The connection between the two defensive coordinators in the Super Bowl is well documented. The more exciting side is that New England’s defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is set to take the Lions head coaching job at the conclusion of the season. That same job was once held by Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz.
Both coordinators will naturally be bombarded with questions about their past and future as the media circus of Super Bowl week continues. First up it was Jim Schwartz who spent some time reminiscing about his time in Detroit. Schwartz came to Detroit in 2009, at a time which wins were hard to come by for the struggling Lions. Thankfully, Schwartz was able to flip the script on the Lions and lead them to a playoff berth in his third year. However similar to fellow former Lions coach, Jim Caldwell, Jim Schwartz was unable to get to the next level.
“That was an awesome time in my life,” Schwartz said. “Not only to be a head coach and take over a franchise, a historic franchise like that but to get them back to life. We didn’t have the success that we wanted to have, and I’ll say I didn’t have the success, the ultimate success that we wanted to have because I wanted them to be in this game”.
Although Schwartz fell short of his ultimate goal to get the Detroit Lions to the Super Bowl, he certainly was an important coach for a franchise that had chronic ineptitude. Despite falling short of his goal, Schwartz had a lot to say about his time in Detroit and how valuable it was to him.
“Just to bring that program back to life from where they were, I think that meant a lot to me. I’ll always cherish my time in Detroit, and my family will always cherish their time in Detroit. Even though they spent most of their lives, chronologically, in different places, if you ask all my kids where they’re from, every one of them will say Detroit, Michigan.”
The Schwartz family appears to have that sense of pride in Detroit that is contagious to people around here. Schwartz’s tough blue-collar defense in Philly is a major reason why the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. Around the nation, the Super Bowl’s top storylines may be about the quarterbacks, but here in Detroit, the interest lies between the two D-coordinators.
