Again, Ford Wonders What All The Fuss Is About

If only we could all not worry, like Bill Ford Sr. doesn't worry. If only we could all exhibit the patience of Job, and refrain from hand-wringing. If only we could emerge every so often, unruffled, tanned and relaxed, and ask what all the fuss is about.

Ford, the Lions owner and centurion, did it to us again yesterday. The 82-year-old showed his face at Lions HQ in Allen Park, ostensibly to talk about franchise giant Charlie Sanders and his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame a week from Saturday. And, as he's done so often in the past, Ford either sounded like: a) the voice of reason; or b) Nero.

To wit, according to Nicholas Cotsonika of the Free Press:

"I'm usually optimistic anyway going in. But I think this year will be a little bit special."

"I could see right off the bat that they (president Matt Millen and coach Rod Marinelli) were compatible ... I got to know Rod much better and I could see where they would mesh. You don't want to break up a combination like that."

On reports of Millen's impending firing last season:

"I don't know where those originated. I sure never said anything even approaching that -- or if I did I didn't mean to." (laughs)

"I didn't say, 'You're safe, don't worry about it,' in so many words (about Millen's job security). But by the same token, I never intimated to him that he wasn't safe. It was business as usual."

Boy, he's got THAT right, at least.

On whether his judgment of Millen is clouded because of his personal like of him:

"It's possible. But I think if you like somebody and you believe in the same things that they believe in, I don't know what other yardstick to put against it."

On the 2007 season:

"I'm always an optimist before the season starts ... When the team doesn't live up to it, you're very disappointed."

"Thank goodness I can put that behind me and look forward. If I dwelled on the past, I'd shoot myself. Really, I've never felt that way. But if I were a fan, I could understand it."

Talk amongst yourselves.

During the 1995 season, the Lions sitting at 3-6, Ford told the media that coach Wayne Fontes had to make the playoffs to keep his job. They did that, thanks to a 7-0 streak to finish the year. Then in the playoffs, the Lions got whalloped by the Eagles, 58-37 -- a game in which they trailed at one point, 51-7.

Surely, the scribes and blabbermouths on the radio said, Fontes cannot possibly survive this debacle. For several days, speculation ran rampant that Fontes would be fired. That nobody could lay an egg like that and keep his already-tenuous job.

Ford emerged a couple weeks later, and he said, basically, that Fontes had achieved the mandate, and made the playoffs. His job was safe. And again, Ford wondered what all the fuss was about. He suspected, apparently, that we would think that simply making the playoffs, then getting torched on national TV, would be acceptable.

Sometimes I wish I had his countenance. Better on my health.