Matt Millen

Matt Millen

Career history
Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders San Francisco 49ers Washington Redskins

Matthew George Millen (born March 12, 1958 in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania) is a professional American football executive in the National Football League, where he is President and CEO of the Detroit Lions. Millen is most known for his work as chief executive of the Lions. His controversial tenure as head of the franchise has led to widespread calls for his ouster.

Prior to running the Detroit Lions, Millen was a professional football linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins of the NFL. In Millen's 12-year NFL playing career, he played on four Super Bowl-winning teams. Millen won a Super Bowl ring with each of the three NFL teams for which he played.

Following his NFL career, he was a football commentator for several national television and radio networks. His last job was as a member of the number two broadcast team for the NFL on FOX, as well as being the color commentator for Monday Night Football on Westwood One.

Biography

High school and college football

Millen grew up in Whitehall, Pennsylvania and attended Whitehall High School in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley region. He was a standout high school football player for Whitehall, which played in the East Penn Conference (now known as the Lehigh Valley Conference).

He was recruited out of Whitehall High School by Penn State, where he became an All-American defensive tackle for the Nittany Lions.

NFL career

Following his career at Penn State, Millen entered the NFL Draft and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 1980 NFL Draft.

During his 12-year NFL playing career, Millen played for the Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Washington Redskins. He won two Super Bowls with the Raiders (one when the team was based in Oakland and one during their stint in Los Angeles). He won one Super Bowl each with the 49ers and Redskins, though he was de-activated for Super Bowl XXVI while with the Redskins.

During his NFL career, he was selected to play in one Pro Bowl (in 1988). Millen finished his 12 NFL seasons with 11 sacks and 9 interceptions, which he returned for 132 yards, and 8 fumble recoveries. He also returned 7 kickoffs for 72 yards.

Television and radio career

Following his professional football career, Millen worked as a color commentator for CBS TV (which teamed him with Sean McDonough, Paul Olden, Mike Emrick, and Tim Ryan), and for Fox (which teamed him with Dick Stockton). He also provided game analysis for the radio broadcasts of Monday Night Football, working alongside Howard David on CBS's Westwood One radio network.

At Fox, Millen came to be considered the number-two analyst for its nationally-broadcast games, behind John Madden (who had been successfully teaming for years with Pat Summerall).

See also: NFL on CBS, NFL on FOX, and NFL on Westwood One

Detroit Lions management

In 2001, Millen left broadcasting to assume the job of the Detroit Lions' CEO and de facto general manager and bring upon the fans, the worst period of football they have ever seen. At that time, Millen had no prior player development or front office experience, and has learned nothing since.

Since Millen's arrival in 2001, the Lions are 31-84, 53 games below .500, and have lost 9 or more games each season. During the early part of Millen's tenure (2001-2003), the Lions failed to win a road game for three years (0-24) before opening the season with a win at the Chicago Bears in 2004. Overall, the Lions are 8-48 on the road since 2001. Millen himself admitted to an interviewer in 2008 that the team's record under his leadership has been "beyond awful". The Wall Street Journal said that NFL executives admit in private that Millen "has made more bad draft decisions than anyone else in two centuries."

Despite the team's record on the field, Matt Millen is the second highest paid general manager in the NFL.

Views by Lions fans

After the 2000 season, Millen inherited a reasonably good team that had finished 9-7, barely missing the playoffs when their opponent, the Chicago Bears, made a 54-yard field goal on the final play of the final game of the season. However, under Millen's leadership as CEO/general manager, the Detroit Lions are 31-81 (.277) following the 2007 season, the worst winning percentage of all 32 NFL teams during that time, and the worst of any franchise in league history over a comparable period of time since the 21-74 (.221) mark recorded by the hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1983-88. (The worst-ever NFL mark over a six-year period is held by the Chicago Cardinals, a dismal 9-52-3 (.148) from 1939-44.)

Despite the team's poor record under Millen, a number of high first-round draft picks who were widely considered colossal failures (Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington, and Mike Williams among them), and widespread disappointment among fans, the media, and even some players, Millen received a five-year contract extension from owner William Clay Ford after an HJ at the start of the 2005 season. Following the team's 3-13 performance in 2006, Ford announced that Millen would be retained as General Manager for at least another season.

"Fire Millen" movement

Angry Lions fans organizing a Fire Millen protest in 2005.

On December 4, 2005, a fan was tackled by security for his "Fire Millen" protest sign during a Lions home game against the Minnesota Vikings. After this incident, the slogan became a cultural phenomenon in 2005, repeated often in chants, signs and tee-shirts at Detroit sporting venues including the NBA, NHL, and Michigan State and Michigan basketball, football, and hockey games. It has even been heard at sports venues outside of the state of Michigan.

The chant began to spread during a college basketball game between Michigan State and Wichita State at The Palace of Auburn Hills on December 10, 2005. It started when ousted Lions coach Steve Mariucci was shown on the big screen, prompting a standing ovation for Mariucci and a loud chant of "Fire Millen!" The following night in Los Angeles, in an NBA game between the Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers, the chant surfaced late in the 4th quarter at the Staples Center. The chant has also been heard during various Detroit Red Wings games, both home and away, as well as during a college basketball game between Michigan and UCLA. Pistons power forward Rasheed Wallace even took part in the chant during a late timeout in a December 16, 2005 game against the Chicago Bulls. A "Fire Millen" sign was shown in the background of a February 3, 2007 broadcast of ESPN College Gameday at the University of Kansas. Fire Millen signs are popular among the students of Grand Valley State University, a division II school in Allendale, MI. One large sign with the "Fire Millen" slogan was removed by NCAA officials at the football national championship in Florence, Alabama.

"Fire Millen" even turned up in a background sign in the sports-oriented comic strip Gil Thorp on February 20, 2006 ('Detroit News 'columnist Neal Rubin took over as the writer of Gil Thorp in 2004).

Rival Green Bay fans insisting to the Lions to Keep Millen

The "Fire Millen" chant returned in force to Ford Field during the second half of the 2006 Thanksgiving day game between the Detroit Lions and the Miami Dolphins, when former Lions quarterback and first round pick Joey Harrington (often a scapegoat for the Lions problems) led the Dolphins to a 27-10 hammering of Detroit, dropping the Lions' record to 2-9. More Fire Millen chants have been heard at wrestling event WWE's WrestleMania 23 held at Ford Field, and TNA's Bound for Glory. For 2008 The Fire Millen chants were back in force during the game vs the Green Bay Packers.

Other protests

On December 6, 2005, Detroit sports talk radio station WDFN announced the "Angry Fan March" (also known as the "Millen Man March") in protest of Millen's contract extension.

On December 9, 2005, in protest of Millen's poor record, one Detroit Lions fan site, known as "The Lions Fanatics," (www.thelionsfanatics.com/tlfforum) lead by owner Dan Spanos organized an "orange out" event, which encouraged Lions fans to show up at Detroit's Ford Field clad in hunter's orange, the color of their opponent that week, the Cincinnati Bengals. According to reports, over 65% (42,250) of all fans attending this game were wearing orange in protest.

On December 24, 2006 another group of fans planned a walkout protest towards the end of the first half in the game against Chicago, to express their disgust with the current management.

Competition committee

Millen was named to the NFL competition committee on August 4, 2006.

External links

• FireMillen.com.
• The Pennsylvania Football News All-Century Team.
• Matt Millen NFL statistics at databasefootball.com.
• "Web Frenzy Sparks Fan Revolt", Detroit News, December 15, 2005.