By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
March 10, 2014
If you are reading this article, you probably already have a good idea that I really don’t give a flying fuck how people view me. I am who I am with no excuses and you can take it or leave it. And most people leave it.
So I am not exactly sure what people expected from me when William Clay Ford, Sr. died. For years I have been asking the question “Is the Old Man dead yet?” in this space. I have long promised a party commemorating the liberation of Detroit Lions fans from the worst owner in professional sports history once the inevitable occurred.
(And that festival will take place tonight at the Bailey’s in Troy at the corner of Maple and Coolidge. 8pm. First 25 DSR guests will get a shot or beer paid for by the DSR. Please note we are just showing up to drink. Bailey’s has NOTHING to do with this gathering and they have zero clue we plan on being there.)
But I am going to take a few minutes here to discuss my behavior on Twitter once I found out that Fredo Clay Ford, Sr. had died on Sunday at the age of 88 from pneumonia — because many of you just don’t get it.
William Clay Ford, Sr. wasn’t just bad and this wasn’t just about the losing. After 56 years with just one playoff win to his name, this was much, much deeper than that. This is a story of a man who couldn’t cut it at Ford Motor Company (twice getting passed over to run the automaker, including once by his own brother — who knew he was an inept drunk) and who stubbornly treated the Detroit Lions like his personal plaything.
Look, if the Lions had been epically awful for the last six decades and Ford had tried everything under the sun to fix the problem, I would be mourning the man’s passing with the rest of you. But that is not what occurred, so please stop this story that the man cared about winning as much as any other owner.
No. William Clay Ford, Sr. was a guy who got aced out of Ford Motor by Hank the Deuce — in favor of the first non-Ford family member to run the company — and who in turn was NEVER going to be told BY ANYONE what to do with his football team. Not the fans. Not the commissioner. And not his son. The Lions were his precious and everyone else be damned.
If Ford, Sr. would have fired Russ Thomas — his drinking buddy and totally clueless General Manager — after 23 years and had replaced him with a well-respected football mind, we wouldn’t be here today. But instead he replaced the penny-pinching Thomas with an accountant (Chuck Schmidt) and let his football coaches run football operations.
When that plan inevitably failed — only after squandering Barry Sanders’ career — he could have once again gone the route of hiring a General Manager with a pedigree (something he never did in 50-plus years of running the Lions), but instead he handed the keys to a neophyte who had zero experience running an NFL team.
And after giving Matt Millen eight years to decimate the franchise, he hired Millen’s second-in-command without so much as an interview process. Yep, Martin Mayhew was promoted from within without an open casting call much to the chagrin of Roger Goodell, who wanted to assist the Lions — fresh off the only 0 and 16 season in Shield history — in finally putting the right executive in place.
And only because Mayhew was an African-American did Ford, Sr. escape violating the Rooney Rule for the second time. The first, of course, occurring when Steve Mariucci was hired (although it has long been speculated that Ford, Sr. never even bothered to pay that hefty fine).
Because, once again, nobody told Ford, Sr. how to run his billion-dollar fetish.
All of these moves were willfully negligent and are why NOBODY can say the man cared about winning above anything else. Can you name me another franchise in professional sports history that went over 50 years without hiring an executive with some sort of successful resume?
Mike Ilitch brought in one of the architects of the Islanders dynasty (Jimmy Devallano) and a World Series-winning GM (Dave Dombrowski) while Ford hired his alcoholic buddy (Thomas) and his attorney’s son (Tom Lewand, Jr.).
This was malpractice of the highest order. Like I said earlier, if Ford had gone down every avenue possible during his tenure (hiring a Bill Parcells years ago when he wanted the gig; bringing in a Ron Wolf or someone of that stature, etc.), you could chalk this up to bad luck.
“He wanted to win as badly as the fans.” No, he fucking did not. Winning was secondary to his personal relationships and his Freudian need to be in CONTROL OF SOMETHING after he was unceremoniously passed over by his own flesh in blood …. only to then see his own son achieve what he couldn’t at FOMOCO.
