Martin Mayhew — was then discussed with Bill Ford, Jr. Based upon various reports, it would appear that Junior is now calling the shots in Allen Park and not his father, William Clay Ford, Sr.

Senior is now 88 years old and his health is reportedly deteriorating; his half-century reign of terror appears to be over.

When Mayhew and/or Tom Lewand discussed canning Schwartz — after the Lions disappointing 4-12 season — they were allegedly told by Junior that it wasn’t going to happen, per Werder’s reporting.

When the subject of Schwartz’s dismissal was raised last offseason, the team’s head coach still had three years left on his deal, and the odorous buyout wasn’t something that BILLIONAIRE Bill Ford, Jr. was interested in. Even though I am guessing that a Schwartz payoff to the Ford Family would have been the equivalent cost of a USA Today to the average person.

So that was the gist of Werder’s report. I have spent the last 48 hours plus trying to track down video evidence of this story to no avail, I have even enlisted my minions in the search.

I have even tried to contact Werder personally to do a quick interview confirming the details of this story. No luck. Maybe I should have disguised myself as Brett Favre and suggested I was coming out of retirement. I am sure Werder would have jumped all over that.

I even tried to get the Lions ESPN.com beat writer Michael Rothstein on the case. Struck out swinging again. I wasn’t looking to break this story wide open for personal glory, I just wanted to get to the bottom of this potentially earth-shattering news.

In fact, Werder didn’t follow up on this salacious nugget with a print article. He also didn’t Tweet this news out to his almost 85,000 followers. The story is like a fucking apparition.

Werder has been almost radio silent since dropping this absolute bombshell. Well, at least in THESE parts it’s a major deal. Although, I am happy to report that Ed’s Samsonite luggage was successfully returned by American Airlines. So THAT crisis is over.

And I am sorry, if it is accurate, I am not over-exaggerating the gravity of this story.

Think about it for a second. If Mayhew wanted a new head coach because he had lost faith in Schwartz and his staff and his filthy-rich owner refused to sign off on it over MONEY, well that is monumental.

It reaffirms Lions fans’ worst fears about the future of the team. For years, we have held out hope that things would be different under Junior. I mean, this is an accomplished human being who successfully ran Ford Motor Company at a crucial time in its history. He wasn’t a recovering alcoholic who treated this franchise like his personal playground over the last six decades. You couldn’t pin the one playoff win in 55 years on the kid.

Yeah, it was Junior’s idea to hire Matt Millen. But, we had collectively convinced ourselves that the suggestion was a Hail Mary Pass by Junior after years of his father’s team being operated by people like Russ Thomas and Chuck Schmidt.

And we acknowledged that Bill Ford had recognized what an abomination Millen was YEARS before his Old Man did.

But any benefit of the doubt afforded Junior will be tossed out a window of the Glass House if it is true that he refused to acquiesce to Mayhew’s desire for Schwartz to be axed.

Not just because it was the right move after the horrid season Schwartz had in 2012, but because not doing so indicates that he either didn’t trust the man who is running his football operations or he is too “fiscally responsible” to do the right thing.

For someone who actually lived during the Russ Thomas Austerity Program, the one thing I can say about the Lions over the last couple of decades is that they haven’t skimped on paying draft picks, free-agents, coaches, management, etc.

They’ve made HORRIBLE choices in the ensuing years, but rarely was it due to money.

If the first official decision of the Bill Ford, Jr. Era was to ignore Mayhew’s wishes to get rid of an awful coach with obvious mental issues in the name of frugality, well, I don’t even know what to tell you people anymore.

And did Ford, Jr. think that if he provided Schwartz a last-minute pardon from the governor, it wouldn’t leak out eventually? Hell, it’s been the worst-kept secret in town since training camp. This Werder story only put a cherry on top of this shit sundae.

First, you had Mike Florio reporting that there was friction between Mayhew and Schwartz over the summer. Hell, Junior basically confirmed the story himself when he told the media that Mayhew’s job was safe and then refused to comment about Schwartz’s security. I even received leaked information from the organization about management’s dislike of Schwartz. Dave Birkett of the Free Press was writing about it as recently as a few days ago.

In the history of mankind, can you name me one assassination attempt that went well for the failed assailant? How did that work out for Hyman Roth? Or Roger Van Zant? Or Uncle Junior?

Well, the Lions 7-7 season and epic second-half collapse is the football equivalent of the Bay of Pigs. I can only imagine how comfortable all of the Mayhew/Schwartz meetings have been over the last 11 months. Unfortunately for Mayhew, he doesn’t have Bobby Baccalieri to act as a go between.

What pisses me off about all of this is Werder’s refusal to own this story by following up on it in any fashion whatsoever. What the hell is he afraid of?

And then, to compound matters, NONE of the 56 people covering this team locally for a living (that’s MLIVE’s Kyle Meinke’s estimate, not mine) followed up on Werder’s report.

I am just a lowly insurance adjuster with a blog, so Werder doesn’t owe me much, but there is an ESPN RADIO AFFILIATE in Detroit now; why the fuck couldn’t they get Werder on the phone to answer for this report?!?!??!?!

What the hell is 105.1 PD Jason Dixon doing behind that desk of his? Because he clearly isn’t properly PROGRAMMING Detroit Sports 105.1. And if you can’t get Werder on, then try for Adam Schefter. And if you can’t get him, how about Chris Mortensen?

Do I have to inform Dixon that he is ASSOCIATED with ESPN and if the World Wide Leader is reporting that the head coach of the football team in his market got a last-minute reprieve from the owner that this is something he MIGHT want to follow up on?!?!??!?!?!

Nope. Instead, just continue with your regular garbage programming of Drew Lane boring the fuck out of his audience with timely interviews involving Mickey Redmond, Herman Moore and Lorenzo White. Because we haven’t heard Mick and Herman on the air in what …. 24 hours?

It has now been almost three full days since Werder’s report. The only place in Detroit where you can read about it is on this website. No mention in the Freep , News or anywhere else.

Instead, all of the beat writers are interviewing Lions players about the status of Schwartz. Like these guys are going to throw their head coach under the bus with two games left when a division title is still a possibility. WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY ARE GOING TO SAY???!?!?!?!?!

Meanwhile, the Detroit sports media continues to play this game that Schwartz’s fate is still up in the air. Hell, if Ford, Jr. had the balls and the resolve to ignore the bottom line, this would have been a fait accompli LAST JANUARY.

Schwartz is done in Detroit. The rest is just window dressing. All that is left is for the season to end and for the Headset Abuser to pick up the phone …..

[Thanks to DSR contributor Brian Richard Coburn for bringing attention to this story. Otherwise, it would have probably fallen through the cracks completely.]