Published Dec. 7, 2020
The interim football coach had a five-game trial. As in every instance when you have “interim” ahead of your job title, the window to prove your worth is extremely narrow at its widest. Wayne Fontes didn’t have much time.
Five games. A season irretrievably lost. What was there to play for, right?
Fontes didn’t take his five-game trial as Lions head coach in 1988 for granted. He had precious little time to impress his boss, owner Bill Ford.
The Lions’ first game under Fontes after the mercy killing of the Darryl Rogers Era was in Milwaukee–well before the state of Wisconsin became essentially a house of horrors for the Lions for nearly two decades. The Lions were 2-9; the Packers were also 2-9. It was the Toilet Bowl!
Fontes’ players willed themselves to a 19-9 victory. As far as football games go, it would hardly be framed as a classic. But the Lions won. The interim coach was 1-0.
But yet the same old offensive woes under Rogers were on full display against the Packers under Fontes—just not quite as damaging.
Four days later, in the annual Thanksgiving Day contest, the Lions were completely inept in a 23-0 shutout loss to the Vikings. The Lions had three first downs. For the entire game. They mustered only 60 total yards on offense. Since Ford, in firing Rogers, had called the Lions’ offense “boring,” the ostrich egg laid on national TV was hardly a good look for the interim coach looking to get his first full-time gig as head man.
Fontes now had three games left. Three games that would likely determine his candidacy for the Lions’ head coaching job.
To try to inject life into the offense, Fontes went outside the organization shortly after the Thanksgiving debacle and hired longtime NFL quarterback Lynn Dickey to work with the Lions’ signal callers (Rusty Hilger, Chuck Long). And, more ostentatiously, Fontes brought in someone named Mouse Davis to install a roughed up version of Davis’ notorious Run-n-Shoot offense, which he had made famous in college (Portland State) and the USFL. Davis’ offense consisted of formations that often didn’t include anyone in the backfield other than the QB—nor any tight ends on the line of scrimmage. Davis wasn’t adverse to putting five wide receivers in formation, for example.
The Lions didn’t have Barry Sanders yet. So the “Run” part of the Run-n-Shoot wasn’t there. In fact, the entire personnel on the roster wasn’t at all set up for Davis’ shenanigans. But Fontes was desperate, and gave Davis carte blanche.
“I hope I’m impressing people,” Fontes admitted to reporters after bringing in Dickey and Davis.
Wayne Fontes was a hugger. He was a helmet slapper. He was a longtime defensive coordinator for John McKay—both at USC and in Tampa Bay. And, more recently, for Darryl Rogers. His dream was to one day become a head coach in the NFL. After his winning debut against the Packers, Fontes stayed on the field and hugged and slapped helmets with just about every player before retreating to the locker room.
Fontes was the polar opposite of Rogers, whose languid, emotionless countenance both confused and annoyed his players.
“We have to do something,” Fontes said about the late hiring of his new offensive assistants.
“I’ll do what I can,” Dickey said. Fontes was so desperate to bring in Dickey (Dan Fouts was also considered), that he acquiesced to Dickey’s personal commitments elsewhere, which required that Dickey only be available to the Lions from Monday through Thursday. Imagine.
Davis, meanwhile, was a full-timer. He arrived in Pontiac going full steam from the get-go. Mouse had been out of coaching for three years and was eager to get back into the saddle—even with a brutal NFL team like the Lions in 1988.
After the Vikings, those same Packers were in town. The Lions again made the Pack their victims, 30-14. The Lions’ offense, which owner Ford had spoke of needing “Roman candles” to go off, wasn’t scintillating (220 total yards), but it was opportunistic. The Packers committed six turnovers.
Fontes was 2-1, though both wins came at the behest of the lowly Packers.
But the next week in Chicago, the Lions gave the Bears (who would finish 12-4) all they could handle. Only a late Kevin Butler field goal saved Mike Ditka’s team, 13-12. Fontes’ enthusiasm was proving to be contagious. The hiring of Dickey and Davis also showed the players that the interim coach had no intention of mailing it in for the final five games.
The Lions lost the season finale, 21-10, to the almost-as-bad Buccaneers in Tampa. Fontes finished 2-3 in his five-game trial. And it was painfully evident that bringing in two new offensive assistants so late in the season wasn’t nearly enough to cure the Lions’ woes.
Now the football was in Bill Ford’s court.
To the surprise of many, Ford announced (without interviewing any other candidates) that the Lions’ new head coach would be (drumroll please)…Wayne Fontes!
To the surprise of few, Fontes hugged Ford at the presser. Had the owner been wearing a helmet, Fontes would have slapped it.
“I want to thank Mr. Ford for this opportunity,” Fontes said. “I won’t let you down.”
From 1989-96, Fontes’ tenure as Lions head coach was marked with semi-regular playoff appearances, often punctuated with frantic, late-season charges to the postseason. A frequent target of fans’ criticism, Fontes announced himself as the “Big Buck” as an effort to deflect vitriol away from his players, who appreciated that.
I once spoke to former Lions safety Ron Rice, a fellow EMU grad, several years after Rice retired. “We loved coach Fontes,” Rice told me. “He didn’t work us too hard in the early part of the season. That’s why we always had enough steam for December,” when Fontes’ teams were often successful.
Fast forward to 2020. The Lions’ latest interim coach, Darrell Bevell, was given a five-game trial after the cashiering of Matt Patricia. Bevell is also 1-0, after beating the sinking Chicago Bears on Sunday.
After the win, Lions players spoke of being “loose” and “themselves.”
But for the first 45 minutes, the Lions looked suspiciously like the team they were under Patricia. Still, they made plays in the fourth quarter that were elusive under Matty Patty.
One good thing about being an interim coach: You usually don’t have a tough act to follow.
Out of Bounds 