Mornhinweg still in despite dismal two years

Monday afternoon's Detroit Lions' press conference was expected to be the farewell speech for Marty Mornhinweg.

The Lions' press conference room was packed more than usual with media members, as there was a whole lot speculation as to Mornhinweg's possible firing. But, it was business as usual as he some how wasn't among any of the NFL head coaches fired on Monday.

Since the Lions' season is over, instead of addressing the injury report as is his usual first agenda of duty, he stated who the players and coaches voted to give season ending awards to, such as the team MVP, Rookie of the Year, Offensive Lineman of the Year.

Amazingly, undrafted rookie free agent return man and receiver from Penn State, Eddie Drummond, was the named Lions' Rookie of the Year. Lions' quarterback Joey Harrington, the third pick in the 2002 NFL Draft and future of the franchise, was not the Rookie of the Year, which just shows many of the inept personnel decisions Mornhinweg and CEO Matt Millen have made for this franchise.

There were all sorts of rumors out there about two time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcell's return to the coaching ranks. He has met with Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and seems to be leaning that way, but he has mentioned the Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars as other places he is looking at, too.

Mornhinweg was oblivious to any of these rumors on Monday stating, "I don't even know about those situations, when did those happen? I don't need to defend anything or lobby or anything like that. We're moving ahead, we got our plans."

I am oblivious to why a coaching change hasn't been made. Mornhinweg has a record of 5-27 and his 0-16 on the road in his two years. He finished this season with a 38-36 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The Lions had a chance to tie the game on Sunday with a late two point conversion, but Lions quarterback Mike McMahon's pass was sent to some invisible man standing on the sideline.

The Lions have announced they are keeping Mornhinweg on Tuesday and he has already stated that he is in the evaluation process of his players, coaching staff, and future draft choices.

Detroit's options for hiring a new coach were bleak, since there are going to be more options for new coaches looking for jobs. Not only are the Dallas, Cincinnati, and Jacksonville spots open, I am willing to bet that Miami, San Francisco, and Arizona spots will open too.

Hot coaching prospects such as Parcells, former Vikings coach Dennis Green, Washington defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops would consider almost all those other teams, except Arizona and Cincinnati, before they would consider the Lions.

Lewis was rumored as the "in guy" for the Lions on Friday, however, but with the no news it seems to be good news for Mornhinweg. Somehow, after deferring to give the ball in overtime to Chicago and losing to an Arizona team that had players on their roster that had real jobs at the beginning of the season, Mornhinweg might survive. Plus, maybe Lions' owners Bill Ford Jr. and Sr. think four head coaches in three years is a bad thing.

The Lions have gutted the team letting go of such good NFL talent as defensive tackle James Jones, offensive linemen Mike Compton and Jeff Hartings, receiver Johnnie Morton, tight end Brian Mitchell, and traded a possible invaluable fourth round pick to Cleveland for quaterback Ty Detmer. Detmer, by the way, has mostly seen action as a scout team receiver in practice for the Lions this season.

M&M also had a lot of players get hurt, or in some cases age, such as receiver Germaine Crowell, who was hurt but returned this season, receiver Herman Moore, linebacker Stephen Boyd, and safeties Ron Rice and Dave Schultz.

"Didn't think it'd be that quick to lose those players right off the bat," said Mornhinweg. "Very rarely do you have that many young players getting that much inexperience."

Injuries and playing young inexperienced players is M&M regime's season long excuse for the dismal two years they have has with the Lions.

Executive Director of Player Ppersonnel Bill Tobin, who was fired on Friday, and M&M decided to take South Carolina defensive end Kalimba Edwards instead of possible Rookie of the Year running back Clinton Portis in the second round. Portis ended up with the Denver Broncos.

The Lions also cut rookie running back James Mungro in the preseason. Mungro filled in brilliantly this season for Indianapolis when their starting running back Edgerrin James was injured.

Mornhinweg stated the obvious when he said that Detroit needs better players.

"We need players that are going to prevent touchdowns and make big plays," Mornhinweb said. "On the other side, we need those players that can make two or three guys miss, guys who can take it to the house and those types of players who are going to score touchdowns for us. That is where we are at in general."

Five-year Lions' assistant coach and 22-year assistant NFL coaching veteran, Dick Selcer, also announced his retirement on Sunday.

"It's been fun, even though we didn't play worth a (expletive)," said Selcer, who still remains positive about the Lions future. "In '87 we were in 2-14 in Cincinnati (actually 4-11), but in '88 we went to the Super Bowl.

"I coached in St. Louis before the Super Bowls. Where did Kurt Warner come from? I used to shop (at) that grocery store," said Selcer about NFL superstar, Kurt Warner, who used to work in a grocery while looking for work as a professional football quarterback.

What is now obvious to many NFL executives is that a mixture of an inexperienced CEO and head coach just doesn't mix well. We'll just have to wait and see what these two can do now that they have one more year to try.