Sunday, September 28, 2008

On the firing of Millen

I haven't really said anything yet, as I wasn't really sure what this meant for my sports team. So going into our bye week, the team finds out that their GM has been released. I have seen quite a few different articles but they all seem to take one of two attacks.

1) Bought darn time. Millen has taken a team that was mediocre for decades and transformed it into one of the worst teams in the history of the NFL.

2) Millen is a good guy. Don't grind him into the ground if he couldn't make the team better.

I think that Millen probably is a good guy. He talks straight. He tries to do what he says. The problem is that Millen really isn't the type of leader needed for a large organization. A leader in the NFL needs to know his strengths and weaknesses and then to get folks to help them where they need it.

1) Millen completely fails in identifying talent. Or even correcting this lack ability to find talent.

2) Millen was never in touch with his team. He lived in Philly and commuted into Detroit. If this is not a bad thing, why was there not an effective leader on the ground? Fire the VP of operations and the assistant GM on this one.

3) What is with the hiring process on coaches? Seriously. It seems like they have locked on to a guy and not really evaluating all the options.

There are some other issues as well, but really comes down to an inability to manage the impact of your shareholders (i.e. don't draft Harrington just cause a shareholder says to) as you should know your business and stick to it. The other part is how do you lead from afar?

So now what do we have. The assistant GM and VP of football operations are going to lead through the rest of the year. Stop. These guys should be gone. Get a GM in now. Start interviewing, get hiring. Why? The season is probably a loss. I could be wrong, but everyone is pretty disgruntled in the locker room by the sounds of it. Also that way you can get some folks in, evaluating talent and see what you can get moving before the trade deadline. Also you can get some of the 3rd string players getting some time and see if there is anything down there. Also start dropping some of the folks that don't belong there and take a cap hit early.

Please, if you are going to rebuild, don't waste any time.

1 comment:

The Really Sarcastic Weasel said...

The Lions are always rebuilding.

No need to hurry a process that will continue into perpetuity.