Coaching Vacancies

After last week's sacking of Jim Schwartz, the Detroit Lions are in the familiar position of searching for a new head coach. In his 50 years of ownership, William Clay Ford Sr. has averaged a new coach every 3.1 years. So, as one may do with old girlfriends or all the cars one has owned, taking a look at Lions coaches past can shed light on the similarities--or the mistakes the front office keeps repeating.

Of the sixteen men that have been paid to troll the Lions sideline with a whistle since 1963, not one has gone on to be hired as the head coach of another NFL team. One look at this coaching collage I put together may help explain why. I don't know, there seems to be this unifying feature present in all Mr. Ford deems worthy of coaching this team. This je ne sais quois, that screams, "I'm your man for the next 3.1 years."

Kind of makes you wonder whether the Lions find their coaches, or the coaches find the Lions.