I had pretty much checked out on the team I hate to love recently. Outside of fantasy purposes, where my Lions-heavy draft approach has somehow carried me to a league final (having Derrick Henry AND Dalvin Cook helps! *I’m doing the feed me spoon thing that running backs do right now*), I just can’t muster the strength to get emotionally invested in the final score at the tail end of yet another losing season.

But news came out this week that got the blood pumping and reminded me that I’m still alive, despite all the flaming dumpsters these eyes have seen.

Time for some culture talk.

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Here Coombs the reaper

The Detroit Lions fired Special Teams Coordinator Brayden Coombs this week after he broke rank and dialed up a fake punt behind Interim Head Coach Darrell Bevell’s back. It has been reported that the insubordinate act was simply the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and that Coombs had been given the “not a culture fit” designation a la the recently exiled Quandre Diggs, Darius Slay, and others.

Let’s be clear up front: The firing of a special teams coordinator is not going to make me lose sleep at night. They can and will find another. But the context here matters and shines a light on just how big of a hole this organization has to dig out of before they establish a culture that is anything but a losing one.

The exact game scenario of the fireable offense is as follows:

Detroit trails Tennessee 32-18 with roughly 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Lions are facing a 4th & 4 from their own 31 yard-line. Punting means giving the ball back to Derrick Henry, the NFL’s leading rusher who already had 141 yards in this game by doing stuff like this, which was just plain rude…

The Lions are bad pretty much everywhere defensively, but against the run they have allowed the fourth-most yards in the NFL and a league-worst 24 TDs.

There is ZERO chance the Lions win that game if they punt in this situation, which is what they were trying to do considering this is Darrell Bevell’s audition to have his interim tag removed and to be named the next head coach of this sorry franchise. The correct move was to simply go for it on fourth down but Bevell was concerned over the hits Matthew Stafford took on the previous two plays. A valid concern, as the aforementioned hits ended Stafford’s day early.

Bevell must’ve forgotten that he has a very handsomely paid backup QB to keep the ship from sinking in times like these.

Coombs knew, because he has a functioning brain, that trusting the defense to get multiple stops was the definition of insanity, since this defense has been a sieve since 2014. So he jumped rank and took matters into his own hands. His fake attempt came up a half-yard short, and a quick score from the Titans (obviously) put the game on ice.

Here is the replay of the ill-fated fake attempt.

Interestingly, the spot on the fake looked worthy of a challenge, but you know Bevell was having none of that since he was already drawing up Coombs’ pink slip. Would Coombs have been ousted if they picked up the first down? Who’s to say? It will just have to go down as one of life’s great mysteries. Like the origin of the universe, or how a franchise can win just one playoff game in 60+ years in a league built around parity.

The fallout

News of Coombs’ axing has more than a few players coming to his defense on Twitter. Some supportive…

some confused…

and others just tired of all the nonsense surrounding this franchise…

Here’s a bonus endorsement from a guy that is actually a year older than Coombs: Danny Amendola. From The Athletic:

“Great dude, man,” Amendola said. “Really happy to have him on board this year. (He) brings a lot of energy, brings a lot of knowledge. He’s aggressive. Great guy to have in the locker room.”

And to cap off the praise, let’s hear from newly minted Pro Bowler Jack Fox and his golden leg…

For such a “me first” guy, looks like Coombs sure did make a positive impact on the players under his wing, on and off the field.

But again, this isn’t just about the firing of a coordinator, but rather the way the Detroit Lions conduct business and the lack of self-awareness surrounding the state of their brand.

Why is Darrell Bevell, a guy that was gifted his head coaching position five minutes ago after the plug was pulled on the Quinn/Patricia experiment, being given the authority to initiate the firing of a young, coveted coordinator that has been as good as advertised when he was hired just 11 months ago? Is Bevell not also being actively evaluated as this season careens into the gutter?

Whether there were behind the scenes circumstances beyond the insubordination on the fake punt is relevant, but the optics combined with the “culture fit” excuse frame Coombs’ firing as yet another instance of a talented individual getting shoved out the door for not falling in line with a management team that has not earned its clout. Management that has undergone constant turnover and shouldn’t have the right to rule with an iron fist and turn away those who dare question authority or think that their way might be better.

