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On Football, Ethics, and Winning:
Good luck and God's speed to you Gary Moeller. As you leave us
for better things, keep in mind that you are in good company.
What was done to you was the very thing which was done to Lee
Iacocca when he demonstrated that he was smarter than his employer.
Excellence seems to be one thing that the Ford family has never
been able to tolerate in high level employees. Perhaps they fear
the comparison.
Here is some fill in for those readers who are unfamiliar with the details of this latest dirty trick. I suspect that's almost everyone who does not live in or near Detroit. Last week Mr. Gary Moeller was fired as the Detroit Lion's head coach. He had just been hired as head coach a few months earlier when coach Bob Ross resigned. At that time Moeller was signed to a three year contract. So much for commitments. The next time you hear a franchise owner whining about players who don't honor their contracts, remember this.
At least when El Duce fired Iacocca he had the decency to do it himself. The Lion owner, Willie Clay Ford, did not show that depth of character. Instead, Moeller was dismissed by the Lion CEO, Matt Millen. Millen himself was hired just a few days before he fired Moeller. To replace Moeller, he brought in Mr. Marty Mornhinweg, who has no experience as a head coach. Of course, Millen has no experience as a CEO. So what? How long do you think these two guys will last?
In one TV interview, I heard Matt Millen say, in effect, only one thing matters. Winning is what matters. Nothing else does. I presume from that attitude that he is the classic "End justifies the Means" bully boy. Integrity does not matter. Commitments do not matter. Ethics do not matter. Winning matters. That's all. Normally I leave the issues of integrity and ethics to Evie, but I can't do it this time. What was done to Moeller was unconscionable in the extreme. I cannot accept that it does not matter.
I think it stinks. Moeller was hired to do a job and he was never given a chance to do it. He inherited another man's team and ended the season with a four and three record. That makes him the Lion's first winning coach since Joe Schmidt left in 1972. That's a long dry spell. Moeller's other head coaching job was with the University of Michigan where, with a bunch of great kids, he compiled a record of 44, 13, 3. Is that excellence? Yet, this is the guy who was fired to bring in Mr. never been there, never done that.
Moeller had been promised, by Willie Clay, that he would have carte blanche for three years. That was to be three years in which to build a winning team. Instead, Ford brought in a blustering media man to be his CEO and Moeller got summarily dismissed. It stinks. It really stinks.
A thoughtful and honest manager would have given Moeller a
chance to prove he could repeat what he did at U of M. A thoughtful
manager would have called Gary in and said, "What do you
need to win the super bowl?"
Moeller would have told him what he needed, something like this.
"I need a new offensive coordinator who can call plays where
Willie Gaffer cannot sit in front of the TV in his recliner and
tell Mrs. Gaffer what play is coming down before the ball is snapped.
I need a really great wide receiver to complement the ones we
already have. I need two offensive linemen who can fall over forward
instead of backward on every play. I need a defensive end on the
other end to bookend Porcher and I need a guy to understudy Porcher
while he's still good. I need another journeyman running back
to fill out the backfield. That way the opponents won't know who
will have the ball. They will have to guess. Finally, I need a
couple of really good, experienced defensive backs. That's should
about do it. Our linebackers are great already. Our quarterback
is adequate and learning. We have good QB backup. The rest of
the guys will come up to speed under me."
Then, the decent manager should have said, "Okay, let's sit
down and figure out how we are going to do all of that within
the salary cap and budget we have to work with."
After that, they would have spent the rest of the summer doing
just that. If Mornhinweg was good enough to hire at all, he should
have been brought in as the new offensive coordinator.
As the odoriferous situation stands now, I expect that some
NFL team with reasonably honest management will seek Moeller out.
Excellence is hard to come by. I'm betting he will find a new
head coaching position within a year. Then he will build a team
and come back to beat the living socks off of Willie Clay's Lions.
Ya wanna bet?
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