Detroit Lions should honor high standard Jim Caldwell set, fire him

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Lions coach Jim Caldwell on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017, says his job when he was hired in 2014 was to win it all. The Lions are 0-2 in the playoffs under Caldwell. Carlos Monarrez/Detroit Free Press

This past week, which should be the final week of Jim Caldwell’s tenure as coach of the Detroit Lions, he told me to check the transcript.

So I did. Actually, I checked the very first transcript. This is what he said when he was introduced as Jim Schwartz’s replacement Jan. 15, 2014 at Ford Field.

“Do you believe in providence?” Caldwell said. “I certainly do and I think there is a reason why I’m here. I think, without question, that is to win a championship.”

Caldwell didn’t back down from that assertion this week when he was asked about his legacy and how he has raised the standard of expectation.

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“My job when I came here was to win it all,” he said Thursday.

That single statement establishes the entire context for Caldwell’s time in Detroit.

Caldwell was brought here to do what Schwartz and no other coach in the past 60 years has done: Be a consistent winner. He has put together a 35-28 record and gone to the playoffs twice. If the Lions beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Caldwell’s .563 winning percentage would overtake Joe Schmidt’s .558 mark as the franchise's best among coaches in the Super Bowl era.

But that’s not enough.

“My job when I came here was to win it all.”

I was at Caldwell’s first press conference at Ford Field and I remember being hopeful. I appreciated the monumental task Schwartz had undertaken by helping the Lions rise from the ashes of 0-16 and putting them in the playoffs in his third season.

But the start of Caldwell’s tenure had a different tenor. He was supposed to help Matthew Stafford reach another level. And as a coordinator at two Super Bowl champions and as a head coach who made it to another Super Bowl, he was supposed to have championship pedigree.

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He had a great story, too, as a kid from a blue-collar Midwestern town. He was the son of a UAW worker. And, to me, Caldwell being an African-American coach in Detroit was very meaningful. I was glad the Lions hired him.

When Ken Whisenhunt – the other of Bill Ford Jr.’s so-called “two Plan As” – tanked in Tennessee in 2014 while Caldwell finished 11-5 and went to the playoffs, I thought the Lions were either geniuses or had gotten lucky for once. Didn’t everyone?

Then 2015 happened. The Lions started 1-7. Caldwell benched Stafford. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi was fired. Team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew were fired. Caldwell began jousting with reporters with juvenile name-calling like “Dungeon of Doom” and even made some personal attacks.

That’s when I knew Caldwell wasn’t the answer.

“My job when I came here was to win it all.”

It was disappointing and it felt like a waste. He pulled the Lions out of a death spiral that season to finish 7-9. And instead of helping himself by fostering a better relationship with reporters, he antagonized them.

In 2016, the Lions went through a miracle stretch of comebacks, backed into the playoffs, then got blown out in the postseason. This year, not even that.

I will give Caldwell lots of credit for how he has handled himself this season, especially as his firing has turned into what seems an inevitability. He hasn’t tried to burnish his record or pretend the team is better than it is. He has called this team “just average at best” and rejected the idea that simply getting into the conversation of making the playoffs was good enough.

“My job when I came here was to win it all.”

I respect that Caldwell set a high standard for himself when he arrived in Detroit nearly four years ago. Lions fans should hold him to that standard. The Ford family should hold him to that standard. They should fire Caldwell and hold the next coach they hire to the same high standard.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez. Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices.