Another "M", But This Time Millen May Have Gotten It Right

When Steve Mariucci was introduced as Lions head coach in 2003, he was escorted onto the Ford Field turf by Bill Ford Jr. and Matt Millen. The three of them made the long walk to the dais, which was adorned with a Lions helmet and an official NFL football. There was even a cheering section, in the stands behind the ink-stained wretches and the TV and radio people.

Mariucci, in his Italian suit and flashing his baby blues, smiled broadly. Then he looked around him and said, with genuine amazement, "Wow." He was like a kid on Christmas morning. That introductory press conference, that latest initiation into the Honolulu Blue and Silver world of football pratfalls and follies, was a precursor of things to come in the Mariucci administration: style over substance. Or rather: style, NO substance.

There was no such pomp this morning when the Lions introduced Rod Marinelli as their new head coach. Just a quiet gathering in the team's Allen Park annex, the usual Meijer/Lions logos sitting in the background in their one-dimensional plainness. No embracing -- just a handshake between Marinelli and team president Matt Millen as the new coach stepped to the microphone. No cheering section. Nothing to cause the new man to say in awe, "Wow." It was clear that the goal was more substance and less style this time.


Marinelli: Less hair, less good looks; more wins?


Instead, Rod Marinelli said, curtly, "Good morning, men." And that wasn't even his football team to which he was talking.

Was he addressing the media or the troops in Iraq?

Marinelli, 56, was most recently the defensive line coach/assistant head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was the dark horse who came from several lengths back, along the outside, to snag the Lions job, when supposed favorites like Russ Grimm and Jim Haslett hugged the inside rail. A more cynical person wouold say he lost by a nose.

But not Rod Marinelli. He thanked former coaches from his high school playing days, coaches he worked under in the college ranks, coaches he worked with and under in the pros, along with players he himself has coached. He thanked the Fords and Millen. He thanked his wife and family. All of this thankfulness was, presumedly, because of the good fortune that he considers himself to now possess, leading a football team that has won exactly one playoff game in 48 years. Over 30 years of coaching has prepared him for the Detroit Lions head coaching job. How many years would he have needed if he was taking over a winner?

But Marinelli is all right, on first inspection. He appears to be, if you can make such assertions after one 20-minute press conference, the type of coach the Lions need: tough, passionate, and a believer in physical football and conditioning and the ability to run the football, even deep into the fourth quarter.

"It all starts up front," the new coach said almost right off the top. "I want to have a great offensive line and a great defensive line."

Well, he has neither in Detroit -- the defensive line is a reverse doughnut: solid in the middle with holes on the outside -- so maybe that's the first order of business. Or maybe it's the quarterback situation. Or the coaching staff. To say Rod Marinelli has his work cut out for him in Detroit is like saying Noah had a slight water problem.

One of the first things Marinelli said was, "The time for talk is over. Football is a 'show me' game." But, ironically, it was what Marinelli indeed said that should make Lions fans take heart.

"I'm not interested in Pro Bowl players. I'm interested in championship caliber players," he said, a refreshing change for a franchise that has always gloated over its few Pro Bowlers and alternates. "Everyone has talent in the NFL," Marinelli said. "Every team has good players."

"You just got to get good players to play good."

Okay, so he's not an English major, but the message is brilliant in its simplicity. And yes it's always easier to diagnose the problem than to repair it, but hasn't the diagnosis itself been lacking a bit around here when it comes to pro football?

Here's the other thing Marinelli said that should be embraced: "There's one voice of discipline: mine." But it was the way he said it -- with conviction and an extreme lack of bovine feces. There WILL be accountability, Marinelli promised. He said that goes from the coaching staff on down to the players. And with the way he said it, I'm not so sure the ticket takers and the popcorn vendors are omitted from that edict.

So yes, the time for talk is over. Has been over for decades, truthfully. But they don't hold these press conferences so they'll be performed in mime. Words must be spoken, and even though they often are designed to be words that the denizens wish to hear, you can pick through those and find some that aren't garden variety. Rod Marinelli said some of the usual, but he also said enough of the extras that makes me think he might be the right man.

But it's also what he didn't say. When Rob Parker of the Detroit News tried to nail Marinelli down with a supposed "yes" or "no" question -- Will the Lions make the playoffs in 2006? -- the ex-Army man who served in Vietnam didn't take the bait. It was an asinine question, which isn't unusual for Parker. Earlier, Parker asked why it took so long for Marinelli to become a head coach when the league is "hiring 35 and 40 year-old guys left and right."

"I'd say Matt is a pretty smart guy," Marinelli said, eliciting laughter.

But the knuckleheads in the media aside, Rod Marinelli acquitted himself well in his first official appearance as head coach of the Detroit Lions. He isn't the sexy hire that Mariucci was three years ago, but neither is he the Beaver Cleaver that was Marty Mornhinweg. He is somewhere in between. He does, however, boast a longer and some would say more impressive resume than both of his predecessors in the Millen era.

"The key is to coach every player like a starter," Marinelli said.

Rod, with this team, you might want to coach every one of them like the Pop Warner rejects they so frequently impersonate.

Welcome to Detroit.