Detroit Lions Weblog

Pat Kirwan’s 10-Step Program for Creating a Championship Culture

NFL.com’s Pat Kirwan has written an incredibly interesting article about what elements he believes are necessary to building a championship contender in the NFL.

Of those elements, subcategorized as Owner, Tradition, QB, Staff, Special Traits, Tough Decision, The Team, The Building, The Media, and a Bit of Luck, I believe that the Lions currently possess at most one or two of these elements, as prescribed by Kirwan.

My scorecard : Owner .5, Tradition .5, QB 0, Staff 0, Special Trait 0, Tough Decision 0, The Team 0, The Building .5, The Media .5= 2 out of 10.

I qualified owner, tradition, media, and building as half being met because on the surface, the Lions possess a solid NFL organization, with the Ford’s financial commitment to the organization being strong, but beyond that the organization has failed to fully capitalize upon a once strong tradition, especially the traditional Thanksgiving day game, and a relatively supportive media who has suffered right along with Lions fans as the Ford’s and their incapable minions have run the organization squarely into the ground.

Can new the front office and coaching staff’s reverse this situation and at least place the team in the position where they may be able to boast having 6 or 7 of these elements in place, which could lead to them becoming a playoff contender, well, that remains to be seen.

What is patently obvious, by using Kirwan’s template for success, it is not difficult to see what separates a successful from a not-so-successful NFL franchise and just how difficult it is to build one.