Retooling the Lions would simply be the same old story

Retooling has not worked

Who Sheila Ford Hamp hires as the Detroit Lions’ next general manager and head coach will say almost everything there is to be said about her own vision of the future of these Motor City cats.

No one wants to lose and in professional sports losing has a tendency to promote a drop in ticket sales. At least when ticket sales are allowed. For William Clay Ford Sr. who purchased ownership of the Lions back in 1963, his main goal always seemed to be for the Lions to be entertaining enough to draw in fans.

The senior Ford’s vision of the Lions was to have an exciting offensive team that sold tickets. That was one of the reasons that this franchise rarely had good defenses when he was calling the shots.

Another was the fact that William Clay Ford Sr. never said ‘no’ to a quick fix, even though they became one disaster after another.

The reason that the retooling schemes Mr. Ford signed off on didn’t work is simple; retooling is an avenue a team takes when they are close to championship status in an attempt to get over the hump.

Retooling a mediocre to a bad team does nothing except make it a different looking team that is still mediocre to bad.

For any LIons fans who were watching this franchise when William Clay Ford Sr. was still with us and running this team, they should understand exactly what retooling has accomplished in the Motor City.

For some younger fans who are watching the Detroit Pistons during their current ‘retooling’ process, you need to realize that Troy Weaver’s use of the word ‘retooling’ is not exactly the true definition.

Right now the Pistons have made wholesale changes to their roster. They invested heavily in the draft by selecting four players they are expecting to build around, acquired some other players that had previously been high draft picks and are still young enough to see if they can reach their potential, and are committed to developing their young players.

That isn’t retooling, that’s a rebuild.