If you have been reading Detroit Sports Nation since Matt Patricia was hired by the Detroit Lions, you probably realize that pretty much every writer here wanted him fired by the time his first season was over. Though I joined the DSN team, I can promise you that I was in the same boat along with the rest of the staff!
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We have constantly been calling for Lions’ ownership to fire both Patricia and GM Bob Quinn as they have proven their incompetence time and time again.
Yet, many in the Detroit media continue to sugarcoat everything rather than having a spine and giving a strong opinion one way or the other. This is not surprising because it is obvious they are scared of the repercussions of rocking the boat and possibly being shunned by the team they cover. (Note: there are a couple of local Lions blogs that are coming around and we welcome them to our bandwagon.)
On Friday, former Detroit sports writer and 97.1 The Ticket co-host Terry Foster posted an article on his blog in which he calls out the Detroit media for not taking Patricia to task.
Foster’s four main points include Class and Race, COVID-19, No Black beat Writers, and a Different Mindset.
Here are a couple of excerpts from Foster’s piece, make sure to click here to read his full post.
“Caldwell was black and Patricia white. Caldwell is a pop pop and Patricia a Patriot. Before I retired from newspaper I thought the criticism of Caldwell was harsh considering the team he coached. The Lions are not a good organization. Since 2000 the Lions have only won nine or more games five times — three times under Caldwell. It was interesting that General Manager Bob Quinn said 9-7 isn’t good enough after he fired Caldwell and replaced him with his Patriots buddy. That should be the rallying cry for every article and commentary about the Lions. 9-7 is not good enough. Neither is 10-24-1, which is Patricia’s record. I asked some of my media brothers and sisters if they’d give a white coach the same treatment as Caldwell and they assured me they would. Well so far they have failed. Every article does not have to be fire the coach. But we need more scrutiny of this regime. We do need some “what the fuck is going on here” stories. I am not accusing the Detroit media of being racist. But I do believe that they gave a white guy from New England more rope to figure it out. They rightly pointed out Caldwell’s bad clock management and that back and forth type of thing. But here is the dark secret. The players swore by Caldwell and played at a higher level. That ended when Patricia took over believing he was the second coming of Bill Belichick.
Defensive tackle and former Lion Ndamukong Suh said Caldwell deserves more credit for what he did here.
“Caldwell was the answer and didn’t get the ample opportunity to fully put his finger prints on the team,” Suh wrote, “let alone make crucial decisions for further success!”
Nation, please click here to read the rest of Foster’s blog. Do you agree with him?
