I'll Take Ford
Thinking football as the weekend nears...
Not long ago, I got into a discussion with some of my fellow Detroit Lions fans about the sorry state of the team and what it'll take to really turn it around. As usual, the conversation moved quickly to ownership.
"The Lions won't be better as long as they have William Clay Ford running things," a buddy said, echoing a point many of us around these parts tend to make on Monday mornings in the fall.
"Yeah, but it could be worse," said another friend, laughing like a punchline was on its way. "We could be looking at Limbaugh."
Man, talk about being scared straight.
Say what you want about WC Ford's half-century mishandling of the Lions on the field (and I've said plenty), he's almost always been a class act off it. And believe it or not, I'd rather endure back-to-back Oh-fer seasons with Ford at the helm than have a guy like Rush Limbaugh running the Honolulu Blue-and-Silver.
Yes, I was glad Checketts dumped him from his group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams (although I can't imagine why he'd have thought bringing him onboard wouldn't create a firestorm, given Rush's cargo hold full of personal and political baggage). And no, I don't think Rush has "a right" to get into the game. Maybe he has a right to get in line to purchase, same as everyone else, but nobody owes that racist blowhard a franchise.
And as long as he's perceived as being "bad" for business, he'll probably be standing in line for a long time.
"There's an argument that says the very principles Rush espouses -- the free market -- are what did him in," said the conservative radio host Michael Smerconish. "This IS the free market. These are private businessmen who made a decision about what was in the best business interest of their thriving venture."
I don't know Ford's politics or what's in his heart. Like many older, rich, white people, he may very well be a Republican, same as Rush. But I do know that, even when he was struggling with personal demons like alcoholism, he's tended to come across as dignified, loyal and humane in public. And while we Lions fans moan all the time about his ineptitude as an owner, I don't know of many, if any at all, who will say that they find the man personally repulsive.
In fact, if owning the Lions weren't at the top of his resume, would anyone say anything really bad about the dude?
I can't stand the Lions' brand of repellent football, but I'll suffer through. I couldn't say the same about a repellent owner, and I'm glad I don't have to.
What do you think?
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I was thinking along similar lines the other day. A lot of the business people here give a lot of time and funding for local stuff, especially members of the Ford family (think Campus Martius, the riverfront, the whole Detroit 300 committee, all that Penske's done, and Ilitch, even if you dislike that he sandbags on some of the properties he owns, the late Max Fisher, who operated so quietly, and others).
My thoughts more specifically where, if our options were our people or high profilers like, say, the Trump family, I'm picking our people.
Quite a few who have made their fortunes here have given back to the community in ways that truly benefit the people and aren't just self-promotional gestures. I don't think that's as easily said in many other places.
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Couldn't agree with you more about wealthy locals who have done (and continue to do) tons for local charities/worthy causes. Mike Ilitch in particular should be commended for his decision to donate the space on the huge scoreboard at Comerica Park this season for what amounted to 6 months worth of free advertising for the Big 3. Also, Peter Karmanos and Art VanElslander should be included in this list of Detroit-based philanthropists as well.
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Karmanos has done a lot, but the current, seemingly protective, relationship with Kwame Kilpatrick is bothersome. Perhaps the arrangement was the only way to get Kilpatrick offstage and out of here, I don't know, but it certainly doesn't look right.
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As a former women's pro football player (WPFL's Syracuse Sting 2003), I love to follow football. But, though I still cheer for the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons, I just can't bring myself to be a Lions fan and the NY Giants are my A-Number-One team in the NFL.
If you look back over many years of football, the Lions have a long history of being mediocre or worse. It can't be the fault of the players or the coaches who have come and gone -- something is wrong in the organization. I'm not an insider, so I can't tell you what it is, but it's in the organization and picking up a few great players here and there or even a fabulous coach is not going to change it.
But I can't argue -- the Lions have a lot more class than other dysfunctional football teams -- look at the Oakland Raiders! They are like a reality TV show about a dysfunctional family with a long history of domestic abuse. Now there's a team that needs a clean sweep and start over from scratch.
A winning athletic team does amazing things for the morale of a city. But it does take the right combination of personnel, organizational culture, chemistry between individuals, focused hard work and a good piece of luck.
Maybe that's it -- it takes focus, and if the owner just has the team on his portfolio as a lesser-important investment -- well, it could be a long time before those pieces all fall into place for a winning season.
- TheDetroitHouse After a year of learning, observing and understanding, TIME says goodbye to Detroit. Podcast: All Good Things... http://shar.es/0V3I7 - 1 year ago
- TheDetroitHouse Our Donation to Detroit http://shar.es/0FX2T - 1 year ago
- TheDetroitHouse Read Kristy Erdodi's "How Detroit Became My Sexy City" http://bit.ly/9zG13z - 1 year ago
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