And to recap: Coombs’ heinous act of defiance was simply keeping his team’s chances to win the game at 2% with a successful fake rather than punting away the win, in a largely meaningless game at the end of a lost season. The audacity!

Had Bevell leaned into the “Stafford was injured” reasoning it could have flown in my book. But in true Lions head coaching fashion, he doubled down with a lack of game awareness and a faulty belief in what his defense is capable of. From Pride of Detroit:

“with the score and where we were—we had three timeouts left, plus the two-minute warning—and Jack (Fox) is punting really well, I thought it’d be best to flip the field.”

Did I mention that the Lions are within striking distance of allowing the most yards in a season in team history?

But yeah, flip the field. It’s not like the Titans already had four touchdown drives of 75+ yards in the game or anything.

Missed opportunities

While Bevell presented the case to fire Coombs the day following the Tennessee loss, it was team president Rod Wood (among others) that had to sign off on the move. Given the fact that the Lions are actively looking for who their next head coach will be beyond 2020, this feels like a missed opportunity to see what kind of a sack Bevell possesses for dealing with personalities that clash with his own, which may have been the single biggest flaw of his predecessor, Matt Patricia.

The easiest and most convenient solution for dealing with a difficult employee is to show them the door. It takes no leadership to do so. It simply requires power and/or influence. What might the front office have learned about Bevell had they listened to his case to fire Coombs and then told him to go back and figure out how to make it work? The search team brought on to find the next head coach and GM could have watched how Bevell dealt with disciplining Coombs and addressed the team regarding the insubordination, while also giving Coombs, who is just 34-years-old, a chance to correct his behavior.

Would Coombs have shown the discipline to take his medicine and follow the chain of command going forward? If he is as disciplined as the special teams unit that he puts on the field every week that is an easy yes. In 2019 the Detroit Lions committed 19 special teams penalties (yikes!). Through 14 games in 2020 that number is…wait for it…zero.

And here’s the kicker (special teams pun!): upper management could have chosen the “figure it out” course of action even if they agreed with the initial decision to fire Coombs and simply cut bait in two weeks when the season ends.

As an added plot twist, it has been announced that Bevell, Defensive Coordinator Cory Undlin, and other members of the coaching staff will miss the upcoming Week 16 matchup against Tampa due to COVID protocols. It’s unclear whether Coombs would have been among those also ruled ineligible, but this week has turned into a big-time audition and will be a bold and highlighted resume item for the rest of the staff if they can keep this game competitive against one of the best teams in the NFC.

Some might consider Bevell’s power move as a sign of just how much he is respected by Lions management, which is a reasonable assumption. But the Lions should be in information gathering mode as they look to find out who can be a part of the future of this organization, and they just allowed an interim and potentially lame-duck head coach to cross an important name off their list.

Congratulations Lions. You learned that Darrell Bevell knows how to politely request a firing after “agonizing” over the decision “basically all night long” (doesn’t sound like a guy that is too confident in his decision). Consider this an opportunity missed. The Lions are elite at missing opportunities.

Culture Club

Yes, the Lions really do want to hurt me. And you. And anyone else that still gives a damn about this franchise.

I am so tired of hearing this organization play the “culture” card, because they have no idea how to properly identify the pieces to make whatever culture they are fantasizing about a reality. They have no problem signing guys that get arrested for DUI while carrying a weapon without a permit. But a coordinator that dares to be aggressive in a situation where there is little to lose (other than his job, apparently)? Not a culture fit —-> unemployment line.

All I want for Christmas is for the Lions to stop distancing themselves from any dissenting voice or contrarian opinion that enters their locker room. When these individuals also come with clear and obvious strengths, they need to have their voices heard and talents utilized. They should not be free from personal responsibility and reprimand for going rogue, but cutting bait is a management crutch for those unwilling to do the dirty work of getting the most from your subordinates.

The Coombs firing is just another log of evidence in the fire that suggests to the outside world that if you aren’t a loser, or are at least content with blindly following the leadership of losers, your talents might not be suited for Honolulu Blue.

From Psychology Today:

Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people makes irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform or the belief that dissent is impossible. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought.

Hey, Detroit Lions. Less harmony and more critical thought please.

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