There are so many things that I don’t understand, but this one might be close to the top. Let me start by saying that firing someone is not fun. I am not one to take that very lightly, but in this case I just don’t get it.
The Detroit Lions were 9-7 in 2000 and missed the playoffs by a field goal in the season’s last game. Lions owner William Clay Ford, Sr. hired Matt Millen, a former player and broadcaster, as President and CEO of football operations. Here is something important to remember: Millen had no previous business experience or any experience in running a football operation.
Just for the record, Matt was a solid football player and a pretty good broadcaster.
Here is what has happened since he was hired and has been in charge:
- The Detroit Lions didn’t win a road game in 2001, 2002, or 2003—becoming the first time for an NFL team to not win a road game three years in a row
- The Detroit Lions own the NFL’s worst winning percentage
- They drafted receivers in the first round three years in a row
- The Lions hired and fired a few head coaches
Here is the Lions record during Matt’s career as the Lions’ President and CEO:
| 2001 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 5th NFC Central |
| 2002 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 4th NFC North |
| 2003 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 4th NFC North |
| 2004 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 3rd NFC North |
| 2005 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 3rd NFC North |
| 2006 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 4th NFC North |
Do you notice anything? Do you see any similarities? Here is a question: Do you see any success in those numbers? I would say no. However, the Ford family sees it different!
They see something that all of us don’t!
They see success because before the 2005 season they AWARDED Matt Millen a five-year contract extension! Why?
Here is a trivia question: Guess how many playoff games the Detroit Lions have won since 1958? One! With Matt Millen at the helm does anyone think the trend will change anytime soon?
Four head coaches were fired – why? I assume for bad performance. If that’s the case, why hasn’t the same thing happened to Matt Millen? I am now scratching my head even more and frankly I still don’t get it!
I look forward to your comments!
Paul says:
Nobody can understand why Millen still has a job.
BTW – not only did he draft 3 WRs in a row in the first round, he drafted all three in the top ten of the draft. No NFL team had ever taken WRs that high two years in a row.
You neglected to point out all the first round draft busts. As high as the Lions have picked year after year it is amazing that he only has one decent pick (Roy Williams). Free agency has been just as bad.
But is the problem just Millen? No it is the Fords. You pointed out the terrible playoff drought and the Fords have owned the team much longer than Millen has been around. And they are the one’s who hired a GM with no experience and extended his contract despite the record.
The organization I love is a terrible mess…
Bob Tekampe says:
As a fan of the Green Bay Packers (who play the Lions twice every season), all I can say is:
Long Live Matt Millen!
Brian Ottum says:
There is no rational explanation for Millen’s longevity. But I’ll take a shot.
1. William Clay Ford, Sr. is a very loyal man. He kept previous GM’s longer than he should have. There’s a track record of hoping things get better (but they don’t).
2. Winning is not critical. Owning even a horrific team allows for free and reduced-cost advertising of the Ford Motor Corporation’s products.
Joe Baldi says:
And then there is George Steinbrenner, who all would agree is very quick on the draw with lots of success. He fires not only managers but GM’s. I have not always agreed with his tactics but there is a lesson to be learned here. Ford is obviously not someone who understands the game very well and what it take to build a winning organization. Millen is a very glib guy who obviously talks a good game but does not deliver.
The Lions should go after a young assistant GM associated with winning programs. The Pats, and Colts come to mind.I also believe that their scouting system is part of the problem.
Of course a great QB would help. I’m willing to give them Eli Manning. As a Giant fan I’d be happy to see him go. I don’t see the potential in him that others do.
Joe
Merrill Dubrow says:
I will admit I was a little surprised the Lions started the 2007 year 6-2. I am not surprised that they have lost 5 in a row. They have no shot at the playoffs.
It will be interesting to see what happens during the Lions off season.
Who will they draft?
And of course who will be responsible for the draft?
Merrill
Merrill Dubrow says:
Not that I want anyone to get fired but this one seems justified. Since 2001 The Lions have lost 84 games the most in the NFL.
Firing Millen only first step for Lions
by Brian VanOchten | The Grand Rapids Press
Wednesday September 24, 2008, 2:14 PM
So long, chump.
The shame and embarrassment that team president Matt Millen brought upon the Detroit Lions franchise for seven-plus seasons has come to a merciful end.
Oh, sure, the Lions still remain a shameful operation.
The dismissal of Millen is the first and most important step in the process of rehabbing a once-glorious franchise that has become addicted to failure and finds itself once again in need of widespread changes from top to bottom.
AP File Photo
With Matt Millen, center, gone, owner William Clay Ford Sr., left, should pass control to his son, Bill Ford Jr., right.Millen’s resume speaks for itself.
He had no qualifications to run an NFL franchise when the Lions inexplicably lured him from the Fox broadcast booth into their front office. In hindsight, it’s not difficult to see why the Lions compiled an NFL-worst 31-84 record, including a miserable 0-3 start this season, on Millen’s watch.
He had to go. It had to be done.
