Matt Millen is arguably the worst front office executive in the history of professional sports. During his tenure running the Detroit Lions, the team went 31-84 in a league built for parity. The year before he took over, the Lions had a 9-7 and nearly made the playoffs.
But more than a terrible judge of football talent, Matt Millen is a pretty terrible human being. We know this from repeated incidents where he, in front of open microphones, called Lions receiver Johnny Morton a "faggot" and his NFL Draft broadcast partner, Ron Jaworski, a "polack." There was also the time Millen, purportedly as an objective analyst, went on ESPN to whitewash the negligence of his old coach, Joe Paterno, in response to Louis Freeh's investigation into the Jerry Sandusky cover-up at Penn State.
Now, thanks to a new documentary entitled "Matt Millen: A Football Life," we learn that while Millen was collecting a reported $5 million/year salary to run the Lions, he wasn't really exercising much in the way of executive control.
Back in 2005, according to Millen's son, the Lions boss really wanted to draft DeMarcus Ware. That would've been a smart move because Ware went on to become a Pro Bowl NFL defensive lineman. Instead, the Lions took WR Mike Williams. He turned out to be a huge bust. Ware was selected one pick later by the Dallas Cowboys.
Detroit Free Press: Millen did not specifically address the Williams pick in the film, but he said his biggest failing as GM was that “I acquiesced too often.”
“If I had to go back and say, ‘what would you change,’ I would probably go back and follow John Madden’s and Bill Parcells’ advice to me, and that was make your own mistakes, don’t make someone else’s,” Millen said in the film. “John would say to me all the time, ‘Your name’s on the top of the list. You make a decision, make sure it’s your decision.’”
See, his mistakes didn't really belong to him. They belonged to all the people Matt Millen surrounded himself with. Wait, doesn't that mean all those mistakes actually do belong to Matt Millen?
Also, if Millen wasn't really making the big personnel decisions for the Lions, why were they paying him? After all, making the big personnel decisions is kind of, you know, the job when you're running an NFL franchise.
“I’m like, ‘Great, the buffoon just picked another wide receiver, that’s what everyone’s going to think,” lamented Millen's son Matthew in the film,” lamented Millen's son Matthew in the film.
Why would they think that? Because when you're the boss, you own that kind of decision. Always.
The real lesson here: There's another generation of Millen men willing to deflect blame for bad decisions made by Millen men.
