Jim Caldwell has been fired as the head coach of the Detroit Lions
By Ash Thompson
Jim Caldwell has been fired as the Head Coach of the Detroit Lions. Whether you love or hate him, the time has come for a new direction in Motown.
Jim Caldwell had a winning record in three of his four seasons as the head coach of the Detroit Lions. He had a record of 16-8 within the NFC North over those four seasons. That is the best four-year divisional win percentage of any Lions head coach since the 1967 merger of the AFL and NFL. In 2017 Jim Caldwell was 5-1 within the division. The only truly rocky periods of the Jim Caldwell era in Detroit were a 1-7 start to the 2015 season and four straight losses that ended with a wild-card loss to cap the 2016 season. In 2017 his team went 9-7, narrowly missing the playoffs. Martha Ford issued the following statement immediately after Caldwell’s firing was announced.
“On behalf of my family and the Lions organization I would like to thank Jim Caldwell for his exemplary leadership and service to our team and our community over the past four years.
“I believe Jim is one of the finest leaders we’ve ever had as our head coach. Not only did he guide us on the field to three winning seasons, but he also set a standard of excellence off the field that had a tremendous impact on everyone in our organization and our entire community.
“As many of our players have already said, his influence on them transcended the game of football and will positively serve them throughout their lives.
“Our organization is better because of Jim, and we are forever grateful. We wish Jim, his wife Cheryl and the entire Caldwell family all the best that life can offer.”
Off the field, Caldwell did a lot for the Detroit community. In 2014 the Jim and Cheryl Caldwell Foundation, in collaboration with the with the Detroit Lions Academy, opened the Project Phoenix Learning Center at the Detroit. It is a computer lab open to students from grade 6-8 in east Detroit. Of the students enrolled each year, 96% are eligible for free lunch programs.
Caldwell also supported the Detroit Area Midnight Golf Program. This is a program that teaches underprivileged Detroit area teens financial literacy skills. It also helps them prepare for college and encourages community activism. Caldwell was honored in 2014 by the Detroit Historical Society’s Black Historic Sites Committee. He was after all the Lions first African American head coach.
Unfortunately for Caldwell, none of that was enough to keep his job. There were clear indications that the coaching staff was losing their players throughout the Caldwell era. Larry Warford quietly implied that the coaching he received was sub par. Ron Prince, Caldwell’s right-hand man and Assistant head coach/offensive line coach, was lesser, apparently, than his off-season tutoring. Warford moved on to New Orleans, a team with one of the better rushing attacks in the NFL in 2017.
This year players began to speak their minds more during postgame interviews. They felt that the coaches were not putting them in a position to succeed. Ameer Abdullah said it best after the Lions loss to the Steelers: “We’ve got guys who, if we put them in the right position, they can make big plays for us down there. We’ve just got to find a way to do that.” That is the fundamental problem with the 2017 Detroit Lions under Jim Caldwell. Far too often in big games, the Lions would come up a single play short.
Next: Detroit Lions game balls for week 17
Jim Caldwell’s time in Detroit was like the final exam of a college student that did not really understand the more complex aspects of a course. He passed, but he missed all of the hard questions. The Lions record under Caldwell against winning teams was 4-25. It is that statistic that likely ended his time as the Detroit Lions head coach. It really does make all of the others meaningless. Caldwell is a good, not great coach, who saw an opportunity in Detroit. Unfortunately, he did not grasp that opportunity. He left the team in a better place than he found it. We may come to miss Jim Caldwell’s slightly above average Lions teams.