Roary
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- Mar 18, 2019
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The Lions didn’t fire anyone yesterday.
But they took yet another step this morning to guarantee the seats were sufficiently hot on coach Matt Patricia, General Manager Bob Quinn, and practically everyone else in the building.
In an open letter to the fanbase posted on the team’s official website — signed by owner Martha Firestone Ford, presumptive heir Sheila Ford Hamp, and team president Rod Wood — the Lions said all the requisite things about being disappointed in a 3-10-1 season and the way they want to build the team. They also mentioned that they weren’t raising ticket prices for 2020, which is nice of them.
“We also believe that the most successful teams in our league have a long-term plan, stability in leadership and exhibit patience to follow their plan,” they wrote. “To that end, we are committed to year three of Coach Patricia’s plan. To be clear, our expectation is for the Lions to be a playoff contender in 2020.
“To our dedicated fans: You deserve a winning team that you are excited to cheer for and proud to represent. Our entire organization is working to make the Lions a consistently winning team.”
In 90 years of doing business, the Lions are 562-668-33 (.445 winning percentage).
The Lions were a consistently winning team for a bit, going 36-28 over the four years from 2014-2017, with a couple of playoff appearances.
Then they fired Jim Caldwell after back-to-back 9-7 records, so they could hire Patricia, who is now 9-20-1.
For some reason never made clear by the way they’ve done business for decades, they think 9-7 isn’t quite good enough. And just as clearly, they’ve set the expectations for Patricia sufficiently high that it will be hard for him to reach them, and now everybody knows it.