The Detroit Lions On the Eve of NFL Free Agency, 2010

Lions fans have gotten used to going to bed on this night knowing that the Lions won’t be making headlines in the morning.  Last year at this time, the mantra was “right player, right price”—and we saw that mantra repeated as players like Grady Jackson and Philip Buchanon were signed to modest, short-term deals.

In fact, this has always been the plan.  At the press conference introducing Mayhew and Lewand as the new GM and Team President, Mayhew said:

We will build this thing through the draft - okay. We're not going to be jumping out there in free agency and throwing 30 million bucks at somebody on the first day at midnight. I think the way to do it is through the draft and we do it through young guys and you develop your guys, and you spend time training your guys. You don't give up on your guys. You hang in there with them and a lot of the good organizations in this league - that's what those teams do.

That sounded pretty trite and tired to Lions fans desperate for change.  It was true that the Lions’ roster was devoid of young, quality veteran talent —and truer that such talent is rarely available, or affordable, in free agency. 

After all, free agents are by definition players whose original teams didn’t think they were worth the money.

Still, Lions fans had to either accept that this would be a long, slow process, wherein rookies and veterans would try to bridge the gap between 0-16 and competitiveness, or get all ARGLBARGL about why the Lions aren’t going after any difference-makers.

The 2009 draft class offered little in the way of victories, but a lot of hope for the future.  The youngsters even beat the would-be Pudge Of The NFL, Albert Haynesworth, when he and his $100M contract came to town in Week 3.  By now, most Lions fans have come to realize the shocking dearth of talent on the Lions’ roster can only be rebuilt the slow, steady way: through several years of consistently excellent drafting.  Tom Lewand told Killer so just today:

We'll be ready to be on the phone after midnight.

Wait, what?

We'll see where it takes us. We're prepared. We've done a good job of getting ready and we're looking forward to it starting.

Wow.  That’s far from the “right player at the right price” bargain-hunting philosophy that’s been the hallmark of the last several free agent signing periods.  It’s partially due to a hearty stock of talent at a couple of key need positions: runningback, and defensive end.  It’s partially due to the strides the Lions managed to take with just one draft class, and where they hope to be after one more.  But partially, it’s due to this.

The Lions are struggling to sell tickets.  They’re cutting prices.  They’re going All-You-Can-Eat.  They’re coming up with every scheme under the sun to get people to come to Ford Field.  But after a decade of complete and total futility, many fans won’t invest their emotions, their time, or their money, until the Lions prove that they’re competitive.

Let me be clear: the Lions have a direction.  They have a foundation.  They have a brand-new coach, staff, quarterback, and front office.  These men have a ‘pass’ for at least this year and next; they’ll be justly given a chance to succeed before they can be blamed for on-field failure.  Ownership understands that these men cannot produce instant results with the tools they’ve been given.

But while the coaching staff answers to the front office, and the front office answers to the ownership, ownership answers to the fans—and we fans have reached the limits of our grace; we have no free passes left to give to anybody.

Above all, the Lions are a billion-dollar business, and you and I are the customers.  We buy the tickets, the gear, the brats, and the beer that keeps the lights on at Ford Field.  If we don’t go to the games, there’s no money coming in the door--and we won’t go to the games unless we have hope of seeing a win.

I’m not saying that the Lions are looking for a “quick fix”—they’re not about to ditch their long-term construction project and put up a yurt.  But the timetable is accelerated: they’re going to have to go over budget, bring in more contractors, and maybe lobby for some tax breaks or bribe an inspector or two.

They can’t cut corners—they won’t weaken the concrete or cheap out on the fixtures—but the Lions are going to push with everything they’ve got to prove to you and to me that they really are building something special under all those tarps, and all that scaffolding.

Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day.  The salary cap will evaporate; that the old barrier to trades, the accelerated cap hit of prorated signing bonuses, will be gone.  Players and picks can be swapped at will, and the only financial considerations will be if the team can afford to pay the players’ game checks.

You may or may not see the Lions drain the piggy bank to sign a Kyle Vanden Bosch or a Thomas Jones; Mayhew indicated they have a couple of specific targets and will be aggressively pursuing them.  But Killer and I both think the real headlines will come from the trades that Mayhew has doubtlessly been pursuing.

Either way, I am positive that 24-48 hours from now, the Lions’ roster will be different—perhaps very different.  Will that help rekindle the blue flame in the hearts of those who’ve turned away?  Will it inspire the fans to go on shopping spree for gear and season tickets?  Will it ensure the Lions play before a full house, and a full TV audience, game after game after game?

We can only hope.

