Posted by Lisa on February 13, 2008, 9:10 am, in reply to "excellent read" Link: Hondo's House
Message modified by board administrator February 13, 2008, 9:12 am
I don't know if you know this guy. He doesn't get a ton of face time over here on this side of the state. But he has a t.v. show host for Spartan Sports.
He's a Sparty through and through, which can be a bit irritating in some of his perspectives...I'm a "whatever is good for Michigan" fan, by the way. And while he is a Sparty first and foremost, he is secondly a Lion fan (which cancels out a lot of my irritation), and he has some insights and sometimes some insider info.
Anyway, he also runs a little dive website (not unlike my own 
) , which I like to check out fairly frequently. I don't always agree with Hondo's opinion, because it's so often skewed in favor of all things Spartan, but I think it REALLY is his opinion. Not just stirring the pot and trying to create stories out of thin air, like some "insiders". I like his passion and the fact that he does try to seperate his opinion and his facts.
Anyway, Hondo says 2 things about Millen that I'm anxious to see/hear more about.
1) "I understand (and so does Matt) why so many people are angry with him, but I am hearing that this next season is going to be the deciding factor. Again I am hearing that. I have not yet heard it from a source that I would consider close enough to WCF to say it is definite. It is my opinion based upon talking to people closer to WCF that they have two years to get this team in the playoffs. Either way, I have an article about Millen coming out late next week that should give a lot of insight, but the big issue is whether this team can ever win with a Ford as an owner. I think that there are a lot more issues in the owner’s box than the GM’s." and "Matthew, Matthew, Matthew!
If you looked only at his record and didn’t know facts that have gone on behind the scenes you would call his tenure the worst ever in the history of sports. That said, the Matt Millen story that I am working on will point out a lot of things behind the scenes that will make some people really think. There are other people who are not getting the heat as they should and we will look at that."
2.) "I have said for a while that the Lions have a bad scouting staff. I said to one Lions official last year that it was, “Horrendous.” Matt needs to fire many of them (not all) and address that quickly. You can’t obviously do it know, but as soon as the draft is over he needs to. He should have done it several years ago."
Here's my opinion of Millen. When Millen was an analyst, I thought he was a blowhard that bought into hype and popular opinion about players and schemes without a lot of deep thought. He has/had a huge ego and never questioned whether he was right or not. As a GM he brought those same qualities to the Lion job.
IMO, he thought the Lions were an easy fix. Just get rid of the old players, get a bunch of young players, stir in a popular scheme, add water and shazam you've got a Lion playoff team. It's a neanderthal outlook, but I don't believe he's really stupid. He just looks that way.
I think he's learned a few things over the years. At least some humility? One of the first things he did was re-organize the scouting/personnel department...and put himself in a key position within it. If he applied what he knows now to that reorganization, I hope that he would do things differently. What he did initially was ineffective. But at least he recognized that it was a problem.
IMO it needs to be blown up again and started over with guys from other teams that have shown they understand personnel and scouting, who have proven they know their stuff. Yes, steal from the Packers, the Colts, the Ravens, the Titans, the Buccaneers. I'm all in favor of theft in this case. Beg, borrow, or plead for help from your contacts within these organizations to find guys who can help. At present, there are only 1 or 2 guys in the Lion scouting department who are respected within league circles. Cincinnati has bypassed the Lions in scouting and they were the laughing stocks in scouting circles 3 years ago. (Cinci still isn't great but they aren't as abysmal as what they were.)
Whether Hondo can provide a different slant to this, I don't know. But that's my take.
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