Detroit needs a daddy.
Not Detroit so much as fans of Detroit’s four major professional sports teams. And not a daddy so much as an uncle, or a big brother, or an older cousin.
Nor are we seeking out only men. Anyone who can coach will do, so long as they can coach, and connect with those that love the Detroit Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings and Lions. And by connect, I mean soothe, which is just a simpler way to say:
There there. It’ll be OK. I’ve got this.
And then go do it.
Dan Campbell went and did it, at least for half a season, and now everyone is wondering if he can do it again, if his team — your Detroit Lions — can do it for both halves of the season, which should mean making the playoffs.
That’s the goal, right?
Shoot, that’s the lowest goal out there at the moment, as the Lions officially opened their training camp Sunday morning in Allen Park.
For this season it isn’t just about winning the division for the first time in 30 years, or about making the playoffs, but actually winning a game once there. That hasn’t happened since 1991. By my math, that’s 32 years ago, which feels like the last time this region had that kind of coach.
The kind of coach that literally had “Daddy” in his nickname. (More on Chuck Daly in a moment).
Oh, I know, it hasn’t been that long of course. Jim Leyland gave off dad vibes, or at minimum unpredictably edgy great uncle vibes and his run managing the Tigers only ended a decade ago.
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There was also Larry Brown, who guided the Pistons to a title in 2004, not even 20 years ago. Brown was as good a coach as there was in the game. Though his caretaker vibes were questionable, and he only coached here two years and he seemed to want outta this region the moment he won the title.
Great coach. Just not a Detroiter or Michigander in spirit, or someone who ever pretended to be. Brown was a mercenary, and he won, and he’ll always get a seat at the reunion, perhaps off to the side.
Scotty Bowman took to Detroit more than Brown and, like Brown, made his name before he arrived. But he adopted the spirit of this place in his own Bowman-esque way and made Steve Yzerman play defense.
If that’s not “Daddy Rich” vibes, then I’m not sure what is … except for literal “Daddy Rich” vibes, which means vibes that came off Chuck Daly. The kind where he corralled a compelling, enthralling mess of personalities and molded it into something iconic.
He wasn’t worried about saying what was on his mind. Neither were Brown or Bowman or Leyland. And neither is Campbell, who opened training camp Sunday by saying:
“I think, as always, the thing that is going to worry you is the hype train … this thing has just taken off and is out of control right now.”
How’s that for dousing water on the most anticipated Lions season in 30 years?
Actually, Campbell did nothing of the sort. He just doesn’t want to talk about expectation and “hype” every day for the next five weeks, and when asked what part of the hype is out of control, he deflected, like the seasoned coach he is becoming.
“I don’t even want to get into it,” he said. “We’ll get into this rabbit hole and then it’ll go to the next question, next question. Then it’ll be which article, and which one is it and you don’t like the expectations of this. No, no, no. I like where we’re at. We’re going to have enough firepower to bang away and compete. I do believe that. So, I like that, but we have to work now.”
And there it was. The admission that this team has enough to do something for the first time in decades, and the acknowledgment that this team has enough that it should do it.
Bang away and compete, right?
Those are the words of the kind of coach this area’s been needing for a while. Those are the words of a coach who came to Detroit because he felt at least some connection to it. Most likely because he played here, but also because the area suits him; besides, few challenges in sports can be as rewarding as jolting a once proud franchise back to life.
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Campbell is the dean of Detroit’s coaches. Well, he’s co-dean, along with the Tigers’ A.J. Hinch, who will close his third year managing not long after Campbell begins coaching his third year.
That’s remarkable, too, isn’t it? That none of the Wings, Tigers, Pistons or Lions have had a coach for even three full seasons yet?
It’s a rough business. And a reminder of how hard it is to land the kind of coach that can both win and speak to a region, one way or another — the “winning” helps the “speaking” no doubt.
Campbell is the first coach around here in a while who has the chance to do both. The Pistons’ Monty Williams could potentially be such a combination, too, but he’s a couple years away from serious consideration.
We might say the same of Hinch, who played in Detroit like Campbell and who carries himself with a touch of swag, as he should having won a World Series. But the Tigers feel a way from being serious.
As for the Wings’ Derek Lalonde?
Again, too soon, though he has shown a compelling combo of toughness and self-deprecation before the microphone, and if the Wings begin to ascend, his humor and competitive spirit will offer a compelling coaching package.
So, for the moment, and for the immediate future, Campbell remains the best hope for a fan base in need of a coach, in need of a kind of counselor, in need of a “Daddy.” And his message regarding hype and expectation was simple now that he and his team are on the clock:
“Keep the message consistent and call it what it is. It just goes back to the work, and when you see it not going that way or we have some guys that are deviating a little bit, or they think they’ve arrived and they haven’t? You call them out on it. I think as long as we do that as coaches and players (and) teammates? We’ll be fine.”
And if they don’t? And they hype train derails them?
Then Campbell isn’t the next “Daddy Rich.”
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.