The fact is the Lions weren’t competitive in their three games this season, prompting Bill Ford, Jr., son of owner William Clay Ford, Sr., to sound off following the Detroit Economic Club luncheon on Monday that if he could, he’d fire Millen. Perfect timing. The Lions are in the midst of their bye week, making it the right time to dump Millen and begin searching for a new leading man.
Yet who’s foolish enough to take the job?
The incoming team president will inherit a franchise with an immediate talent deficit on the field and an obstinate owner in the luxury suite, whose 45 years of stewardship of the Lions has resulted in exactly one playoff win.
Bill Cowher
Floyd ReeseA few possibilities:
• Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and current CBS broadcaster Bill Cowher is on every team’s short list to lead a franchise on the field and perhaps in the front office. The problem is he’s got no front-office experience, and he might be waiting for the Cleveland Browns job to open up. He played for the Browns and later began his NFL coaching career there.
• Former Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese, now an ESPN television commentator and ESPN.com contributor, is more than qualified for the job. In his tenure, the Titans reached the Super Bowl, claimed two AFC titles, won a pair of division titles and made four playoff appearances. Of note, Reese served as the Lions strength and conditioning coach under Rick Forzano from 1975-77, in the early stages of his coaching career.
• The usual list of suspects: Fox analyst and former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson; Fox color commentator and ex-NFL coach Brian Billick; and former Washington general manager and NFL Network insider Charlie Casserly. All of them, except for Reese, seem like longshots at best.
First things first.
The Lions need to do more than replace Millen.
If at all possible, Mr. Ford should hand day-to-day control of the franchise to junior, although that seems unlikely to happen. Senior is out of touch with the fans, while junior, who admits he made a huge mistake when he recommended Millen to his father, at least has shown he has empathy for them.
In the meantime, what happens to the team?
It’ll let the dust settle before resuming practice next week, presumably under the leadership of coach Rod Marinelli for the remainder of the season.
Marinelli is a lame duck at this point.
He’ll be replaced like all coaches are replaced when a new president/general manager has had adequate time to assess the sorry state of this franchise.
The season, just three weeks old, is a complete bust.
There is consolation, however, in the fact that Millen no longer is around to tell the fans to “stay the course” while the losses continue to pile up and that “it’s just a little bump” and “they don’t understand football.” Now, there’s some hope for the future.
He’s finished. Dropped like a bad habit.
In the end, hallelujah!, that’s all that matters
Merrill Dubrow says:
FYI – I hope Matt has success on ESPN:
Former NFL player, executive and broadcaster Matt Millen is joining ESPN’s football coverage as a game and studio analyst.
Millen will work as a college football game analyst and will contribute to ESPN’s NFL studio coverage throughout the year, appearing on “Monday Night Countdown,” “NFL Live,” “SportsCenter,” ESPNEWS and other programs.
As part of Millen’s NFL studio responsibilities, he will travel to the site of each week’s “Monday Night Football” game, where he will appear on “Monday Night Countdown” and the pre- and postgame editions of “SportsCenter.”
“Matt will play a major role in our NFL and college football coverage and fans will enjoy hearing the strong, candid opinions which have made him one of the absolute best analysts in the business,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production.
Millen, a four-time Super Bowl winner with the Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins, began working in television in 1992 with CBS and later with Fox, where he earned acclaim as a game analyst.
He left broadcasting in 2001 to become team president of the Detroit Lions, a position he held until early last season. The Lions went 31-84 during his tenure and 0-16 last season. Millen later took responsibility for the team’s decline, saying he would have fired himself after last season.
He returned to television during the 2008 NFL playoffs, as a guest analyst on NBC’s pregame coverage of Super Bowl XLIII and during the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.
“I am very excited about this opportunity and I look forward to working with ESPN and the great group of analysts, commentators and production staff who will be my new teammates,” Millen said. He is scheduled to start work in August.
A second-round pick of the Raiders in the 1980 NFL draft, Millen was an All-American defensive tackle at Penn State.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Nov 10, 2009
By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
Matt Millen can engineer a turnaround.
After being fired last year from overseeing a Detroit Lions team that ended up going winless, Millen ended up doing well for himself. He’ll call Chicago-San Francisco Thursday (8 p.m. ET), replacing Cris Collinsworth as analyst for NFL Network games. As he juggles that with calling ESPN/ABC college football and ESPN’s Monday night NFL pregame shows, one of last season’s most-vilified NFL team executives is already one of this season’s most-visible TV football voices.
Did Millen, an NFL TV up-and-comer when he left Fox for the Lions in 2001, feel like he never should have made that detour? “No, never. I’m not a regret guy. … This is what’s in front of me so this is what you do — just keep on chopping wood.”
And what happened in Detroit, he says, isn’t going to keep him from speaking freely on TV: “My approach has always been the same. I’ve never viewed my Lions experience as being anything other than positive. We didn’t win, it wasn’t easy. But there were lots of experiences and all you are is a collection of experiences. … Whatever I was doing (on-air) before is what I’m doing now. I haven’t changed anything.”
And when you’re wearing TV pancake makeup, you’re undefeated after every game