What if the Detroit Lions had hired Bill Belichick instead of New England, would he have brought the dynasty with him?
The Detroit Lions have languished in a sea of mediocre to abysmal play for over 60 years and the fans of the Honolulu Blue and Silver continue to wonder, for good reason, if this franchise will ever get it right.
Four years ago Bob Quinn was hired away from the New England scouting department to be the Lions general manager and turn this team into a winner. Two years ago Quinn brought in former Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to be the Lions head coach and bring some of the winning culture of their former team with him.
At present, the ‘Patriot Way’ has not found any success here in the Motor City as Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have combined to lead Detroit to a 9-22-1 record over the past two seasons. In New England, this would be considered a failure. In Detroit, it’s business as usual, unfortunately.
Despite the fact that Bill Belichick is now considered one of the best coaches, if not the best, of all-time, none of his former assistants or even front office personnel have been able to go elsewhere and duplicate his success.
Think about it. Former San Francisco 49ers great head coach Bill Walsh sent many successful assistants out into the NFL. Legendary Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry had some successful proteges and Paul Brown, the only man who actually has a franchise named after him, had a handful of his own.
Yet Bill Belichick, much Like Vince Lombardi, who is the only coach Belichick is ever compared to now, has not been able to pass along his magic touch to his assistants. The ‘Patriot Way’ seems to be a science locked away in the bowels of Belichick’s brain that just can’t be duplicated.
But what if Bill Belichick had been hired in January of 2000 to coach the Lions instead of the Patriots. Would he have been able to succeed in building a Lions dynasty or creating the ‘Lions Way’?