The Detroit Lions going on the road to defeat the defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL 2023 season-opening game is a wow moment.
Arguably, this is the Lions' most significant win in decades.
Since winning an NFL championship in 1957—a decade before the first Super Bowl was played—the Lions have won just one playoff game, in the 1991 season, against the Dallas Cowboys.
That's right: one playoff victory since the Dwight Eisenhower administration and Jerry Lee Lewis was signing "Great Balls of Fire."
Colton Pouncy of The Athletic reports this wow moment in Kansas City started when the Lions knew it had to change how it selected its leadership team of general manager and coach.
"Having gone through the Patricia-Quinn years, I really wanted people who were coming from two different institutions, two different teams, and brought kind of a fresh approach and not just one way of looking at the world," Lions president Rod Wood said to Pouncy. "I think it's real easy to go to a New England or a Pittsburgh or a Green Bay, teams that have historically been very good, and think, 'You can replicate that in Detroit.'"
"Well, we became Patriots Midwest. And that's not who we wanted to be. We wanted to be the Detroit Lions. We were looking for people that were going to be our kind of people. And I think I kind of learned that the hard way."
The Lions made four crucial decisions on how to hire their next general manager and coach.
First, get old-school and all-around great former players into the decision-making processes.
In December 2020, the Lions announced they hired former linebacker Chris Spielman as a special assistant to team owner Sheila Ford Hamp and team president Rod Wood, while Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders joined as a part-time advisor to help in the search for a new general manager and head coach.
Second, have the team owner and team president agree that the new general manager and coach should adapt and work together for a common goal and be open to differing opinions, all to steer an egoless ship.
Third, disrupt the typical hiring process. Commonly, for professional teams, a general manager is hired first and then leads a search for the head coach. The general manager makes a final call on a coaching candidate, involved in the process from start to finish. The typical approach of most teams is to hire a combo general manager and head coach package from a winning franchise.
Fourth, spot hires that will get you to where you want to go.
For general manager, the Lions went with Brad Holmes.
Holmes is a former HBCU football player and journalism major who parlayed a PR internship with the Rams into a job with the club's scouting department.
Holmes' ability to spot talent and his communications skills sold him to the Lions.
For coach, the Lions went with Dan Campbell.
Campbell spent three seasons with Detroit as a player, including Detroit's infamous 0-16 team in 2008. Following his playing days, Campbell went into coaching and was well-known to command the respect of his players.
Campbell's experience as a Lion and knowing how to motivate players sold him to the Lions.
The Lions had found the right people using their new approach and vision.
The Lions had found the right people, hailing from different NFL backgrounds and chosen simultaneously.
So separate was the interview and hiring process that Campbell and Holmes were introduced to one another via text.
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