Okay, so the other day I got curious about the Detroit Lions, specifically who’s been steering the ship over the years. You know, the head coaches. It wasn’t like some big research project, just me wanting to know.
First thing I did, obviously, was just grab my phone and start searching. I typed in something simple like “Detroit Lions head coaches list” or “history of Lions coaches”. Pretty standard stuff.
Got a bunch of results back, as you’d expect. The official team site popped up, Wikipedia had a page, and then a load of sports statistics sites like Pro-Football-Reference. I kinda poked around a few of them.
Finding the Names
My main goal at first was just to see the names in order. Who was first? Who lasted the longest? That sort of thing. Wikipedia and those stats sites were pretty good for just getting a basic timeline. I started scrolling through, seeing names go way back.
- I noted down some of the early guys, names I barely recognized.
- Then came folks like Joe Schmidt, who I knew was a big deal player too.
- Got into the more modern era with Wayne Fontes, Jim Schwartz, Jim Caldwell, Matt Patricia, and now Dan Campbell.
Digging a Little Deeper
Once I had the list sorta clear in my head, I started clicking on specific names that caught my eye. Mostly the more recent ones or guys who had some buzz around them, good or bad.
What I looked for:
- Their win-loss records. Always interesting to see who actually won games.
- How long they actually coached the team. Some guys weren’t around long at all.
- Any playoff appearances? That’s a big one for Lions fans, right?
- Sometimes I’d read a little bio snippet if the site had one, just to get a feel for their time with the team.
I bounced between a couple of sites. Sometimes one site had the years listed slightly differently, or maybe the record was off by a game. I usually trusted the big stats sites like Pro-Football-Reference a bit more for the hard numbers, but fan sites or articles sometimes had more context about why a coach was hired or fired.
Putting it Together (Mentally)
I didn’t make a fancy spreadsheet or anything. Mostly just kept a running list in my head and maybe jotted a few quick notes on a piece of paper if a particular stat stood out. It was more about getting a general understanding of the coaching journey the Lions have been on.
It was interesting, honestly. You see these patterns, periods of hope, periods of… well, you know, Lions football history. Seeing the names and records laid out like that really puts the current era under Dan Campbell into perspective. It wasn’t too hard to find the info, just took a bit of clicking and reading. Glad I spent a little time looking it up.
