JIMMY MAKES PITCH FOR PIOLI

During the “Fired Up” segment that ends each week’s FOX’s pregame show, former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson gives the Detroit Lions some free advice on how to proceed in the wake of the termination of CEO Matt Millen. Says Jimmy: Hire Scott Pioli away from the Patriots. “It’d be easy to pile on Matt Millen, everybody’s doing it. But he wasn’t alone in every decision. He did not negotiate some of those awful contracts. . . . There are a bunch of good-old boys, ‘yes’ men drawing paychecks in that front office,” Johnson said. “You have time to find the best talent evaluator, one that understands how to put together a championship team. . . . Start with New England’s Scott Pioli. Pay him whatever he wants. He’ll pay for his salary with less first-round busts making millions. And then let him do the necessary house cleaning. He’ll hire the right people to get the job done.” It’s hard to argue with Johnson. Pioli possibly has been overlooked for recent openings because, in the past, he has opted not to leave New England. Still, when the Falcons homed in on former Pats director of college scouting Thomas Dimitroff for the G.M. gig in Atlanta, some questioned whether front-office employees involved in the search process steered clear of Pioli because they feared for their own jobs once the son-in-law of Bill Parcells showed up and started firing and/or reassigning those who needed to be fired and/or reassigned. And that’s the danger in Detroit. By leaving in place Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand, to whom Johnson surely was referring when he mentioned “yes” men, the Fords have given them a three-month opportunity to attempt to influence the process of making a permanent hire come January. Though many NFL owners are out of their league when they try to make football decisions, it often amazes us that these highly successful human beings sometimes don’t have a better understanding of human nature. Mayhew and Lewand will do everything they can to keep the positions they inherited once Millen got the ax. But Mayhew and Lewand were part of the prior problem -- and to the extent that they were grousing internally about Millen instead of getting up and leaving, then they’re even less worthy (in our view) of staying. Here’s hoping that, regardless of the person whom the Lions hire to run the thing, the Fords will realize that the input they’ll be getting from Mayhew and Lewand over the coming weeks will be rooted in their own desire to expand their influence at best, or to keep their jobs at worst.