Detroit Lions: Sheila Ford Hamp needs to avoid falling into the loyalty trap

After being embarrassed in back-to-back weeks, the Detroit Lions are expected to be making some significant changes in the coming days.

During Thursday’s nationally televised Thanksgiving day game, the whole country had an opportunity to see just how bad the Detroit Lions are; if they could stand to watch.  It’s a team that’s struggling so bad its team owner, Sheila Ford Hamp, couldn’t stand to watch.  Sheila had been spotted with her face buried in her hands as the reeling Houston Texans stuffed the Matt Patricia-led Lions.

It’s a Lions team that is just a few days removed from being utterly embarrassed by a Carolina team that had been forced to roll out an XFL quarterback making his first NFL start, a team missing their franchise running back, along with a defense that’s struggled all season long.

You’d think the Lions would pounce on an opportunity to wash that bad taste out of their mouth in front of the entire country, but it was more of the same in a 41-25 loss.

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If Sheila Ford Hamp wants to carve out her own legacy, she needs to avoid falling into that same loyalty trap her father/mother had been known for that’s hampered this Detroit Lions franchise for years.

Sheila needs to make a change, and it needs to come now.

It is difficult to compare our day-to-day jobs with one of an NFL head coach, but just imagine where your business would be if you continued to do a below-average job for two and a half years showing absolutely no growth what so ever.

Imagine losing a client each week, or only selling three cars a year, or running out of fuel once a week driving down the highway.  How about forgetting your computer once a week, or spilling a full cup of coffee on yourself seconds before entering the conference room for a crucial meeting with your biggest client.  But continuing to tell everyone that you’re the smartest person in the room.

How would you feel if one of your workers continued to do a mediocre job and, when confronted, continued to give you the same list of reasons why they haven’t been able to complete the job or seal the deal each week?  It would become extremely frustrating, wouldn’t it?

After every loss, it’s as if Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia puts a cardboard cutout of himself in front of the webcam for the zoom postgame media session and pushes play on his recording device.  It’s the same old story, ‘we need to coach better, we need to play better, our pad level needs improvement, and we need to have a better effort all around.’

It’s getting old.

It’s time for a change, and, shockingly, it didn’t happen Friday morning.

With the Detroit Lions not improving in Patricia’s third season at the helm, general manager Bob Quinn needs to step in and fire his buddy for the sake of the franchise.  With Quinn seemingly content with this horrendous product he’s built and failing to make a coaching change, he’s as much of the problem.

That’s when ownership needs to step in and start to make some employees uncomfortable.  The Lions continue to be the league’s laughing stock; Lions fans deserve better, the city of Detroit deserves better.

It’s time to let special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs drive the bus for the remainder of the 2020 season as the organization sifts through a list of potential head coaching replacements. Make it happen, Sheila.