Quinn’s press conference this past Friday was picked apart and scrutinized heavily by the local media. From his answers regarding the background check on Matt Patricia before he was hired to his ardent belief that Matthew Stafford can lead the Lions to the Super Bowl.
This has been a controversial season in many way. But if we’re honest, any season that isn’t successful on the field will become a circus off of it.
Would the Golden Tate trade have been talked about nearly as much if the Lions had won the division and were hosting a playoff game this weekend? I tend to believe not.
Losing promotes backlash. If anyone knows that, it’s Detroit Lions fans.
Now all of this being said, I’m not insinuating there isn’t reason for criticism. Professional sports are a pass/fail proposition. You either win or you lose. There is no grey area.
Under Bob Quinn, the Lions have been 24-24 overall in the regular season and 0-1 in the playoffs. That would have to be considered mediocre at best and certainly not the type of record that generally inspires hope.
The biggest critic of Bob Quinn, ironically enough, would be Chuck Modiano of the New York Daily News who wrote an article about why the New York Jets should hire Jim Caldwell as their next head coach. After starting out by calling Quinn an ‘arrogant idiot’, he went on to make a point of why it was all Bob Quinn’s fault that the Lions didn’t achieve more success under Caldwell.
To which I humbly respond; there was blame to go all around for the end of the Jim Caldwell era.
The blame that Modiano heaped on Quinn for not supplying Caldwell with enough play-makers doesn’t ring as true when you consider that Jim Caldwell basically was given the ability to more or less choose his players.
The lack of play-makers goes back to Quinn’s philosophy that he doesn’t want to acquire players his coach doesn’t want. While Quinn might have written the checks, he gave Caldwell the opportunity to basically make the final call on player acquisitions.
If this is a shortcoming, it’s one that is now being shared with Matt Patricia, who wants completely different athletes than Caldwell wanted. Thus the re-build no one saw coming.