| 24 June 2010
We all know the Lions lost a pair of "voluntary" (in the same way breathing air to live is considered "voluntary") OTA days due to the NFL ruling their workouts were too intense as stipulated by the CBA. Worded in NFL legalese, the Lions lost the workouts “pertaining to the intensity and tempo of drills.”
So be it.
The Lions should take their slap on the wrist, and just move on. And that's all it was, a slap on the wrist and a "Tsk, tsk, tsk, don't do that again" from the NFL. Tighten up the monitoring of practice voluntary workouts and the Lions would be fine. Hell, losing a couple of OTA's is relatively common (The Jaguars, Raiders and Ravens have all lost OTA days this offseason), and nothing to be overly concerned about.
Then Jim Schwartz had to start pointing fingers.
Via Carlos Monarrez at the Free Press:
“They actually saw a headline in one of our newspapers that said 'Suh and Peterman battle it out in OTAs.' And they flagged that and said, ‘Hey, we want to see the practice film.’ And I assume that they were looking for one-on-ones and things like that, which you’re not allowed to do with the offensive and defensive linemen, which we weren’t doing.”
So Schwartz is blaming the media for his own mistake? Not smart. Not smart at all for someone who is considered one of the most intelligent coaches in the game.
This comes off as your typical, NFL coach paranoia. Something I thought Schwartz was smart enough to avoid.
Seems I was wrong.
Pointing fingers at headline writers isn't going to win the Lions head coach any friends in the media. Friends he may need if the Lions get off to a slow start this season, which is entirely possible when looking at the Lions early schedule.
What I'd rather hear from Schwartz is to admit he made a mistake, take the blame, refrain from pointing fingers and coach up this team to win more than 2 lousy games.
I realize what Schwartz said isn't a big deal. So am I overreacting? Maybe. But I've seen this before.
I found Schwartz's comments bothersome, as past (and ultimately fired) Lions coaches were more than happy to pass the buck, point fingers and deflect blame for their own incompetence.
Wayne Fontes blamed his coordinators, firing them almost yearly. Bobby Ross blamed his players, ultimately walking away from the team instead of fixing the roster. Steve Mariucci blamed Joey Harrington for not being a west coast style QB and Matt Millen for being, well, Matt Millen. Rod Marinelli blamed...actually, I have no idea who Marinelli blamed, because he couldn't do anything but talk in silly clichés. (Marty Mornhinweg was just a moron, he had no one else to blame.)
As you might guess, I'm not thrilled seeing Schwartz throwing the local media under the bus, blaming them for his troubles. Especially when the trouble is so God damn minor. I hope it's not the start of something Fontes-esque in Allen Park.
Schwartz is better than this. I hope he realizes it, and soon.
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