Sheila Ford Hamp's first significant move in charting a new course for the Lions was firing Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia.
Her second was hiring Chris Spielman. The former All-Pro linebacker and longtime NFL broadcaster joined the organization this week as a special assistant to Ford Hamp and president Rod Wood. Most significantly, Spielman will advise the Lions in their search for a new GM and new head coach.
"Those are the most vital roles within the organization, and those guys are the ones, especially the head coach, he’s going to set the tone for what’s coming in the future," Spielman told the Stoney & Jansen Show. "And that’s the only way it works, in my opinion."
In his first press conference Tuesday, Spielman talked a lot about culture and communication. He said the latter helps define the former. And the former is what the Lions have been pursuing since the Ford family purchased the team in 1963, when Sheila was 12 years old.
They failed under her father, William Ford. They failed under her mother, Martha Ford. Why should fans expect Sheila to be any different?
"All I know is what she says and what she wants and what her determination is and how personal this is to her. I'm not going to speak to others -- I don't know," Spielman said. "But I do know what she wants. I think fans can take a lot of confidence in that is a mission of hers, and it’s an enthusiastic mission. It’s not a mission of dread. It’s a mission of hope and optimism and 'we can do this.' It’s going to be hard. There’s a lot of things that she wants done, but I’m there to serve."
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The perspective Spielman brings to the Lions is one informed by a life in football. His playing experience gives him a feel for the game. But it's the knowledge he gained as a broadcaster that might serve Detroit best.
Spielman talked to a lot of successful leaders during his travels across the NFL, coaches and GM's alike. He asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes. So many notes he said you could spread them across the walls of his office like a scene from 'The Beautiful Mind, Part Two.'
"What Sheila and Rod and I have talked about is, there has to be, first of all, a clear trust and understanding with everybody within the building," he said. "There’s gotta be communication and there’s gotta be unity. If there’s not, it will eventually fall apart. My belief and the people that I’ve talked to who have had very successful programs building the type of culture that we’re talking about, there’s a feeling of oneness within that program, that everybody who works for the Detroit Lions feels like they’re part of the Detroit Lions."
That culture starts up top, with people like Ford Hamp and Wood. It flows through the general manager and the head coach and everyone else below. Spielman played here when a culture was starting to take shape, when the Lions strung together three straight winning seasons for the first time in over 20 years and just the third time in the Super Bowl Era. They haven't done it since.
Spielman is here to help change that.
"Listen, the only thing I can promise -- because I don’t make guarantees -- but I can promise, every waking moment of my professional life is going to be pointed toward helping the Lions and Sheila and the whole organization get to where we all want to be. It's hard work and there's going to be ups and downs, but you stay the course, man. Never flinch and never waver.
"And that’s what I hope to do, to be a servant to those that are going to get that done. That’s my role now and I embrace it wholeheartedly."