By Jeff Moss
September 16, 2011
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com
I have more personal flaws than a house full of Dr. Drew Pinsky patients surrounded by a VH-1 camera crew, but one of the more pronounced faults I possess is never being able to admit that I am wrong.
Actually, the DetroitSportsRag isn’t a website you would choose to visit if you are looking for a whole lot of contrition. For some reason I have been able to attract a following over the years on our various interactive platforms of the most stubborn people in Metro Detroit.
Things got so bad a few years ago that we had to start an “Admit you were Wrong” thread in the old DSR Forums that could have been placed on the Amnesty International website.
(If you are really bored, you can peruse that thread here: http://tinyurl.com/3zjry3k.)
If you want an example of my obstinance you would have to go no further than the Darko Milicic debacle. Not only did I defend the draft pick when it occurred and then refused to admit I was wrong when it was obvious that Total Puke Garbage™ (Ralph Wiley) had no heart, but I even wrote an article on this site claiming the trade of Busto to Orlando for a conditional first round pick (Rodney Stuckey) was a mistake.
Not only was I the last one on the Darko Milicic bandwagon, but I am sure even ESPN.com’s Chad Ford would have kicked me in the nuts if even HE engaged me in a conversation on the subject.
(And to this day, if pressed, I would probably STILL argue with you that if the Pistons would have selected Carmelo Anthony that it might have resulted in the team never winning a title. The rationalization would include the theory that the Rasheed Wallace trade probably never would have occurred and Larry Brown would never have gotten along with Melo based on their shared Olympic experience. See, I can’t help myself.)
So writing this columns isn’t easy for me. Especially because not only am I admitting that I was wrong, but conversely that William Clay Ford, Sr. was right when he hired Martin Mayhew as the Detroit Lions General Manager in 2008.
And let me tell you, I was absolutely livid when Ford, Sr. promoted Mayhew to the position near the end of the 2008 season.
I was in an insane rage when the Old Man refused to conduct a nationwide search for the team’s next GM and instead hired a guy whose only job on his resume was assisting Millen in the Lions front office.
Hell, if Mayhew wasn’t as black as Wesley Snipes, Senior would have got smacked with another “Rooney Rule” fine for his failure to interview a variety of candidates for the gig.
I mean, giving the job to one of Millen’s assistants would basically have been the equivalent of the United States electing a ticket of Condaleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzalez in 2008 after their boss had spent the previous eight years fucking up the country in every way imaginable.
And it wasn’t like anyone should have had any faith in William Clay Ford, Sr. hiring a competent GM after his five decade history of disastrous front office hires.
It all started with the hiring of Russ Thomas back in 1967 as the team’s GM and chief negotiator. Thomas was a former player and broadcaster (sound familiar) who also just happened to be the Old Man’s drinking buddy.
After over 22 years of terrorizing the Lions fan base with his penny pinching ways and horrid managerial decisions, Thomas FINALLY retired.
Instead of hiring a competent General Manager with some sort of player personnel experience the team spent the next decade allowing Wayne Fontes and Bobby Ross to possess the dual role of head coach and de facto GM with bean counter Chuck Schmidt in charge of contractual negotiations.
And then of course we all witnessed Ford, Sr.’s masterpiece of mismanagement when he handed over the keys to the Lions organization to Mayhew’s old boss.
Seriously, this is how awful the Old Man’s stewardship of the Lions has been. You could make a legitimate case that Millen wasn’t even the WORST GM the team has had under his ownership as that title could just as easily belong to Thomas.
So when Senior decided to forego a search of every warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse™ (Lt. Phillip Gerard) for his next GM and instead hired one of Millen’s minions in the midst of a ZERO AND 16 season, I went ballistic.
And based on the Lions history, who could blame any fan that questioned the wisdom of hiring a guy who had to be partially responsible for the ineptness of the team during the previous eight years?
Especially when there were candidates out there like the Patriots Scott Pioli who assisted Bill Belichick in building a consistent winner in New England. (And who last season was named the Sports Illustrated NFL Executive of the Year.)
