After all these years, and all those losses, there are no profound thoughts that come to mind about Matt Millen being dismissed as Lions team president other than, "It’s about time."
In his position, Millen was a like a library book that had been checked out in 2001 - and never returned.
He fired three coaches. He lost an average of 12 games per season. His drafts were utter farces, which will hamstring the next general manager mightily.
But there are couple questions that need to addressed as the Lions move forward.
1. Rod Marinelli should go, too, but after the season. There is no tangible evidence he is a good NFL head coach. Only the opposite. The problem with dismissing Marinelli is his staff is so bad, there is no obvious interim replacement for him as head coach, like there has been in the past with Gary Moeller and Dick Jauron, who were actually better coaches than those replaced - in my opinion. What are the Lions going to do, make Jim Colletto head coach? Even they’re not that clueless.
2. The sooner the Lions make a change at quarterback, the better. Every game with Jon Kitna as starter is a waste. They need to find out what Dan Orlovsky can do, before moving to the brighter hope for the future, Drew Stanton.
3. The Lions need to study this and come up with a sound organizational structure. In the past, owner William Ford Clay has waited forever to make moves dismissing people, but often acted in a knee-jerk manner when hiring them. Ford has either given one person too much authority (Millen, Bobby Ross) in the past, or had it shared and unclear who was in charge (the Chuck Schmidt-Wayne Fontes-seven vice presidents era). The Lions desperately need to strike a proper balance.

Random Thoughts

- Look, I’d bring Jim Leyland back as manager of the Tigers. I’d give him a contract extension through 2010. But the way the Tigers have played lately, particularly during Tuesday night’s loss to Kansas City, is not helping his cause. To fall to last place, given the expectations this season, is amazing. Losing that much ground to the Royals in that short a period of time is even more so. The Tigers played with no competitive spirit whatsoever Tuesday. Seems like Leyland stopped being heard long ago. It’s different with a new season, but he’ll be drowned out quickly next season if he doesn’t get a contract extension.

- The Red Wings and Pistons remain the great hopes in this town, eh?

- Two most overrated schemes in the history of football as far as I’m concerned: The West Coast Offense and the Tampa 2 Defense. They sure didn’t do right by the Lions.