Owner Martha Ford Sends Message: Same Old Lions Out, New Era Beginning

Detroit Lions owner Martha Ford fired general manager Martin Mayhew and president Tom Lewand on Thursday, per ESPN's Adam Schefter—and out with them go the last vestiges of the way the Lions used to do things.

According to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport, major on-field changes are coming, too; he reported franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford may not be with the franchise much longer. Ford's message to fans, media and everyone in the organization is unmistakable: This team is her team, and her Lions won't be the same old Lions.

"I also want to make it clear that we have no intention of giving up on this season," Ford told the media, quoted here via team reporter Tim Twentyman. "We expect our team to compete, improve and win."

Those are expectations William Clay Ford Sr. did not always impose.

At the start of the 2015 season, Martha Firestone Ford's team was indistinguishable from her late husband's: The same executives and coaches held the same jobs, and—save the high-profile free-agent departures of Ndamukong Suh and, to a lesser extent, Nick Fairley—the same key players played the same positions. At first, Martha Ford was just as reclusive as William—rarely seen and even more rarely heard. Many presumed she, like Lewand and Mayhew, was just another artifact of 51 fruitless years of Ford ownership.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press/Associated Press

In fact, the two executives had been top lieutenants of long-deposed, fan-despised president and CEO Matt Millen. Incredibly, according to Kyle Meinke of MLive.com, Millen even hand-picked them as his successors.

Millen, a fine player and well-regarded color commentator, was an abject failure as an executive; his was the most disastrous tenure in NFL history. Yet during Millen's final days in charge, he convinced William Clay Ford Sr. that Mayhew and Lewand could successfully lead the football and business sides of the franchise—two feats he, during seven years in charge, never managed.

"I learned a lot from seeing some of the mistakes that were made," Mayhew told Joe LaPointe of the New York Times upon his hiring. But Mayhew made too many of Millen's mistakes: spending high draft picks on players with injury and character flags, making poor decisions on which players to re-sign and which players to let walk and hiring coaches who refused to adapt scheme to talent.

This, though, is all regular football stuff. After the Lions' disastrous 1-6 start, head coach Jim Caldwell fired a host of offensive assistants; by extension, it appeared his seat was very hot. Since very few general managers live to hire a third coach, it only made sense that Mayhew's job was at risk, too.

Lewand's ouster, though, means a massive culture change is coming at Allen Park.

Lewand did much of the heavy lifting of getting Ford Field built, ushering the Lions back in from the suburbs and into a structure that's unmistakably Detroit. Lewand has been regarded as a savvy contracts guy, pushing the envelope with structure and incentives to fit massive contracts under the cap. He oversaw the Lions' first full rebrand in decades, changing the uniforms, logo and wordmark. He's also been aggressive in building out the Lions' digital media presence, hiring veteran beat writers and decorated columnists away from local news outlets and building an in-house video operation.

In other words, Lewand has done some good things with operations, and it would have been understandable if Ford chose to keep him and his staff around, even as she cleaned house on the football side of the house.

That's not what's happening. In fact, per one of Rapoport's sources, it's a "total wipeout" at the team facility:

Earlier in the week, Detroit News sports editor Phil Laciura begged Ford to sell the team.

"Mrs. Ford, it's time," Laciura wrote. "Time to sell this team to someone who isn't afraid to rip the organization apart. It's not your fault. I'm told you are an energetic, tough woman who holds people accountable. That's great, but turning this franchise around is a lot to ask of a rookie owner."

Laciura wasn't the only voice in the Detroit media to presume Ford didn't have the guts to do what she just did.

"The Fords run their NFL team as patricians operating above the fray," Detroit Free Press columnist Carlos Monarrez wrote Wednesday. "They are rarely seen and almost never heard." Monarrez continued to underestimate Ford, even as he complimented her:

"

I do believe Mrs. Ford cares. Deeply. I even think it's touching that she feels a responsibility to continue the stewardship of her husband's work. I've heard countless stories over the years about how William Clay Ford was considered a good owner by his employees because he was sincere and generous and allowed people to do a job and then left them alone.

The problem with that is when employees underperform, they shouldn't be left alone. The NFL was always a tough business, but it has become the cruelest, coldest and most cutthroat in sports by far. Decisions have to be made exceptionally fast, sometimes too fast. But we just don't live in an era where Tom Landry gets seven years until he has his first winning season.

"

Monarrez then called for Ford to sell the team to her son, Ford Motor Company executive Bill Ford Jr., for $1, so a vigorous, visible leader could finally take control of the team and make the necessary changes—despite his recent insistence to WJR radio host Paul W. Smith (via Detroit News) that "since my father passed away over a year ago, my mother is in charge, and she makes all the decisions."

On Thursday, 90-year-old Martha Ford got up on a podium before the Detroit media and announced she'd grabbed an axe and rolled heads all by herself.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

“We are very disappointed with the results of the season so far," she said, according to Twentyman, "and believe a change in leadership was necessary." Ford announced she'd promoted VP of football operations Sheldon White to acting general manager and chief financial officer Allison Maki to interim chief operating officer; both will report directly to her.

"As of today, we are beginning a national search for the best leadership to manage our team going forward," she said, per Justin Rogers of MLive.com. "I want to ensure our fans that we intend to identify and hire the very best leadership in order to produce a consistently winning football team. Our fans deserve a winning football team, and we will do everything possible to make that a reality."

Despite Ford's conviction that they're not giving up on this season, it's hard to see a winning Lions football team on the field in 2015. With Stafford and the offense no better in one week under new offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter and the defense struggling in the absence of star linebacker DeAndre Levy, improvement will likely be far less dramatic than Ford's assertion of control was.

Yet Ford's message leaves no doubt: No Lions job is safe anymore. The days of perpetual loyalty and losing are over. Caldwell, Stafford, everyone else on the roster and everyone else on staff are working for their jobs.

It's hard to say when Lions fans can expect to watch that consistent winning football team Ford says they deserve, or what players and coaches will still be a part of that promised squad. But Lions fans finally have an owner who made it clear she expects that day to come—and until it does, those drawing a Lions paycheck will be held accountable.