But Mayhew’s resume included one qualification that none of his predecessors did. Even though it was acting as an understudy to a borderline [Mentally Challenged Human Being], he did have front-office experience before becoming the Lions GM.
Thomas was a player, coach, broadcaster and [Alleged] alcoholic.
FONT-ez was a player, coach and HORRIBLE father who once accused his own son of cocaine possession during a drunk driving arrest.
Boss Ross was a player and coach who had success with Bobby Beathard’s player acquisitions in San Diego, but who had zero front office experience.
Believe it or not, Martin R. Mayhew is the FIRST GM the team has hired in the last half century who had any sort of managerial training BEFORE HE GOT THE JOB.
(And you wonder why the team has only won ONE playoff game during that time.)
And not only did Mayhew actually possess some managerial experience prior to the GM gig, he also graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center.
So Mayhew had eight years of front office training AND a law degree from a prestigious college when Senior gave him the job on December 29, 2008. That is EIGHT YEARS more experience than all of the buffoons who Senior had hired previously. COMBINED.
Compared to Thomas, Schmidt, Fontes and Ross, Mayhew’s promotion would be similar to Comerica hiring Warren Buffet as a junior bank teller at the branch on Van Dyke and Metropolitan Parkway.
Now, I was still adamantly against the Mayhew hire because of the stank he had on his Johnson from being associated with Millen, but I am happy to admit that I was WRONG.
In the three off-seasons since that 0-16 season, Mayhew has transformed the Lions from one of the most talentless franchises in the history of the NFL to a team that SHOULD make the playoffs in 2011.
I am not sure if Mayhew took eight years of copious notes while working for his moron boss and decided to do EVERYTHING THE EXACT OPPOSITE WAY like some sort of Bizarro Millen or what, but he is doing something right.
And he is doing it on his own terms and doesn’t give a fuck what the public thinks. Remember in 2009 when the Lions debuted their new jerseys at a local Dunham’s and fans chanted, “We want (Aaron) Curry!!” and “Don’t draft Stafford!”?
Well, I guess that only goes to show that the team’s fan base is just as dumb as their previous management. Ya want to trade Matt Stafford for a linebacker now?
He has completely rebuilt the defensive front seven from scratch through free-agency (Stephen Tulloch, Kyle Vanden Bosch), the draft (Ndamukong Suh) and trade (Corey Williams) while surrounding Stafford with a plethora of weapons on offense.
If anything demonstrates the difference between Mayhew and Millen it is this. When Millen made a mistake in the first round the Lions ended up with a bust like Mike Williams or Ernie Sims.
When Mayhew fucks up in the first round and needlessly takes a tight end instead of Michael Oher or Clay Matthews, he STILL GETS A DAMN GOOD PLAYER (Brandon Pettigrew.)
Well, that and the fact that Mayhew hasn’t received any letters from GLAAD demanding an apology for calling someone a “faggot.”
Of course, for Mayhew to make a disparaging remark like that, he would have to show his face once in a while which he does about as often as Punxsutawney Phil.
During Millen’s tenure in Detroit the team won a grand total of EIGHT ROAD GAMES. Eight. Now the Lions are defeating teams coming off ten win seasons away from home and the head coach is complaining that their performance was lousy.
When Mayhew was first hired to replace Millen it was often repeated that Lions fans would rejoice if the former assistant just performed somewhat competently.
That Mayhew would be judged on the most generous grading curve in the history of mankind.
Well, after three years of having the reigns in Detroit, he doesn’t need our god damn sliding scale. Mayhew is doing just fine under any measure and is well on his way to succeeding Pioli as NFL Executive of the Year.
And with Pioli’s Chiefs coming to town as a 9-point underdog against the Lions fresh off an absolute embarrassing HOME LOSS to the Buffalo Bills by the score of 41-7, maybe Senior hired the right guy after all.
The old saying is that even a broken clock is right twice a day, but it took almost 50 years for that axiom to be proven true when it comes to the Old Man.
I was wrong. But don’t expect to read those words again until 2021. At the earliest.