He heard the cries from his fan base for YEARS over the Millen debacle and he pulled the NFL’s version of “Let Them Eat Cake.” So don’t give me this shit about loyalty. Any business owner with an irate clientele like Ford’s would have pulled the plug years before his son guilted him into finally letting Millen go.
How about being loyal to the people who turned your $6 million investment into a billion-dollar business????? Nah. He reserved that honor for a guy like Matt Millen, who labeled his own players “devout cowards” and dropped “faggot” blasts.
Just because you tell all of the dumb beat writers who cover your team for a living that your primary motivation is winning, it does not make it true. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS and every action of Shemp Ford, Sr. proved that he didn’t care about winning and losing.
And the other meme that has sprung from the news of Ford’s death is that he loved the Lions. Yeah, he loved them like a husband who beats his wife with a frying pan.
What kind of owner who loved his team and his employees would have treated the greatest player to ever wear the Honolulu Blue and Silver like Ford treated Barry Sanders?
When Ray Bourque had enough in Boston and wanted to win a Stanley Cup before he retired, Bruins ownership dealt him to the Colorado Avalanche. Hell, just this past week the Tampa Bay Lightning granted their captain Martin St. Louis’ wishes by sending him to the Rangers when the diminutive forward demanded to be dealt.
Barry Sanders? Ford, Sr. REFUSED to sign off on a trade of #20 to the Miami Dolphins and then he sued the Hall of Fame running back over money the organization felt was owed to them.
And why did Sanders retire in the first place? Because he couldn’t stand the culture of losing football in Detroit, and that fish rotted at the head with Ford.
And for that reason alone I am throwing the William Clay Ford, Sr. Death Party tonight. I made that pledge when he turned Barry Sanders into a defendant at the end of the last century and I will be fulfilling my promise in a few hours.
Ya know, my first inclination wasn’t even to write an article about the passing of this epically awful proprietor. I was just going to re-post this article I wrote a few months ago to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of Ford’s sole ownership of the Lions and leave well enough alone.
But the Detroit media’s constant hammering that Ford cared about winning as much as fans of this team was just too much for me to stay silent.
And for those of you who think I take sports too seriously and should just let the man rest in peace ….. well … I am sorry. I don’t view the four professional sports teams as just mere hobbies for the elite. They are a public trust and some responsibility is owed the poor paupers who prop up these organizations through ticket sales and public funds for their stadiums.
Or think of it this way: Every single time a Detroit sports team has a great playoff run, don’t we always get the narrative from the mainstream media that said franchise is going to “save the city?”
Remember when our saviors were going to come in the form of the Michigan State men’s basketball team? The area was in the midst of a depression and the Spartans were going to buoy everyone’s spirt and get us out of our financial mess. Well, until they ran into the North Carolina Tar Heels.
And how about the 2012 Detroit Tigers? Weren’t we sold the bill of goods that our baseball franchise was going to resuscitate our downtrodden community? That is, until we were swept by the San Francisco Giants.
So wouldn’t the opposite side of that coin be that a franchise that has only won one playoff game in 56 years and is the only non-expansion team to never get to a Super Bowl be a reason for extreme angst and misery? Or can professional sports teams only magically lift spirits and never tear them down?
The whole fucking thing is a joke. The media never held Ford’s feet to the fire the way they should have and now they are once again giving him a free pass in his death. He might have been the greatest guy in the world (and his public protestations against the Vietnam War should definitely be a part of his legacy) but 99.9% of us knew him strictly as the owner of the Lions.
William Clay Ford, Sr. took us for granted. And he pissed on our dreams. It would almost be impossible to go 56 years in any sport with only ONE playoff victory, yet here we are. And that atrocious record is no cosmic accident; it can only be accomplished by having total disdain for your fans. You have to be a certain kind of awful to have that legacy: it was achieved through a stubborn refusal of any outside help.
This makes him culpable for our torment and a worthy subject of tonight’s roast whether you think it is in poor taste or not. I really don’t give a flying fuck if you think we are going too far.
Before I wrap this up, I do want to comment on one particular article that was written about Ford’s passing by Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel. This might be the worst article I have EVER read about ANY SUBJECT. It was incredibly lazy; it was factually incorrect; it was incredibly insulting to any fan of the Lions.
