The out-of-the-Honolulu-blue news on Thursday that the Lions had hired businessman Rod Wood to serve as the franchise’s next team president carries with it a more important revelation: The effort to find a new General Manager will not, as previously planned, involve a search firm.
Instead, the Lions will use an “advisory board” to select a G.M., with Wood, owner Martha Ford, her four children, and others determining the right person for the job. The Lions possibly will use members of the league’s Career Development Advisory Panel to assist in the process.
The joint developments have been met with skepticism in Detroit, as explained by Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press. By hiring a close confidant of the Ford family to serve as team president and by involving Ford family members in the search for a G.M., the Lions are on the same general course that resulted in the hiring of folks like Matt Millen.
That doesn’t mean a search firm necessarily would have been the best way to go. But the speed with which Wood -- who has no football experience or credentials -- got the job as team president suggests that the Fords had no one in the family willing or able to preside over the team until a formal search process identified the right person to serve as team president.
“It was critical to me and my family to fill the President’s position as soon as possible, provided we identified the right person,” Martha Ford said in the statement announcing Wood’s hire. “I am confident Rod is the right person.”
But how does she or anyone else in the family know he’s the “right person” if there has been no search to determine whether other people would be more right for the job? Wood is an inside hire, a guy who has been managing wealth on behalf of the Fords for years. They clearly trust him, admire him, and like him.
Still, what does he know about running an NFL team? Via Dave Birkett of the Free Press, Wood said on WJR radio that he “probably would not be directly involved in personnel decisions.” And that definitely should make fans feel a little better, because Wood has never been involved in NFL personnel decisions in his life, directly or indirectly.
The concern, of course, is that he only said “probably” and “directly.” He still could be directly involved; he apparently will be indirectly involved. The combination suggests that Wood will essentially operate as the surrogate owner, at least for as long as Martha Ford remains in the ownership role. After Martha Ford’s tenure concludes, that could change, depending upon which of her children take over the team.
If Sheila Ford Hamp takes over the team, Wood could be acting as surrogate owner for a while; as explained by Carlos Monarrez of the Free Press in his own critique of the move, Wood is a “close confidante” of Hamp.
Which could trigger bells and whistles regarding whether Wood was working behind the scenes to engineer this particular outcome. Step one: Express consistent concerns to the confidant about the performance of the current G.M. and team president. Step two: Wait. Step three: Provide the confidant with broad-brush options for taking the team forward, perhaps even suggesting a full-blown outside search firm to disguise any interest in getting the job. Step four: Wait some more. Step five: Reluctantly accept the appointment to the position of team president.
None of it matters if Wood can figure things out on the fly. But there’s no reason to think that a guy who has spent his career managing money will be able to manage a football team -- starting with the selection of a General Manager.
Or maybe, just as the Fords reversed course on hiring a search firm, they won’t hire a General Manager. Maybe, if the team that beat the Packers in Green Bay for the first time since 1991 can keep winning games, Wood’s next bit of confiding will entail recommending a Belichick-style approach, with coach Jim Caldwell running the show and hiring someone to set the table from a personnel perspective.
It sure sounds like Caldwell has begun the process of laying the foundation for that outcome.
“I know without question that he’s a smart man,” Caldwell said of Wood on Thursday, via Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com. “Certainly he has handled a lot of their very, very difficult tasks in the line of work that he’s been in, and he’s been around football enough. We see him around here quite a bit.”
They’ll be seeing Wood around there a lot more, and who else they see will hinge on the decisions and recommendations made by a guy who is getting a crash course in one of the most fascinating industries in America.