Technorati Tags: detroit lions,2010 nfl offseason,2010 nfl free agency,martin mayhew,tom lewand,kyle vanden bosch,thomas jones,nfl

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the rites of succession

Michael Rosenberg's latest article really stirred up somethoughts.  He examined the Chicago Blackhawks, and their long slumber under their late owner Bill Wirtz--and their dramatic resurgence under his son, Rocky.  Rosenberg then wonders if the same thing is in the cards for the Lions when Bill Jr. takes the reigns from Big Willie Style.

This makes three critical assumptions:

1) the Lions' decades-long malaise is primarily the fault of William Clay Ford

2) when Big Willie Style passes on, Bill Ford, Jr. will grab the steering wheel and put the pedal to the metal

3) when Junior does step into the driver's seat, he will be a "better" owner than his father

The problem with 1) is that while it's impossible to deny the conicidence of Ford's ownership and the Lions' track record of futility, Ford meets all the criteria of a great owner: he has nearly infinite resources, he never hesitates reinvest them in his team, he built a gorgeous facility, downtown, with his own money, he's resolutely committed to Detroit, he hires football men to do the football stuff and gets out of their way, and he's loyal to a fault.  The only problem is that he's apparently not very good at hiring football men.

Brian VanOchten of the Grand Rapids Press has been amongst the most vocal and persistent Ford detractors; earlier this year he told Bill Simonson on The Huge Show that Ford is more concerned with hosting socialite cocktail parties in the secret rooms of Ford Field than winning football games.  Of course, being "committed to winning"--that is to say, making a show of being heavily involved in all aspects of the business--doesn't necessarily translate into actual wins.  Al Davis, Jerry Jones, and Daniel Snyder have wasted, literally, billions of dollars over the past decade trying franticallly to win Super Bowls--and, outside of the Gruden's Revenge Bowl, haven't even come close.  In fact, one could compellingly argue that these franchises would be much better off if their owners focussed more on fêtes than football . . .

As for 2), it's widely assumed that Bill Ford, Jr. would relish the opportunity to take control of the Lions away from his father, "clean house", and run the team the right way.  Many point to his fateful statement to the media that he'd fire Matt Millen if he could as evidence of this.  However, when directly asked if he's anticipating taking over the Lions, he hasn't responded in the affirmative:

My first obligation is to Ford [Motor Company], and that's still the case. ... I love the team. I'm a huge fan and always will be. But I don't know at this point what I could really contribute at the team level." [Detroit Free Press, 4/2/2008]

Given everything that's been going on in the auto industry lately, even though Bill Ford holds the title of "Vice Chairman" of the Lions, he can't possibly have much spare time or energy to invest in the day-to-day operations of a football team.  I don't think that Bill could become a vocal, involved, hands-on, micromanaging NFL owner.  That's not his managerial style, and that's not where his priorities or passions lie--he's too busy getting FoMoCo back on top.

Finally, 3) just because Bill Ford Jr. is a better businessman than his father was (see: having the wisdom to step down as CEO in lieu of a more experienced turnaround man, Ford beating most of the rest of the industry in Q1 2009, etc.), doesn't mean his management style is going to vastly differ from his father.  It's true that he might hire better 'football men', or have a shorter leash on those that are clearly failing; who knows?  Maybe that will be the difference.  But the idea that the entire organization is somehow rotting from the top down because WCF is inherently evil, and once someone, anyone, else is in charge, the curse will be broken . . . well, it's simply not true.  Yes, the Steelers have a wonderful ownership family and have been consistently succesful.  However, they just faced off against the Cardinals in the Super Bowl--and the Bidwells have been consistently ranked among the worst owners in sports.  The Rams' Greatest Show on Turf era came under Georgia Frontiere, who was hardly a football maven or a businesswoman.  She inherited the team when her sixth husband died, and within a few years, moved the team to her hometown of St. Louis.  Even so, the Rams won one Super Bowl, reached another, and spent years terrorizing the NFL, all with her atop the organization.  If Bill Ford Jr. does nothing more than write the checks and watch the games, he'll be, on paper, no different than his father.  Finally, it's been reported that if Junior'd had his way, he'd have promoted Tom Lewand a long time ago--so no, I do not see any Rocky Wirtz-style house cleaning taking place.  

So what does this all mean?  I think it means that Bill's already at the helm.  Let's add up all the evidence: Junior says he'd fire Millen if he could; three days later Millen is fired.  The day after the season is over, Junior's favored candidates are given the keys to the franchise.  Last year in 2006, he stepped down as CEO of Ford in the prime of his career.  He's a self-proclaimed passionate fan of the team, and he knows that the franchise will be his as soon as his octogenerian father passes.  It only makes sense to put the "affairs in order" first.  Of course, I have no first- (or second-, or third-)hand knowledge of this, just my suspicions.  But when William Clay Ford drives off this mortal coil, I suspect that nothing will change except the signature on the checks.

So does this end all Lions fans' hope for a Blackhawks-style renaissance?  No--it means that renaissance, if it's coming, has already started.

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extreme franchise makeover: logos edition

There's been a lot of handwringing about the Lions' new uniforms and logo. In fact, it's been bordering on great lamentations and/or gnashing of teeth. I won't pretend as though I am not right in the thick of the wailing masses myself; I've been all over the Internet uselessly commenting that this makeover had "better be good". I'm not sure what follows that statement . . . "or else, I'll REALLY be mad!"? "or else, I'll STOP FOLLOWING THE TEAM?"? Let's be real folks: if 0-16 only caused me to redouble my committment to supporting this organization, a bad logo isn't going to make me hock my gear in shame.  

The winner of the Detroit News reader contest for designing your own logo was announced, and somehow many people took that to mean that that would be the new official logo--which was bad, because it wasn't that good. Grady Jackson said he "liked the new colors", which of course sent a chill down everyone's spine. New colors? New COLORS? Visions of the Detroit Pistons in teal, orange, and disgusting danced through everyone's heads. Radio host Mike Valenti said he thought he saw the new logo yesterday, and it was "horrible" and looked cheap.   Brian VanOchten said the new logo should be "simple but modern, much more aggressive, but not cartoonish."  Whew, got all that?

Now let me put this forth: I am no Picasso. However, my mother was an art major, and has worked in advertising and media sales for nearly thirty years; so I know a thing or two about design, color, etc. Most football fans, however, do not. Fashion is not exactly tops on the mind of most gridiron fanatics. You don't see a lot of sports bloggers walking around their house with paint chips and a color wheel. Yet somehow, when this topic comes up, every monday morning quarterback sees fit to nitpick the work of a team of highly-paid people who spent four (or more) years in college learning about every aspect of what looks good.

Besides lack of experience on the subject matter, there's the matter of taste.  Taste is subjective, both amongst regular Joes such as you and myself, and amongst design experts. When Comerica Park was built, most regular Joes such as you and myself loved it. It was spectacular! All sorts of displays, attractions, faux-old-timey conceits, actual old-timey construction (note the use of rivets over hex bolts/nuts at many prominent beam connections), the statues of the Tiger greats, the ivy, the fountain . . . it's a jaw-dropping monument to both everything baseball is, and what we like to think it used to be.

However, when Ford Field was being built, I recall an interview with the design firm where their dislike of CoPa was verging on open contempt. I remember one guy saying, "Well, you're not going to see a bunch of huge plastic lions on the roof"--a dig at the outsized tiger sculptures prowling the rafters of Comerica. And sure enough, the smoothly arched aluminum roof, the classic brick facade, and the enormous ground-level windows of Ford Field provide a classic, timeless counterpoint to the spectacularly anachronistic structure across the street. And, most regular Joes such as you and myself love it! Two adjacent sports stadiums, two completely different styles, two completely different executions, and yet the same fans who helped pay to build both of them are equally happy with the results.  

The Detroit News fan contest shows exactly what happens when most of us are asked to design the Lions logo: we draw the best/meanest/fiercest Lion we can and then write "Detroit Lions" somewhere on there. Or we incorporate the Olde English D, because that's cool, and try to work a lion in there, because that makes it Lions--nevermind that we didn't like it when the Tigers had that D with the tiger crawling through it . . . do you see what I'm getting at here? Just because an athlete or broadcaster or whoever "likes" or "doesn't like" it, doesn't mean it is or isn't well done. I'm sure that when good old Bubbles was unveiled, as many disliked it as liked it, for no other reason than people generally not liking change. However, I do have faith that this makeover will be a positive one--or at worst, one that just takes getting used to.

Don't forget, when Bill Ford Jr. set the design goal for Ford Field, he said "I want to stand on the fifty-yard-line and know I'm in Detroit."  Sure enough, there are few stadiums in the world that more effectively evoke their host city than Ford Field.  Say what you want about the team.  But, in terms of the image, the franchise, and the marketing and promotion, Lewand and the Fords have always been consistent in what they want: classy, classic, strong, clean, and timeless. The Fords are not going to allow their billion-dollar franchise to get stamped with something "horrible" or "cheap". You all may well hate them for the product he's put between the lines, but Big Willie Style has always made sure that his branding, his image, and his money are well taken care of. We may not know what the changes will be, but I can guarantee that whatever they are, some will like them, some will love them, some won't care, and some will hate them.

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