Detroit Lions: Sheila Ford Hamp deserves a high offseason grade

A very un-Lions’ like offseason so far

Last summer in the midst of a pandemic, the Detroit Lions made modest headlines as Martha Firestone Ford stepped down as their principal owner and turned over the keys to her daughter Sheila Ford Hamp.

Perhaps Sheila’s biggest claim to fame was that she had endorsed the return of Patricia and Quinn because she felt that continuity was needed to turn this franchise around.

To Sheila’s credit, over the course of this past season, she realized her mistake and two days after Thanksgiving dropped a bomb on Patricia and Quinn sending them into oblivion.

Sheila did give the fans some lip service when Patricia and Quinn had been properly euthanized from the Detroit Lions franchise that the fans deserved better and vowed to improve things.

It was easy for fans to consider this just the latest spin doctor routine from six decades of losing under the Ford stewardship. Yet she wasted no time naming Chris Spielman as an advisor then started to interview eligible candidates that were not currently employed for the general manager position.

This of course bled over to the end of the season when after many interviews the decision was made to name former Rams director of college scouting, Brad Holmes, to the position of general manager.

This was followed very quickly by a shotgun wedding to new head coach Dan Campbell.

It was absolutely reasonable to question this arranged marriage. Yet both men spoke highly of each other and the ability to work together. This was followed by adding layers of experience to help out with John Dorsey being hired as senior personnel executive to help out Holmes.

Meanwhile, Campbell hired Dom Capers as the senior defensive assistant to help out first-time defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.

This wasn’t all Sheila’s brain work, but she was willing to listen to any advice she got and encouraged her new regime to get whatever they needed to be successful and supported it.

Then to prove that Sheila’s reign would be different, she didn’t try to talk Matthew Stafford out of his request to be traded. Instead, she let her new general manager and head coach handle the situation.

The result was giving Matthew what he wanted by sending him to Los Angeles in exchange for the Rams’ next two first-round picks in 2022 and 2023, a third-round selection in this year’s draft, and quarterback Jared Goff.

All of which has made this offseason very un-Lions’ like. Oh yeah, and the offseason has just begun.