As I watching the Michigan - Notre Dame football game on ABC TV this past Saturday I was surprised to see that the 'expert' analyst assigned to the broadcast was Matt Millen.
For anyone not familiar with Millen, he was a top-level player in the National Football League, playing on several championship teams, then a well-regarded broadcaster for a few years, before becoming the President and CEO of the Detroit Lions of the NFL in 2001.
From 2001 - 2008, when Millen was mercifully fired, the Lions record was 31-84, by far the worst in the NFL during that span, and Millen, as the executive in charge, made several colossally bad decisions in evaluating talent as evidenced by the series of failures of Lions first round draft selections.
In the last few years of his tenure with the Lions, 'Fire Millen' chants were commonly heard at Lions games, in fact, the 'Fire Millen' chants popped up at hockey, basketball, and college events in Detroit.
An online petition to aimed at convincing Lions ownership to fire Millen generated 36 pages of comments.
Why is any of this interesting? I am thinking about what the interview for his new gig must have been like.
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ABC Exec: So Matt, tell me about your last position, what was your greatest accomplishment?
Millen : Well, in 2005, I managed to get a multi-million dollar contract extension.
ABC : Wow, you must have been doing a fantastic job!
Millen: We did win 6 games in 2004
ABC: Wow, that is almost mediocre!
Millen: That was a fun year.
ABC: How about your relationship with the customers?
Millen: They were always talking about me. I did generate lots of publicity.
ABC: You do have an impressive resume. Can you leave the names of a few references?
Millen : Sure, I can give you the names of some of my teammates and coaches from when I played
ABC: Well, you have not played in almost 20 years, is there any one else we can call?
Millen : How about my old play-by-play partner, Tim Ryan?
ABC: Tim Ryan? Is he still around?
Millen : Sure, he is doing great.
ABC: How about a reference from your most recent position, with the Lions?
Millen: That one did not really work out so well, I kind of want to forget about it.
ABC: So the last position you held for 7 years, the one with the most responsibility, prestige, and power, there's no one willing to give you a positive reference?
Millen: Yes, that is pretty much it.
ABC: Can you at least tell me about how you left the organization, what happened the season after you left the team? Were they in a position to succeed?
Millen: They were 0-16.
ABC: You're hired!