Millen gone. Now, what?

Everyone in the Metro Detroit area should just meet at Hart Plaza and have a huge party.

I'm going to have to find new punching bags and Detroit Lions fans can finally put away their "Fire Millen" signs.
In a little more than a week, now former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (Sept. 19) and Detroit Lions President and Chief Executive Officer Matt Millen (Sept. 24) have been relieved of their positions. The only thing that could top that is if I walked outside and saw Halle Berry in a two-piece.

After eight long years of suffering, Lions higher-ups have finally said "enough is enough" and shown the door to the embattled Millen.

It probably should have been done awhile ago (how about after he called wide-out Johnny Morton a derogatory term used for homosexuals), but the move had to be made. Since Mil-len was hired to run the Lions in December 2000, he has proven to be the most inept general manager in the history of sports.

31-84.

8-50 on the road.

0-24 on the road from 2001-03.

Three overmatched head coaching hires.

Endless bad drafts and horrible free agent decisions.

It's not like the man wasn't given enough of a chance. He first signed a five-year deal and, after compiling a 21-59 record, was given a five-year exten-sion in 2005 at $5 million a year, making him the second highest-paid GM in the NFL.
For that dollar figure alone, I can't blame him for not quitting. The man has a family and any man who wants his family to be taken care of when he's gone would stay the course (I know pride comes into play at times. But, c'mon. It's $5 mil a year!).

No one in their right mind would leave $5 million on the table. You show me a man who would do that, I've got some oceanfront property in Iowa I wanna sell him.

It's not all Matt's fault

Millen came into the position with no prior front office experience. Before tak-ing the post, he worked as an NFL analyst for FOX Sports.

Millen had success as a player, winning four Super Bowls with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins.

Just like on the field, you win in the front office by having good people around you.

We all know Millen had final say on those draft picks and free agent signees, but what did Lions scouts see in Joey Harrington that they thought he should have been the third overall pick in the 2002 draft? Did they look into wideout Mike Williams' work ethic before he was selected with the 10th pick in the '05 draft?

The coaching hires are all on Millen. Two of the guys I never even heard of until they got here Marty Morningweg and Rod Marinelli and the other, Steve Mariucci, wasn't "tough enough" on the players, according to Millen.

Sure, Millen is a huge part of the problems. But no one GM should be allowed to make three bad coaching hires in succession, or have final say in so many high draft picks. But he isn't the only problem, nor is he the biggest problem.

Jr. finally gets his dad's ear

At a Detroit Economic Club meeting held Monday afternoon, Bill Ford Jr., son of Lions owner Bill Ford Sr. and executive chairman of the board of directors of Ford Motor Co., called the team's most recent loss, a 31-13 shellacking at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers which, ironically, start a Lions' castoff at quarterback and feature former Lions offensive coordinator Mike Martz "embarrassing" and said he'd fire Millen if he ran the team.

Jr. must have had his dad's ear, because the decision to part ways with Millen was made at a meeting Tuesday night between Sr. and the Lions GM. Letting go of Millen is a start, but there's still work to do before this team becomes a perennial playoff contender and it starts at the top.

Time to sell

In November 1963, Ford Sr. purchased the Lions outright for $4.5 million. This season marks his 45th as sole owner of the club. The squad is now reportedly worth $875 million. Revenue sharing, TV deals, etc. have a lot to do with that figure, but Ford Sr. has turned a nice profit.

Ford Jr. pushed for the Millen hire eight years ago, but Sr. is the one who ultimately made that decision. Sr. is also the man who hired Russ Thomas as GM in 1967 and gave him 22 years on the job despite Thomas not producing one playoff win. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Chuck Schmidt took over the day after Thomas retired and held his position before resigning in 2000, ushering in the Millen era (A.K.A. the dark ages).

The team has made the postseason just nine times since Ford Sr. took over in a league that is designed for the WORST team to make the playoffs once every four years. His teams, as I stated above, have won just one playoff game. He has been known to be extremely loyal to decision makers, giving general managers much more time to build a winner than any of the 31 other NFL teams would ironically, Millen is the first GM to actually be let go by Ford Sr.

Ford Sr.'s reputation has become one that leads many to believe he is detached from the team. That it's his play thing and he only cares about the bottom line. I find that hard to believe, but at 83 years old, it may be time for the old man to step down.

As bad as it sounds, some Lions fans remain steadfast that the team won't win until the old man dies. That doesn't have to be the case. Ford Sr. should be forward thinking like his car company is attempting to be.

Ironically, Pistons owner Bill Davidson is about the same age as Ford Sr. His teams, though, are always in the title hunt and it seems as though he wants to win, as he is not shy about making personnel changes.

There's only 32 teams in the NFL. If Ford Sr. announced he was selling the team, he'd get more calls than Heidi Fleiss used to. Hell, he doesn't even have to sell the team. Ford Sr. could simply transfer power to Jr.

Yes, firing Millen is a start, but it isn't the endgame. There are still a number of decisions within the team that need to be made and will be made, I'm sure, during the offseason.