Here we go again. Another embarrassment for the Detroit Lions.
Another black eye for the franchise that’s had so many, it should change its color scheme to Honolulu Black and Blue.
The latest punch to land on the Lions’ kisser came courtesy of Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, who reportedly spurned the team’s $68.5 million, eight-year contract offer to stay in Ames, an exciting city of 66,000 people with slogans like “Ames: Kinda like Chicago but with immediate seating.”
I’m not making that up. And why would I? I don’t have to make up these kinds of slights that the Lions repeatedly suffer as the NFL’s favorite punching bag when they’re not serving as the NFL’s favorite punchline.
Maybe Campbell had his own legitimate reasons for wanting to stay put in a lower-pressure job with a lot more job security in a small town. But something tells me that if a big-market team that’s had at least some modicum of success had come calling with that offer, he would have taken it.
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Because we hear this over and over in Detroit. Slight after slight. Snub after snub. Dis after dis.
Rob Gronkowski threatened to retire when the Lions tried to trade for him in 2018.
Smack!
The Lions traded for defensive tackle Snacks Harrison in October 2018, and just a few months later he was trying get himself traded out of Detroit.
Slap!
Pow!
Wham!
Jackson native Tony Dungy exposed to the nation stage S.O.L. — Same Old Lions.
Klonk!
On and on. Indignity after indignity. And I’m tired of it. Yes, I’m tired of it. That’s not say these slights haven’t been deserved. Often, they have been self-inflicted wounds on the Lions’ part.
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But I’m tired of watching the same thing play out year after year. It’s like going to a boxing match hoping for a good fight only to see a clueless tomato can who can’t defend himself step into the ring and get pummeled. Every time.
People think I’m mean to the Lions because I dislike them or have some kind of ax to grind. But that’s simply not true. On balance, I’ve had a good relationship with the players, coaches and staff over the years. I’m not mad at anyone in Allen Park. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I feel sorry for most of them because despite their best efforts it never seems to work out.
And that’s probably one of the reasons they had no chance of landing Matt Campbell. Or Robert Saleh. Or Arthur Smith. Or Pat Fitzgerald. When you have a historically bad franchise that lacks a consistent vision you can’t blame top-flight candidates for taking a hard pass on the Lions.
So the Lions ended up with their backup Campbell, who was exactly on no other team’s radar. That means either the Lions suddenly cornered the market on wisdom or they’ve made another hiring mistake. And now we have Dan Campbell talking about kneecaps and pet lions. Sure, he’s winning his press conferences, but the only thing we should care about is whether he can win games.
For the record, I’m glad the Lions didn’t hire Matt Campbell because I’m not a fan of college coaches trying to jump to the NFL. College football and the NFL are almost two different sports when you consider NFL players are professional grown men, the level of competition is extremely tight and teams’ Byzantine power structures can be suffocating. You can’t just go recruit good athletes and expect to win.
Honestly, I didn’t have a strong feeling about any of the better-known coaching candidates during this hiring cycle. Saleh? Smith? Meh. Maybe Dan Campbell will be the funny, inexperienced, undesired genius hire no one saw coming.
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But I will tell you this. There might be a glimmer of hope for the Lions, because even as they continue to absorb their beatings, if they look through their swollen-shut eyes that might be able to see some promise in the future. That promise is owner Sheila Ford Hamp.
I’ve never been a fan of blueblood billionaire team owners who don’t know what it’s like to sweat a paycheck, let alone build a business from the ground up. But she is trying to learn the business because she wants to understand how an NFL team works instead of taking someone else’s word for it.
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I don’t know if Hamp’s efforts will lead the Lions out of 60 years of futility. But I like that she’s trying, because she tried this a long time ago but was denied when she asked for a job with the NFL after she graduated from college in 1973. She was told there was nothing for her – because she was a woman. It didn’t matter that she was the great-granddaughter or Henry Ford, or the possible future heir to one of the league’s oldest teams, or friends with the commissioner. The NFL told Hamp there was no place for her.
Nearly 50 years later, Hamp has made a place for herself. She hasn’t given up, she’s gotten up. And that tells me she can take the slings and arrows, the slights and the sucker-punches. I just hope she’s as tired of it as I am.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.