I am going to quote a few of the inane paragraphs and then offer my opinion.
Ford hired people — some good, some bad — and he believed in them and gave them everything they needed.
He hired some good people? Like WHOM? Under Ford’s stewardship, not one Lions General Manager EVER got another gig after leaving the team.
Not one non-interim HEAD COACH was ever given another opportunity to lead an NFL team after being dismissed by Fredo Ford, Sr.
And in possibly the BIGGEST INDICTMENT of this abortion of an organization, the team has gone parts of five decades without an Offensive or Defensive Coordinator getting promoted to a head coaching position with another organization!!!!!
Just think about that for a second. OC’s and DC’s are the lifeblood for new head coaching hires. And not once in over 40 years has a Lions assistant performed well enough to get that sort of promotion. It’s unfathomable and puke-inducing at the same time.
But Seidel thinks Ford hired some “good people.” Whom????? The nacho salesman? The dude who gets into the Roary costume? The guy who belts out “Forward Down the Field?”
Fucking die, Seidel.
Some owners meddle with their coaches or front office. Some owners threaten to move a team or to sell. But William Clay Ford never did.
Oh, yes. The old, tired bit that Ford never threatened to move the Lions out of Detroit. Like he could have without the UAW hanging him from a light post outside the Glass House.
And trust me, he didn’t do us any favors by not moving out of Michigan. Yes, we would have gone a couple of years without a franchise and then received an expansion team (like Cleveland). In a worst-case scenario, the new Detroit NFL franchise would have ONE fewer playoff victory than the Lions have over the last 56 years.
The Lions won one playoff game during his ownership. But this franchise is headed in the right direction.
The franchise is headed in the right direction? BASED ON WHAT EVIDENCE? The team has the 10th pick in this year’s draft and they don’t award those high picks based on success!!!!
The 2013 Detroit Lions had the NFC North gift-wrapped to them due to decimating injuries suffered by the Bears and Packers and they still couldn’t capitalize. Many national pundits were calling for both Lewand’s and Mayhew’s heads on a platter and this douche bag thinks the team is headed in the right direction?
Why couldn’t a Black Widow have taken this piece of shit out in Sochi?
The Lions have a strong nucleus of players. They have a management team that appears to be making sound, smart decisions. And they have a coach now who said all the right things in his introductory news conference.
And if you criticize Ford for the struggles of this franchise, you have to give credit for where it is headed.
Yes, if you are going to bag on Ford for the last 50-plus years of ineptitude, you surely have to commend him for righting the ship even though there is absolutely ZERO consensus that the team IS heading in the right direction.
The new head coach said all the right things in the introductory press conference? Are you a god-damn child? A columnist wrote that sentence in a major daily? Is someone kidding me here?
Eat shit and die, Seidel. No. Seriously. Digest fecal matter, get dysentery and please croak. You’d be doing your family a great service by not embarrassing them further with columns like this one.
So now Ford, Sr. is gone and we are left with his son to run the operation. But I doubt this will be a Bill Wirtz/Rocky Wirtz scenario where Bill Ford ends up being our knight in shining armor.
His fingerprints were all over the Millen hiring and, if you believe national reports, the kid refused to fire Jim Schwartz last year because the billionaire didn’t want to have to piece Schwartz off.
Bill Ford has been ostensibly running the team for some time and we currently have a “brain” trust of Lewand, Mayhew, a coach in Jim Caldwell with a sub-.400 record as the head man and two nobody coordinators. Not to mention the guy hired to fix Matthew Stafford is the old mechanic from “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Yep, Jeff Seidel …. This team is headed in the right direction. Just like the Titanic and Emile Hirsch in “Into the Wild.” You fucking amateur.
I will leave you today with one quote from Ford’s New York Times obituary. This was the Old Man discussing the embarrassing colossal flop of a car, The Edsel which, of course, was named after WCF’s father.
“You’re always sensitive when your father’s name becomes a synonym for failure.”
A father being synonymous with failure is something Bill Ford will now have to deal with — along with finally attempting to get this city’s NFL franchise a Super Bowl victory.
See you at Bailey’s, where we will drink away our tears.
Of joy.