Dan Campbell and the Lions made a surprise move last month when they fired head athletic trainer Dave Granito. His successor is also his predecessor.
Campbell announced Wednesday the team's new head athletic trainer is Kevin Bastin, who held the same position with the Lions from 2014-18 before stepping down after Matt Patricia's first season as head coach to pursue opportunities outside the NFL.
Patricia and the Lions then hired Granito, who had been head athletic trainer for the football team at Michigan. Now it's back to Bastin.
"We’re fortunate to be able to get him back," Campbell said Wednesday. "He’s an outstanding athletic trainer, he’s got high values, he cares about the players. He’ll give them everything that they need. We’re excited to get him back."
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Assistant athletic trainer Tom Colt had filled the head role on an interim basis following Granito's firing early in training camp.
"Tom might be more excited than anybody just to get back to do what he really does, but he’s done a hell of a job holding down the fort until Kevin’s coming in," Campbell said.
Campbell and the Lions fired Granito on the day of their preseason opener. The team had several key players dinged up early in camp, including RB D'Andre Swift, though Campbell said Granito's dismissal wasn't based on a single incident.
"Really it’s just, felt like this was the way we needed to go," he said. "I don’t really want to get into detail of it. I can tell you this, our guys were getting proper treatment, it was nothing like that. It just felt like we needed to go another way (with) communication and some of those things, so we did make that move."