Let's face it Lions fans, it's time for another head coaching change. It is pretty clear that Rod Marinelli is not a very good head coach and his assistants are even worse. Marinelli doesn't deserve all the blame for this team being 0-4, but he certainly is responsible for quite a bit of the things wrong with this franchise. The players he has brought in -- mainly the ones from Tampa Bay -- have not made this team better. On top of that, the coaching staff he assembled is absolutely terrible, which leads me to my next point.
Rod Marinelli should be fired. Here's the problem: No one currently on the coaching staff is good enough to take over as the interim head coach. That is a direct result of the coaching staff Marinelli helped put together, and because of that, he shouldn't be fired until after the season. Yes, I realize that there is a chance the Lions could be 0-16 when that day comes, but there is simply no point to fire Marinelli right now. It won't make the team better, and although things can't get any worse, it just wouldn't make sense.
Many out there are calling for Rod Marinelli to quit, but he made it clear earlier this week that that won't be happening anytime soon.
"Just you saying that to me, I would take that as a personal insult," Marinelli said to a reporter.
Marinelli added that people who think quitting is a possibility don't know him.
"I won't change," he said. "I believe everything I'm doing in the game of football and how it's being taught. I have 100 percent belief in it.
"Is it getting done yet? No. Am I going to go to work? Yes."
"I respect authority, which a lot of times that doesn't happen in this country," said Marinelli, a Vietnam veteran. "I look at authority and I take my marching orders from there."
It wouldn't make sense for Marinelli to quit, and he obviously isn't going to. So where does that leave the Lions now? Well, the entire team is just going to have to tough it out the rest of the season and hope that things start to get better. Chances are that the entire coaching staff will remain intact until the end of the season, and then anything could happen. Assuming a new general manager is brought in, I highly doubt Rod Marinelli will be around after 2008 anyways, so the Lions just have to survive until then.
Just as Marinelli isn't going to quit, I highly doubt that William Clay Ford will fire him, especially since there is nobody on the coaching staff that can really replace him. Marinelli met with WCF earlier this week and it didn't sound like his job was in jeopardy. Besides, I doubt Ford wants to fire another person during the season anyways.
When it comes down to it, should Rod Marinelli be the head coach of the Lions? Absolutely not. However, the situation the Lions are in calls for Marinelli to stick around until the end of the season. Once 2008 is gone, everyone is fair game. Marinelli would probably be fired regardless of whether or not a new GM is hired, but considering chances are there will be someone new in the front office, his days definitely are numbered once the season is over with.