Tuesday,
April 18, 2006
Never Mind The Man Behind
The Curtain
By John
Hoornstra
TLF Staff Writer
It's
April and even before one snap of the regular season is taken Lions GM Matt
Millen has accomplished his main goal. He has been able to get a majority of the
fans, who openly marched against him and demanded his resignation by wearing
orange t-shirts to the teams final home game, to forget last years miserable
record and to look forward to the teams next season with optimism and hope. All
it took was hiring a few new coaches and the unexpected departure of a reviled
quarterback.
That my friends is some damn fine work.
Matt Millen has done the unbelievable. He has bought himself another year...
probably two, and the fans actually seem pleased about this. The fans have
applauded his moves to bring in first time head coach Rod Marinelli, even though
Millen's history with head coaching hires is littered with failures like the
unknown Marty Mornhinweg and the can't miss Steve Mariucci. In fact Millen has
been able to deftly move the blame that should fall squarely on his shoulders
and put it on to his previous coaching hirings, especially Steve Mariucci.
Everything from the past two years; injuries, unproductive players,
lackadaisical attitudes and poor conditioning have been all attributed not to
the man who brought in the under performing, oft injured players but to the
coaches in charge of them.
The fans have also embraced his signing of the two new quarterbacks, Jon Kitna
and Josh McCown, that will compete to fill the shoes of the recently departed
Harrington, even though Millen hasn't exactly shown any ability for picking
quarterbacks. Remember, he is the man who traded a fourth round pick for Ty
Detmer and opted to pick Harrington over the objections of then head coach Marty
Mornhinweg in the first place. Even Harrington’s impromptu decision to quit
after Millen coughed up the money required to sign former Rams head coach Mike
Martz as offensive coordinator, a coach with a penchant for taking lightly
regarded quarterbacks and transforming them into pro-bowlers, shows just how
badly Millen has performed his job filling the quarterback position. Most
analysts had said that if Harrington was to ever have a chance to resurrect his
floundering NFL career, playing under the tutelage of Mike Martz was it.
Harrington passed at that chance and requested a trade, or his release, from the
team. In fact, Millen left the dirty work of explaining Harrington’s absence at
the team’s first mini-camp to Rod Marinelli instead of doing that job himself.
The fans have approved of the hiring of Donnie Henderson as defensive
coordinator and the aforementioned Mike Martz as offensive coordinator, both
fine coaches held in high regard throughout the league, believing that their
no-nonsense attitudes and aggressive approaches to the game can overcome a
perceived lack of talent or desire at several key positions that had doomed
their predecessors. I guess better coaching will make better players.
"Signs of improvement."
That is this years rallying cry. Not playoffs or bust like last year. It already
has been said by some that the Lions final record for next year is not as
important as seeing this team play harder, play smarter, and play as a team.
Concepts that seemed foreign to last year’s squad, who seemed more content to
argue over their pecking order in pre-game introductions, than to drag
themselves out of the quagmire they were trapped in. The new coaches are
supposed to eliminate things like that and reinstall a team first attitude,
which is a step in the right direction for a team that has taken so many
missteps on their path to where they are now, but don’t forget who the man in
charge of forging that path was in the first place.
Please don't miss the real point of all of this.
Matt Millen has been able to placate the fans with new coaches, new
quarterbacks, and a new attitude while sweeping his past failures under the rug.
How long will it be before the "Fire Millen" chants start anew? Probably not
this year. It's a new staff with new quarterbacks all learning a new system
under a first time head coach who might not have all the pieces he needs in
place and fans will be more than willing to wave off another bad year and give
Millen yet another year to succeed before breaking out their signs and paper
bags.
Welcome back to square one.
