Chris Spielman wants to help rebuild the Detroit Lions culture in a new role with team

ALLEN PARK – Former Lions great Chris Spielman has been approached by multiple teams over the years. But no offer was ever tempting enough to remove him from broadcast. And even when his old team came on the phone in recent weeks, he still wasn’t sure he was ready to leave a successful career behind.

Then he had another meeting with owner Sheila Ford Hamp, and he knew it.

He knew it was finally time to come home.

“I can’t tell you how excited she is and how badly she wants the Lions to represent the city of Detroit – to win many games and be something everyone can be proud of,” Spielman said Tuesday afternoon. ‘She’s the one who exaggerated me when I decided to do this or not. She’s fantastic. Great leader. She is a leader to me. I was like, ‘Let’s go!’ I felt like I had talked to a head coach before a game. She spoke to me in the locker room and I was ready to run through the hotel door in Cincinnati. “

Times are a’changin ‘in Detroit.

Hamp took over as main owner in June and didn’t even make it through for an entire season before firing the general manager and head coach who inherited them. Now she has succeeded where many failed in the competition, drawing Spielman to her new front office. Lions’ old linebacker will serve as a special assistant to Hamp and team chairman Rod Wood, and his first assignment is to advise Detroit’s top executive on the search for a new general manager and head coach.

So what exactly does Spielman bring to Detroit?

To start with, some much-needed football expertise at the highest levels of the organization. He played 10 seasons in the league, the first eight of which he spent in Detroit. He still holds the team record for tackles and was here for some of the best Lions teams of the Super Bowl era, including starring for the last team to win a playoff game (1991) and division title (1993).

That title drought, now officially 27 years old and counting, is the longest in the league.

The Lions have tried all kinds of general managers and coaches over the years, and all have failed. Their most recent reboot attempted to import the Patriot Way with hiring Bob Quinn as the general manager and Matt Patricia as the head coach. But the Quinntricia era failed spectacularly, 13-29-1 before Hamp pulled the plug last month after just 43 games.

The talent level was a problem, especially in defense, but the culture never came together either. In fact, it became downright toxic after Patricia’s 2018 appointment. He was a tough, brash coach who came into the locker room and told players they didn’t know how to play football. He beat players in meetings. He called players out for shame. It went bad. And while Patricia’s behavior has improved in recent years, as has his relationship with the locker room, his teams have not. He was fired after another outburst on Thanksgiving, and Quinn was fired as well.

As the Lions try to put the pieces back together after the failed Patriot Way experiment, they focus on rebuilding their own culture. And they hired one of the organization’s most respected leaders, a man who was the heart of some of Detroit’s best teams in modern times, to help them do just that.

“Chris Spielman has been a great ambassador for the Detroit Lions since the day he first put on a uniform as a rookie in 1988,” Hamp said in a written statement. “He brings a great passion for people and the game of football, and we are delighted to have him on board to help lead our team. This position is a full-time opportunity for Chris that allows him to work in various departments on both the football and business side of our organization. “

Spielman has the bona fides as a player and leader in Detroit. He’s also toured the league as a broadcaster for the past five years, and his highly regarded reputation has given him a little bit of access to how many other teams try to do it. He’s taken a notebook everywhere he goes, trying to learn what works and what doesn’t. His home office is littered with notes from all over the football world.

Now he plans to give that insight to Detroit’s latest remodel.

“(The notebooks) are across the room here, and magazines and notepads. I mean, it’s like walking in here and I spread it out, it’s like ‘A Beautiful Mind Part II’ because there is so much knowledge to be gained there, ”said Spielman. “I am blessed with insight, and an insight to know that I can always learn, that I can always grow, that I can always develop. And there are so many smart guys out there. And if they’ve released information, whether I agree or disagree, I’ll write it down because I want to think about it and say, ‘Did that work? How does that work? How is this man working? How’s that guy doing? ‘

“Some of the people I’ve talked to over the years, and recently, are very smart people who have been very successful. Doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say, but they give me thoughts to think about and ideas to think about, and for me you only grow when you’re out of your comfort zone and challenged that way, and you have the insight and the humility to know that you don’t have all the answers. Someone is doing it. You are going to look for that persona and find out what the answers are. “

Spielman said the most important thing he has learned about successful organizations is that they all have clear communication from above. He plans to create that kind of culture in Detroit’s new government, and it will be a focal point when he consults Hamp and Wood in the search for a head coach and general manager.

“Every man I spoke to (put communication) in the top three things in a great organization,” said Spielman. ‘There must be communication. Everyone must understand the direction we are going. Everyone needs to know what our culture is, and you cannot deviate from that culture. Everyone should know, “Okay, what kind of character do we want in the building?” ”

Spielman said nothing about candidates for the open positions during his first meeting with reporters and revealed very little about the kind of references he was looking for. But it was an obvious culture and top-down communication will be at the heart of the quest. Likewise, something unique in Detroit will be built.

“The One Pride thing goes beyond the building to me,” Spielman said. “Of course (also) in the building, but the ‘One Pride’ thing embraces Detroit. The city of Detroit. Detroit fans. That’s something I think I still identify with, I feel part of it, and for lack of another word, it’s really, really good to be at home in that regard. I have a vision that matches exactly what Rod and Sheila envisioned, and that’s the only way that could work as we are completely in sync with the direction of the building’s culture and something to be proud of for everyone who is a Lions fan.

“The timing is right. I’ve been approached over the years for different opportunities in football, and life sometimes takes you in different directions, and choices that we all make as husbands and dads and wives and mothers and all that kind of good stuff. (But) I really think now is the absolutely right time to join. I am really excited. I can’t tell you how excited I am about the opportunity. The lions are part of my identity. They always have been, and they always will be. When I say ‘One Pride’ it’s not just a noun to me. I always take that as a word of action. That will be my goal to move forward. “

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