Owners have to know there place when it comes to certain things, but Lions head coach Dan Campbell wishes he had an owner who meddled a little more.
Given the big money investment they make to buy it, the principal owner of a sports team might like to have a say in things they don’t know much or enough about. Usually, the best owners know what they don’t know and let the people they hire to do those things do their jobs.
During minicamp last week, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked about how his relationship with ownership has developed from his first to his second year in his job.
Via SI.com:
"Listen, it’s hard for me to say anything negative about the Ford family,” Campbell said. “They obviously gave me the opportunity but they also — when you’re a head coach, all you can ask for is that they’re going to give you the resources and support that you can do what you need to do as the head coach and the GM, and they allow us to do that. …I think that’s a recipe for good things to happen, and so having her around is big. I’ll ask for her input too,” “The last thing she wants to do is ever feel like she’s butting in and sometimes I wish she would butt in….We’re a year later and I couldn’t ask for anything better than her for an owner. I trust her and she’s one of the people that I want to win for.”"
Dan Campbell wishes he had a more meddling owner, but surely only to a point
To her credit in that sense, Sheila (Ford) Hamp has made it clear she will not meddle in the daily work of Campbell or general manager Brad Holmes. But it’s clear Campbell values her input on certain things, and wishes she would offer it more than she does.
Owners have to toe the line of between being involved, visible, supportive with resources etc. and what might be considered too involved. That balance appears to be good in Detroit, even if Campbell wishes Hamp would “butt in”.