0011070086
DETROIT FREE PRESS
001107
Tuesday, November 07, 2000
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo DAVID P. GILKEY/Detroit Free Press
Gary Moeller, above, has a contract for 2 1/2 seasons. Bobby Ross,
shown talking with QB Charlie Batch, went 27-30 as Lions coach.
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 2000, Detroit Free Press
ROSS CALLS IT QUITS; LIONS PICK MOELLER
A BIZARRE TURN OF EVENTS, EVEN FOR A CURSED FRANCHISE
BOBBY Ross walked into the locker room and asked the players to listen up.
They didn't know it, but he already had resigned, already had told management
he couldn't do the job anymore, that his body, spirit and tolerance were
spent.
Yet as the players looked up, Ross first took care of housekeeping. He
reminded them of a banquet they had to attend Monday evening. He reminded them
to lift weights, start thinking about the next game, Sunday against Atlanta.
Only then, with the small details attended to, did he clear his throat.
And told them he was quitting.
This is all you need to know about 63-year-old Bobby Ross, the latest casualty
of the asylum we know as Detroit Lions football. Even on his darkest day as
coach, Ross was first concerned about order, operation, discipline, things
working correctly. Those were the instincts that got him the job. And the
instincts that told him he was through.
"We have the wrong coach," Ross had said of himself, when asked Sunday why the
Lions collapsed so badly against the Miami Dolphins.
He was done right then. Coaches don't say things like that if they expect to
return. Why bring the "wrong" coach back for another Sunday?
And Ross had gone from Mr. Right to Mr. Can't Make It Right. Like Sisyphus in
Greek mythology, he had pushed the boulder up the hill, come to a struggling
stalemate, and started to feel it roll back on top of him. So he walked out,
leaving reporters scrambling for the last time an NFL coach jumped off a horse
with a winning record (still looking) and leaving William Clay Ford, the owner
who makes fans wince, stepping to the microphone to announce that a new head
coach was already in place.
His name was Gary Moeller.
"I've given him a three-year contract," Ford said. "He will have carte blanche
to do whatever he sees fit, personnel-wise, coaching-wise, whatever he wants
to do."
A three-year ...what?
Cart blanche to do ...what?
Whatever he wants to ...
Huh?
A sudden collapse
The place is haunted. It must be. That Silverdome must have gremlins that slip
into people's ears and play rat-a-tat-tat in their brains. How else do you
explain this franchise? How else do you explain Monday, Nutty Monday?
One minute you have a 5-2 team that is being picked by Sports Illustrated as a
top NFC playoff contender -- and the next minute the team is 5-4, the fans are
booing their best quarterback, Moeller is banging a fist on the lectern as if
he had been here 20 years, saying, "I'm not picking up a doormat here, we have
a winning record!" and Ross is driving down I-75 on his way to being a
full-time grandfather.
Bizarre? Here's what it comes down to. The Lions -- who for years have
exasperated their fans -- finally exasperated their coach.
Bobby Ross is one of us now.
He can't take it anymore.
"I am sorry," Ross said, in a statement addressed to Ford, "for not giving you
the championship trophy you so richly deserved."
Sorry, yes, but that is not the reason he said good-bye. The reason he said
good-bye was this: When he spoke, the players didn't listen. When he urged,
they didn't budge. When he preached, they continued to sin. When he pleaded,
they did not deliver.
For a guy like Ross, who always believed -- as many coaches from his
generation do -- that you can outwork the other guy, that you can inspire,
that players will fear you, mind you, follow you through a wall if you show
them how much you want victory -- well, this was too much to deal with. His
health was not great. His inner fires had left him scorched.
He looked at Sunday's 23-8 debacle and saw a team that, for three hours,
didn't seem to care.
And a voice inside him said, "Why should you?"
Bye-bye, Bobby.
A record below .500
"The way I look at it, he was emotionally spent," said chief operating officer
Chuck Schmidt. "When he didn't get the results based on the effort he put in,
he felt it was time to move on."
Ross actually wanted out Sunday night, Schmidt said, but the front office
urged him to sleep on it, make sure it wasn't an emotional reaction. Ross
returned Monday morning, his mind unchanged. He would leave, midseason, after
losing a little more than half of the 57 regular-season games he coached and
both of the playoff games the Lions made under his regime.
The funny thing is, last year and this year, the Lions burst out of the gate,
with a 6-2 record and a 5-2 record, respectively.
But like Ross, they ultimately ran out of gas. They self-destructed. And while
Ross is an old soldier type, and old soldiers don't point fingers at their
men, I am not an old soldier, so I will.
The Lions should be ashamed of themselves.
Ross may not be the greatest coach in the NFL, but no one can doubt his effort
or his dedication. And these guys, at multimillion-dollar salaries, can't do
simple things like stay onside, hold onto the football or catch a pass.
I remember once, after a particularly humiliating loss, Ross screamed: "I
DON'T COACH THAT STUFF!"
Who would?
But the Lions do it just the same. They seem to bathe in the waters of
mediocrity in Pontiac, as if they are pre-destined to finish badly. Their
recent losses have been lapses of effort and concentration. Sunday was a loss
of heart.
And that can't be blamed on the coach.
That's a bunch of guys who won't reach the top, because they're too in the
middle.
The next man to try
And so now Gary Moeller gets a crack at them. And will he be any better? Who
knows?
This is what we know about Moeller: He is football to his core. He was a
rousing, garrulous, not-afraid-to-blow-up-in-your-face guy at the University
of Michigan, who had enjoyed some success before a bad lapse of judgment cost
him his job. A drunken tirade in a Southfield restaurant was something a
university could not tolerate, and Moeller was banished in 1995. He has been
trying to reclaim his life and position ever since.
Enough years have passed in his purgatory, including four seasons as
linebackers coach for the Lions. He certainly is deserving to be given a
chance somewhere. But he brings to the table just eight years of head coaching
experience, all at college (as opposed to Ross, who joined the Lions with 15
years of college head coaching and five years and a Super Bowl appearance as
head man in the NFL).
Let's also remember: The last place Moeller was the head coach, he could stand
before a group of apple-cheeked behemoths and say: "You are Michigan men! You
are damn lucky to be wearing that uniform!"
You think that approach is gonna work in Pontiac?
You think anyone feels lucky in Honolulu Blue?
Think again. Moeller will need a crash course on the offense, and who knows
what in the team direction department. I know many people think Ford is nuts
to give Moeller a three-year deal and full authority, but that isn't as wacky
as it seems.
Look at it this way: If he put Moeller out there and said "this man is the
interim coach only, with no real power and no personnel decisions" -- why
would the Lions need to respond to him? They didn't respond to Ross, and he
had all the authority the franchise could offer.
Moeller -- like other coaches -- could always be fired. But if imbuing him
with authority makes players respect him enough to try, and trying gets this
5-4 team to the playoffs, it was a gambit that paid off.
No, the nutty thing is Ross' departure at this juncture, and the quick move to
Moeller by a team that usually moves as quickly as a crippled bison. Oh, yeah.
And the sudden downward turn by a team that, a few weeks ago, was being patted
on the back for exceeding expectations.
The place must be haunted, but Ross is no more. Back to civilian life. Back to
some sense of normalcy. Bobby Ross is a good man, a good coach, the first
truly credentialed guy the Lions have hired in decades. He deserved better.
But in this strange story, few people are getting what they deserve.
Most are just getting confused.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "Albom in
the Afternoon" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760).
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FOOTBALL;LIONS;BOBBY ROSS;END;COLUMN;RESIGNATION