Slow and Steady Says The Turtle!

Millen of old:

Millen, looking old:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and boy howdy here’s 2000 right here.

I guess you can’t accuse Matt of not caring; these 8 years have really taken their toll. But he has a lot of faith this time around (at least, until Thanks Giving, he also has a track record) and he is saying that he is more convinced than ever that this Coach is the guy that will turn the franchise around. At 0 and 2, going on the road to a place where they haven’t won a game in like 30 years.

I think the most frustrating thing about the start of this season is that these first four games were supposedly the most winnable on our schedule. We were supposed to whomp the Bears too, but uh… yeah, their defense looks sick. They are going to cream us.

Look, we trash Millen quite a bit. The situation is so bizarre though, this guy was a stud lineman, he has four Super Bowl rings and is a possible Hall of Famer (LOL, as a player, not manager) and yet the Lions just can’t get it right. Wouldn’t a defensive guy like Millen know that successful franchises start with strong offensive lines that can open up the run and protect the QB? Wouldn’t he know that defensively, you need to stop the run and pressure the QB? 3 first round wide reiceivers in 3 years? I think someone is pulling the strings and you know who it is.

Sadly, Matt Millen will have his page in history. His four championship rings will be an asterisk to his title of “The Worst General Manager In the History of Professional Sports”. No one will be allowed to fail on the scale that he has failed, it’s as simple as that.

Here’s that article from the Freep.com, its a good one so I quoted the whole thing.

BY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER, Freep.com:

"He heard the “Fire Millen!” chants during Sunday’s 48-25 loss to Green Bay. He knows fans are already jumping off the bandwagon because of the Lions’ 0-2 start.“That’s their choice,” Matt Millen said Thursday.Millen nodded toward the coaches and players on the practice field.“It’s not their choice,” Millen said. “They’re not jumping.”Calls for Millen’s head have grown loud again. The Lions are 31-83 since he became team president in 2001. They are 10-24 since Millen hired his latest coach, Rod Marinelli, in 2006.Though he said owner William Clay Ford has high expectations and is frustrated — and though he took full responsibility for the state of the team — Millen indicated no changes are imminent.Millen said he believes in Marinelli more than ever before because Marinelli has remained consistent amid adversity. He said he still believes in the coaching staff and players — and that if the Lions just do what they’ve been doing, they will win this year.“Stay the course,” Millen said. “It’s a little bump. … It’s not like you have to panic. You don’t have to make wholesale changes. You don’t have to do all that stuff. It’s all right there.”Millen echoed the comments Marinelli made in Monday’s news conference — that the Lions have improved their professionalism in their preparation, but now they have to take that into the games.“I said at the beginning of the season, ‘Come on out, and you’ll like what you see,’ ” Millen said. “And I think the people who came out (to training camp), they like what they see because they see discipline. They see the approach is right. They’re practicing right. All the little things.”What about the fan who says, “That’s practice, but these are games”?“Well, if a fan says that, then they don’t understand the game of football, because it can’t happen on the field if it doesn’t happen here,” Millen said.Why does Millen believe it will happen in games?“The foundation’s laid,” Millen said. “Now, you have to keep on doing what you’re doing, take it to the game field. They will.”This year?“Yes,” Millen said. “Absolutely.”Does Millen hold himself accountable?“Look,” Millen said. “Rod stands up there and says, ‘It’s on me’? It’s on me. It’s me. That’s fine. … The guys who are out here are here for a reason. It’s not happenstance. I believe in the guy I hired. I believe in the staff we put together and I believe in the players we have on the field. And if you want to point the finger at any of that stuff, that’s on me. I’m fine with that, because I believe in what’s out there. Nothing else needs to be said.”Hasn’t it taken too long to build a foundation, let alone build on top of it?“From since I’m here, sure,” Millen said. “Yeah. Obviously. But like I said earlier, I’m the one who hired the guy, and I believe in him 100%. I believe in him more now than I ever did. That guy, he’s exactly what you need.”Why?“Because he’s consistent,” Millen said. “You guys see that. That’s not changing. He is a straight line. …“He will do what he believes is the right thing to do, and what he’s doing is the right way. The players we have picked, we picked in the beginning for a reason. The same reason still exists. They still have the same skills and abilities. The staff’s in place for the same exact reason. Rod likes to use the term, ‘Don’t blink.’ I never use that term. But you just keep on walking. …“I just think what we’re doing is the right thing to do, and if they just keep doing what they’re supposed to do, we’ll be fine.”Millen declined to go into his discussions with Ford. He said he didn’t want to put words in Ford’s mouth.“He has high expectations,” Millen said. “When you have high expectations, you also get frustrated, too. There’s answers you want, too.”Millen said he told Ford basically the same things he said Thursday, just in more detail.“He asks all the right questions,” Millen said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”"