ALLEN PARK, Mich. - In his first press conference since the general manager and team president who hired him were fired, Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell insisted he was not a dead coach walking.
"I understand from [Lions Senior Vice President of Communications] Bill [Keenist] that there was a report out there that I was like a dead man walking," Caldwell said. "As you see, I'm alive and well and there's only one man that I think that has walked and risen from the dead and I'm certainly not him."
This came during an opening statement lasting over seven minutes where Caldwell spoke over 1,200 words and hit on topics from advice from Gale Sayers and Bill McCartney to the Chinese word for crisis to the greatness of the city of Detroit to name-dropping Dan Gilbert, Judge Damon Keith and Mickey Shapiro to his own job status and sadness over the dismissal of former general manager Martin Mayhew and team president Tom Lewand.