FanHouse William Clay Ford

Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford admits that maybe in hindsight hiring Matt Millen as general manager wasn't the best call he's ever made.

"He really didn't have much experience as far as being a general manager goes. He knows the game, obviously, and knew talent. Maybe he was a little precipitous on some of his judgments -- I'm second-guessing him -- but it didn't work out. He understood completely. There was no bitterness or rancor on his part. He said, 'No, I can see why you're doing it and I don't blame you.'

There are whole lot of people who deserve blame for the Lions' ineptness.

It starts with owner William Clay Ford--teams that are bad this long never have a competent owner. If filters down to former GM Matt Millen, who left a swath of destruction as a GM that may never be topped. But apparently you have to point the finger at the Lions training staff as well, if Peter King's most recent Monday Morning Quarterback can be believed.

We found out just a couple of days ago that Matt Millen would join the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football broadcasts in 2009. And to that news, I, like most people, am fairly indifferent. Millen's no John Madden, but he's a decent enough football analyst, so that might work out fine.

Millen isn't -- and doesn't deserve to be -- forever banned from football circles simply because of his 31-97 record as Detroit's general manager

What he does deserve, though, is his, (pun-intended) Lions' share of the blame. So what I can't get on board with is Millen playing the role of the victim as he did in an interview with SI's Don Banks.

Al Davis	vs.	William Clay Ford
368-264-8	Record	281-374-13
.569	Winning%	.411
21	Playoffs	9
4	Champions	0

Sports Illustrated is running a feature right now on the best and worst owners in sports, and for the most part, the lists are well-reasoned and interesting. But there's one huge problem: SI claims that Oakland's Al Davis is the worst owner in the NFL, worse even than Detroit's William Clay Ford. And that's just wrong.

In previous lives, before Matt Millen spent eight years running the Lions' franchise into the ground, he was a Pro Bowl linebacker and four-time Super Bowl winner. And after his football career, Millen was part of the No. 2 broadcast team for the NFL on Fox, and was also the color commentator for Monday Night Football on West Wood One.

Up to the moment he accepted the Lions gig, he was considered a good player and a great analyst. Which is why it wasn't totally surprising that he got back into commentating after William Clay Ford finally got around to firing him. Unfortunately, a large segment of the NFL-viewing population couldn't separate Millen the analyst from Millen the bumbling front office type.

TAMPA, Fla. -- In talking to a cross-section of the National Football League intelligentsia over the last couple of days, one thing is clear: Almost everyone believes the Detroit Lions are planning to select Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford with the first pick in the NFL draft.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen – remember when everyone thought the Texans would draft Reggie Bush? – but it does mean that other teams are getting prepared for the draft with the thought that the only way they can get Stafford is by trading up for the Lions' pick, something that few teams seem inclined to do.

Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford is incompetent. As the grandson of Henry Ford, he always has been and always will be a very rich man, but he's never accomplished anything in his life on his own merits, and in his 45 years owning the Lions, he has proven time and again that he hasn't a clue how to run a football team.

I thought everyone who followed football knew this, but apparently not. Peter King writes at SI.com that the football world is shocked -- shocked! -- by the latest example of Ford's incompetence:

I think no one in the league -- and I mean no one -- can believe William Clay Ford didn't move to hire a new GM (even though there is great respect for Martin Mayhew) and the front-office staff.

King is well connected in the NFL, and I guess all of his league sources are telling him they're surprised that Ford didn't overhaul his front office. But really, why would anyone expect Ford to do such a thing? What has Ford ever done that would make anyone expect him to suddenly make big changes to his franchise, after 45 years of being the worst owner in the NFL?

The bottom line is that as long as this man owns this team, this team is going to stink. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

I don't know enough about Tom Lewand or Martin Mayhew to comment on whether Lions owner William Clay Ford was wise to promote from within the organization, but history suggests that no one would've complained if Ford blew up the whole operation and started over.

The franchise has just 40 wins this decade, which is slightly more impressive when you consider that the total includes the recently completed 0-for-'08 run. (Not really; it works out to 5 wins a season versus 4.4 wins a season. In the salary-cap era, that blows.) Perhaps predictably, Clay decided to, as they say, stay the course and give current team employees Lewand and Mayhew shiny new titles.

Not surprisingly, the 2009 Lions look very similar to the versions that preceded it. Which is to say: unimpressive and out of sorts. Via PFT, the first post-Rod Marinelli press conference provided plenty of unintentional hilarity. Because after all, laughter -- even if accidental -- is the best medicine. Or something.

The holiday season doesn't bring good tidings for everybody. Just ask those head coaches who are spending the New Year cleaning out their offices.

The Detroit Lions have fired head coach Rod Marinelli, a day after he finished the first 0-16 season in NFL history.

Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that the firing was handed down this morning. According to Schefter, the entire coaching staff was fired, with the exception of wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and running backs coach Sam Gash.

The Lions will now begin a coaching search, although it's not clear who will be in charge of the hiring. Lions owner William Clay Ford, who fired team president Matt Millen in September, has not said exactly what the structure of his team's front office will be in 2009. But Ford has said he does not believe the team needs to make big changes in its management.