Comments on: Peter & Dilbert Principles

By: Thursday Gospel | Church of Schwartz

Thursday Gospel | Church of Schwartz — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:30:48 +0000

[...] Detroit Lions Fan 1979 is in the process of moving his blog and he’s got a great first article up about “The Peter Principle“. [...]

By: detfan1979

detfan1979 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:59:53 +0000

Turner was actually a flop in his first two head coaching gigs. Even as it is, the Chargers are loaded with talent; However, Norv has always been an excellent OC. As a HC, he has been average with the Chargers at best. His prior head coaching stops were disasters (including Oakland)

He may have learned from what he did wrong, and figured out how to correct it or — more likely — hire people to cover his weaknesses (which as ararjaync pointed out so correctly, is what great leaders do.)

By: ararjaync

ararjaync — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:07:37 +0000

Both Millen and Marinelli were actually victims of the same error…..they hired poorly and then didn’t listen well which resulted in the strengths they did have being compromised. Millen ran his own draft using gut feel after he fired Tobin. Marinelli tried to be the Dline coach and head coach. Schwartz and Mayhew are already way ahead of their predessors because they hired strong, experienced people and listen to them!

By: chiefger139

chiefger139 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:07:25 +0000

I agree with nubs-martz and turner are sucessful nfl coaches and shouldnt be brought up as bad ones but your right many dont turn out to be good coaches, but many do, basically you have 3 choices, hire a former coach, a assistant or coordinator or a college coach. All three methods have both worked and failed. I do think though, you need to go the pittsburg steeler approach, once you get someone half way decent stick with them for a long time, the constant changing of coaches and schemes seems to go nowhere in the rebuilding process.

By: detfan1979

detfan1979 — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:07:11 +0000

Swive — thanks for the suggestion; I’m still working on layout and hope the change to black helps.

As for your point about personality, I agree wholeheartedly. I’m hoping that there was more than personality to his hiring as well — evidence right now suggets there was more. However, only time will tell IF he was the right hire…

By: Swive

Swive — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:52:25 +0000

Couple of things, Detfan. First, please please please consider a darker font for your blog. Light blue against pure white is a recipe for a headache.
Second, your writing makes it worthwhile to get that headache. Coherent and cogent, I like how you tied current management principles to the recent (mis)management of the Lions.
One thing I would add is that it would seem that Marinelli and Millen both won their positions by force of their personalities, not by an honest assessment of their skill sets for the work at hand. I would posit that they should have first been judged by a set of established skills necessary for the GM and the Head Coach positions, and then judged for their intangibles. Instead, the entire process seemed to be based on those intangibles. I can only hope that Coach Schwartz was evaluated against a much more stringent set of requirements.

By: detfan1979

detfan1979 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:34:53 +0000

I should have written a little more about Martz. He was a great OC when there was someone to keep him focused and in check. He did fine as a head coach W-L at first, but he wasn’t able to manage his coaches and keep things together as the overal Coach of Coaches. I cited him only because he embodies the person who is OK as a HC, but who really excelled as an OC — however, Ego doesn’t allow him to go back to doing just that without trying to take over and be promoted again. Todays best paid coordinators make just as much money as the lower paid HC do so it was about prestige, not money.

Romeo Crennell is a great example on the defensive side of the ball. I don’t think Lane Kiffin was in a situation to really judge in Oakland as he couldn’t even choose his own coordinators, but my gut says great recruiter and thus college coach, but not NFL HC material.

Great comments and keep them coming! At this point I have to moderate comments, so there may be a delay. I’ll see if I can change that later, so bear with me.

By: DetroitSims

DetroitSims — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:29:31 +0000

Great article!!! New website looks great! This couldn’t have happened to a better person. You do a hell of a job comming up with these stories and giving us a glance of hope that is being a Detroit Lions fan!!!! Keep up the good work

By: detfan1979

detfan1979 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:01:19 +0000

Here is Nubsnobber’s comment — Please note on this new site you need to click comment at the top of the post, versus the bottom or it will end up on the next story down. Here it is:

By nubsnobber on Jul 22, 2009 | Edit

Martz? Martz is your example of a bad coach? He had a terrific offense, won a Super Bowl as a coordinator, went 14-2 as a head coach and got to the Super Bowl.

But it’s the perfect example of someone who lets his ego enter a doorway before he can go through it, then follows it as it gets kicked out of town. He’s maniacal. But he got things done. He’s “Brain”.

Norv Turner is another one. Good coach, just chokes in the big ones.

If I were citing “flops”, I would think of Romeo Crennel and Chris Palmer. I would think of Lane Kiffin and Herm Edwards even.

But this is why we love this guy. Welcome detfan to your new address! This writer is absolutely terrific, he writes great articles that are factual, well thought out and truly take you outside the box with his metaphors and symbolisms. Glad I get to see the transformation and I like it so far. Congrats, you work very hard to make a bunch of knuckleheads feel welcome!

By: motownmann

motownmann — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:32:21 +0000

awesome article detfan!!! much love from one of the MLIVE crew!!!!