Allen Park — In a rare, but brief session with local media on Wednesday, Detroit Lions owner Sheila Hamp expressed frustration with the team’s 1-5 start to the season, while also backing the team’s rebuild process and the leadership guiding the franchise through it.
“I know this is difficult; our rebuild is hard, but we really believe in our process,” Hamp said. “We really believe we’re going to turn this thing around the right way, through the draft. It requires patience. It’s frustrating. Am I frustrated? Absolutely. Are the fans frustrated? Absolutely.
“I think we really are making progress,” Hamp continued. “We’ve seen it. It’s just this was a huge teardown and then turnaround. We’re only one-third of the way through the season; we’ve got 11 more games to go, so I just don’t want everyone to push the panic button and give up on the ship, because I think we’ve got the right people in place to pull this off. I truly believe that and I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t believe it.”
Hamp, who assumed a more active role in the franchise following her father William Clay Ford’s death in 2014, took over as the team’s primary owner during the 2020 offseason, when her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, opted to step down.
In November of that year, Hamp made the decision to part with the team’s football leadership, firing both general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia. Two months later, through separate, overlapping searches led by herself, team president Rod Wood, chief operating officer Mike Disner and special assistant Chris Spielman, the team landed on Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell to serve as the leadership for the team’s next era, a rebuild that started with trading longtime quarterback Matthew Stafford.
“I would say, (it) was like a teardown, then a rebuild,” Hamp said. “We really had to take it down to the ground level. And it’s been not only the football side, but across the organization. We’ve put in a lot of new talent at the top. I really believe in the top leadership in this organization, and I think we’ve got the people to do it, to carry this out. I think that’s what’s different.”
The process has been predictably arduous, with the Lions going 3-13-1 during Campbell’s and Holmes’ first year running the ship. But expectations swelled heading into the 2022 season, particularly locally, following a strong finish to the previous season, some key additions in the draft and free agency, as well as an appearance on HBO’s documentary series “Hard Knocks” during training camp.
But things have quickly crashed back to reality through the first six weeks of the campaign. Despite recent improvements, the team’s defense has been the worst in the NFL, and a hot-starting offense, which opened the year setting franchise records and pacing the league in points, has failed to score a touchdown in the past two games.
With the one win through six games, the seemingly annual frustrations with the franchise have been quick to resurface, prodding Hamp to try to calm public sentiment.
“There’s going to be fluctuations,” Hamp said. “The other thing is, as you all know well, our team is very young. That’s not an excuse — that’s a fact. Young players are going to make mistakes, and we’ve had some key mistakes that have cost us games. Hopefully, we’re not going to repeat those. Hopefully, we learn, but it is a process. That’s what it is. It’s hard, and it’s really hard to stay disciplined. I mean, no one hates losing more than I do — more than my family does.”
“…I wanted to talk to you guys because I know, really, talking to you (is) talking to the fans,” Hamp said. “Everyone is frustrated. I’m frustrated, but again, I really believe in what we’ve got and what we’re going to be. It just takes time.”
And while Hamp made no definitive declaration about the job security of either Holmes or Campbell, she indirectly and repeatedly expressed continued support for the jobs both are doing, even in the face of other rebuilding franchises turning the corner more quickly than the Lions.
“I really have confidence in the process we went through in the first place, when we hired Brad and Dan,” Hamp said. “It was extremely thorough and we really believe we’ve come up with the right people. I can’t really comment on other teams’ rosters or what they had in the first place, all I know is what we had and where we’re going.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers