In August 2001, I was a copy editor at the Free Press when sports editor Gene Myers invited me to the Detroit Lions’ annual kickoff luncheon.
There had been a regime change and we were curious. New Lions general manager Matt Millen had hired his first coach, Marty Mornhinweg, so we wanted to see what they had to say.
I did not grow up in Michigan. I arrived in 1999. But even in my short time here, I had the sense the Lions had done the same thing the same way for a long time. When Millen replaced Chuck Schmidt in January 2001, it felt like a big change.