Quick, somebody get Jim Bob Cooter to the podium.
Lions coach Jim Caldwell has plenty of problems at the moment, but apparently has some issues with the coverage of his 1-7 football team.
Via Justin Rogers of MLive.com, Caldwell told reporters there that Detroit was the most negative media market he’s ever coached in.
It might have something to do with a few decades of losing interspersed with fleeting hope. The Lions are 529-632-32 all-time, have won zero Super Bowls and have made two playoff appearances in the last 15 seasons.
But nope, it must be the reporters, who continue to print scores which include the Lions being on the wrong side of the hyphen.
He also referred to the media room at the Lions facility as “the dungeon of doom” (via Ashley Scoby of CBS Detroit).
Part of Caldwell’s issue might simply be a lack of perspective, having worked in small and/or successful markets such as Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Baltimore prior to his arrival. And when he was building a 26-63 record at Wake Forest in the 1990s, there were those nasty critics at the Winston-Salem Journal but otherwise nobody really cared.
And perhaps it was a simple aside on his way into a deeper point. Caldwell is generally an insightful and thoughtful coach. But maybe the pressure that comes with having to jettison his offensive coordinator before their trip to London has caused him to look for enemies, and find them where they’re not hiding.