Notes: Former NFL GM praises Dan Campbell’s ‘remarkable’ leadership

One quick glance at the Detroit Lions’ post-game celebration following their dramatic win over the Minnesota Vikings, and you’ll see just how much players respect head coach Dan Campbell. The locker room went absolutely nuts when veteran Michael Brockers awarded him the game ball.

But just in case you weren’t convinced of Campbell’s leadership yet—and I’m not sure any can realistically question his leadership abilities—a former NFL executive penned a nice article praising Campbell’s ability to lead.

Mike Tannenbaum, the former general manager for the Jets, knows Campbell well. In 2015, when Campbell was named interim head coach for the Dolphins, Tennenbaum served as Miami’s executive vice president of football operations. This week, he wrote about Campbell for The 33rd Team and remarked upon the leadership qualities he saw back in 2015.

“During that time, one thing was abundantly true — Campbell had a rare and innate ability to lead,” Tannenbaum wrote. “It came from his ability to be relatable to those with disparate backgrounds and hold people accountable in a motivational way. He has an amazing ability to be demanding in a friendly way.”

Tannenbaum notes that the toughest time to keep a team motivated is when the wins aren’t coming and it’s getting late in the season. So to see Campbell pull out a victory this week—and have the team competitive in just about every other game this year—speaks to his ability to motivate.

“The ability to compete each week proves that the message of Campbell resonates with the players and gives the Detroit front office a reason to be hopeful long term. We do not know how it will play out on the field, but it can not be denied that the players respect and believe in their Head Coach.”

You can read the entire article here.

• It looks like the Lions’ last-second victory is getting the NFL Films treatment on the show “Inside the NFL” on Tuesday night. For now, they already released the good part:

• Former Lions communications vice president Bill Keenist has resided in Oxford, Michigan for the past 34 years. He shared his story and what this past week has been like for him with Peter King of Pro Football Talk. Great read here.

• Sometimes you can’t appreciate a football play until you see it from a specific angle. Take, for example, this absolute dime from Jared Goff on Sunday:

• Couple of very interesting notes from the Lions-Vikings game in this conversational piece from FiveThirtyEight.com. My favorite: That was the first game the Vikings didn’t hold at least a seven-point lead in.

• Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm takes an early look at the Lions’ offseason by exploring quarterback options in the draft outside of the very top of the draft.

• For the Schadenfreude crowd, our friend Arif Hasan wrote about everything that went wrong for the Vikings on the Lions’ game-winning drive.

• We close out notes with perhaps the greatest song ever created. PLEASE NOTE: THIS SONG IS VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK: