Lions coach Marinelli fired after 0-16 season
ALLEN PARK, MICHIGAN (TICKER) —Rod Marinelli knew he was going to lose his job as the head coach of the Detroit Lions. He said he didn’t give the team much choice.
“You can’t go 0-16 and expect to keep your job,” Marinelli said. “I hold myself responsible, no one else.
“I said it last night. I did my best this year and my best wasn’t good enough - this year.”
The Lions fired Marinelli on Monday morning, one day after losing to the Green Bay Packers, 31-21, to become the first team to go winless through a 16-game season.
The 1976 expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14) were the last NFL team to complete a season without a victory.
But Marinelli, who was 10-38 in three seasons in Detroit, took issue over whether the record means the Lions will go down as the worst team in league history.
“When you say ‘worst,’ I always look at quitters,” Marinelli said. “That’s what worst is to me - non-caring, people who give up, pout, cry, point fingers. That’s worst. Let our record speak for itself, but when I look at worst, that is worst and this group of men, we didn’t succeed on the field, in terms of our record, but they succeeded in everything I wanted them to do.
“We came a long ways in terms of how to be a football team and the record doesn’t show it, but it’s a start and it’s a foundation.”
The Lions have not won since December 23, 2007 when they beat Kansas City, 25-20. In total, the Lions have lost 17 straight games and have been outscored 551-281 during that span.
However, with the Lions having hit “rock-bottom,” Marinelli said the outlook for the team is far from bleak.
“I really believe the time to buy stock in the Lions is now,” he said.
Marinelli’s firing was among a flurry of moves in a front-office shake-up by Lions owner William Clay Ford, who promoted Tom Lewand to team president and Martin Mayhew to general manager.
Matt Millen, who served in a dual capacity has team president and GM, was fired earlier in the season.
Dave Boller, the assistant director of pro personnel, also was shown the door Monday.
Detroit also announced Monday that four assistant coaches - defensive coordinator Joe Barry, assistant offensive line coach Mike Barry, secondary coach Jimmy Lake and defensive line coach Joe Cullen - will not be brought back.
In addition, Jim Colletto has been re-assigned to offensive line coach.
Marinelli was hired by Detroit in 2006 following 10 years as an assistant defensive coach with the Buccaneers. But he never seemed to mesh with the Lions, who were dragged down by a string of poor personnel decisions by Millen.
“It’s just part of it,” Marinelli said. “I accept that responsibility and if I’d have done better and won more games, then we’d have been fine.”
A classic example of a head-scratching trade by Millen came following the 2006 season, when Millen dealt his best cornerback, Dre’ Bly, to the Denver Broncos for a backup running back in Tatum Bell, who carried the ball just 44 times for the Lions before he was released prior to this season.
In addition, the hiring of offensive coordinator Mike Martz and his wide-open offense represented the polar opposite of Marinelli, whose teams in Tampa Bay were build around a sturdy defense and efficient offense.
Martz lasted two seasons before he was dismissed after Detroit lost seven of its final eight games in 2007.
Marinelli, though, was not about to point any fingers for the team’s lack of success.
“I think when you’re a head coach, you come in and the one thing you’ve got to do is coach and you’ve got to get these guys to play to a high standard,” he said. “I know I worked very hard at that, but the bottom line is: when you put it on the field and the lack of execution, that goes back on us. They don’t fire players, they fire coaches.”
