Millen's way - Matt Millen, president and CEO of the Detroit Lions

The Lions' new president and CEO is making far-reaching changes to get everyone in the organization heading one direction--his

Matt Millen didn't come in and clean house, he drained the swamp.

"You almost have to," says Howie Long, the Hall of Fame defensive lineman and Fox football analyst. "You want to find out where the alligators are."

As the new president and CEO of the Lions, Millen is determined to purify the environment, ridding the team of any potential predators or dangers. To Millen, anyone not believing strictly in his agenda falls into that category and, consequently, out of favor. Millen's changes have been far-reaching, from the head coach and the personnel director to the equipment manager.

Equipment manager? Several members of the organization were stunned when Danny Jaroshewich, who was with the team for 28 seasons, was among those dismissed.

"This is my own philosophy, and I've watched it for the last 20 years," says Millen, who played in the NFL for more than a decade and spent the past nine years as a football analyst on radio and television broadcasts. "Any department that touches the players is really huge. The equipment gray, the trainer, the strength coach ... all the guys who touch the players are the most important people you can hire, and they've got to be in line with your philosophy. It cannot be--`It's the way it's always been done.' It can't happen. They directly affect what you're doing, there's no question about that."

The Lions have been mired in mediocrity for the past 43 years, winning just one of the 10 postseason games they have appeared in since their 1957 NFL Championship. Even in the years Detroit qualified [hr the playoffs, it was never a serious threat to reach the Super Bowl.

It's bad enough when a team gels comfortable with losing, but the situation got even worse two years ago when Millen's name first surfaced as the Lions' next boss. Vice chairman William Clay Ford Jr., the only son of owner William Clay Ford, entertained the idea of hiring Millen, and vice president Bill Keenist, who knew Millen well, set up the preliminary meetings.

The move, though, was shot down by Ford Sr. when then-coach Bobby Ross-with the urging of some in the front office--threatened to quit if Miller was brought in. The organization then split sharply and bitterly into two camps: those loyal to Ford Jr. and those, who supported former chief operating officer Chuck Schmidt. Within the franchise, it was a tense two-year period, filled with paranoia and petty jealousy ... and alligators.

"Sometimes change is necessary, period. Regardless. Regardless of skills, regardless of how well you've performed or what you're capable of," Millen says. "Sometimes change is necessary--not for the sake of change--but for the attitude and everything that goes with it."

Recently, while several members of the front office were released from their duties, others stayed--regardless of their previous allegiance. Millen says he based his decisions on individual evaluations.

"If you're looking for a definitive thing, I can't give it to you," he says. "It's like Mr. Ford said, `We've been sitting on pretty much dead center' If we're sitting on dead center, let's take a step back and look at the big picture."

Which is exactly what Millen did when he approached the decision on whether to retain coach Gary Moeller. Other than to say, "I like Gary Moellen I wanted to hire him," Millen won't discuss the subject.

Team sources, though, say Millen's decision to go with Marty Mornhinweg was based on Moeller's lack of a definitive plan for the future of the team. When Mornhinweg interviewed for the position and withstood Millen's withering questions, Millen decided to make the switch. Millen says it won't be the last time Mornhinweg will be on the hot seat in the president's office.

"He has to be strong enough to be able to handle that," Millen says. "That's a big part of it. Two things are very important: He has to be smart, and he has to be strong. His strength of personality, will he fight?"

Despite the strength of Millen's personality, he says he won't micromanage Mornhinweg's decisions and vows not to meddle.

"Meddle isn't a good word," Long says. "High-school gifts meddle. Presidents and CEOs intervene. I really believe the tone of the organization starts at the top, and I like his hire as head coach. I think Marly Mornhinweg is far more gifted than anyone knows, and I think he and Matt are on the same page."

"If you look at the people who have been hired, they're strong people. I like that," Millen says. "I want somebody to tell me what they think. You know I'm going to tell you what I think. But when we leave the room, we're in agreement that it's the best way. That's the way it has to be."

Millen and Mornhinweg are in agreement that the West Coast offense is the key to the Lions' success. Detroit's offense, which has gone through about a dozen personality changes in recent years, now will have a bedrock.

"In that offense, the quarterback is either going to be a star or he's going to be exposed," says Joe Theismann, ESPN football analyst and a former Redskins quarterback. "If I'm Charlie Batch, I'm as excited as I possibly can be about football. This is his chance to show the world he's the man. The key is the quarterback."

Although the Lions don't have the classic West Coast personnel--multipurpose running backs, for example--Millen believes the offense will click.

"The greatest strength of this offense is its adaptability," Millen says. "Look at the teams that are running it, that's why they're different. It's why Denver is different than San Francisco, which is different than Green Bay and Seattle."

Millen and Mornhinweg will have their challenges. In addition to keeping Batch healthy for an entire season, they will have to mold the offensive line around the quarterback, including 350-pound left tackle Stockar McDougle and 380-pound offensive tackle Aaron Gibson.

"We, have big, physical offensive linemen in the dome, and that doesn't make sense," Millen says. "We're playing at least nine games a year in a dome. You'd want to try to stay a little bit more to the speed side, the movement side. But we've got 800-pound tackles. OK, let's adapt to that--and we will."

Defensively, the Lions are solid, but not strong. They lack speed in pass coverage, especially at linebacker, but that problem could be eased with a strong performance from a talented defensive line. If defensive end Robert Porcher can lift his game back to the Pro Bowl level and defensive tackles Luther Elliss and James Jones can dominate the run, the Lions -will be in decent shape.

Millen has already had long talks with several players, including Porcher, who vowed to bounce back.

"Matt is a football guy, he knows how players think," Theismann says. "He's been around a lot of coaches and owners for a lot of years. He's been coached as well as seen coaching. If you're going to select a guy for his football information, he's a great choice. It's a young game and I think he's young enough to relate to the players.

"I don't think Matt is going to be successful, I expect him to be successful."

Millen, who will turn 43 in March, played for three Super Bowl-winning organizations--the Raiders, 49ers and Redskins.

"Matt's biggest decision every day is deciding which rings he's going to wear on which fingers," says Long. "Mike Shanahan always had the X's and the O's, but I'm convinced that he didn't know how to be a head coach until he made that trip to San Francisco (to be the offensive coordinator under George Seitert). Then, and only then, did he realize how to run an organization and how to treat players.

"Matt Millen has been with three of the most successful organizations in pro football history. For him, every day was another chance to look, listen and learn as a football guy."

Based on the calls he has received in recent years seeking his advice, Millen has apparently learned quite a bit.

"I know for a fact--and I can't tell you who they are--that several people in football called Matt on a number of occasions," Long says. "These are key football people who would ask for his opinion and advice on a player, on signing a free agent, on hiring a head coach or general manager or whatever.

"I know Matt's going to be reluctant to talk about that. He wants everybody to think he's just an `Aw, shucks,' kind of guy, but that's a lot of bull."

Although Millen didn't want to discuss which NFL teams he has talked to--or what they talked about--he agreed with Long's point about how players and coaches can learn to win from championship organizations. Which is why Millen felt something was amiss when he arrived in Detroit.

"From the outside, I knew something was wrong," he says. "When I was involved with organizations that won, the focus was right. You understand that winning is the most important thing. In Detroit, it was a little fractured in my view. The first meeting I had, I talked about different agendas, and we can't have that. We have to have the same agenda. There am a thousand ways to win, and we have to pick one. There's only one way."

Matt Millen's way?

"It has to be," he says. "That doesn't mean it's the right way or the best way, but it's the way."

Tom Kowalski covers the Lions for THE SPORTING NEWS and Booth Newspapers.

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