Matt Millen

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Matt Millen
Date of birth March 12, 1958
Place of birth Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania
Position(s) Linebacker
College Penn State
NFL Draft 1980 / Round 2/ Pick 43
Pro Bowls 1988
Honors 4 Super Bowl rings
Playing Stats Pro Football Reference
Playing Stats DatabaseFootball
Team(s) as a player
1980-1988
1989-1990
1991		 Oakland/ Los Angeles Raiders
San Francisco 49ers
Washington Redskins
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
2000-present Detroit Lions

Matthew George Millen (born March 12, 1958 in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania) is an American professional football executive in the National Football League, where he is President and CEO of the Detroit Lions.

Prior to assuming leadership of the Detroit Lions in 2001, Millen was a former 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 [1][2].

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 NFL on FOX.[3]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] High school and college football

Millen grew up in Hokendauqua, 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 Lehigh Valley Conference, one of the nation's most highly-regarded athletic conferences.

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

[edit] 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[4].

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.

[edit] Television and radio career

Following his professional football career, Millen worked as a color commentator for CBS TV (which teamed him with Sean McDonough), 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). Millen's blunt, enthusiastic, and no-nonsense style was praised by many critics, who found it both refreshing and reminiscent of Madden's earlier days in the broadcast booth. It was heavily rumored that Millen had been elevated to number-two analyst because Fox was grooming him to one day succeed Madden. [citation needed]

[edit] Detroit Lions management

In 2001, Millen abruptly left broadcasting when he was given the job of the Detroit Lions' CEO and de facto general manager. The move shocked NFL insiders and fans, since Millen had no prior player development or front office experience beforehand. The Lions' ownership stated that they hired Millen to re-build the franchise, despite the fact that the team was coming off of a winning season in 2000, which ironically was the last season that the Lions have had a winning record.

With the Lions, Millen has made a number of controversial player-personnel moves, including the drafting of quarterback Joey Harrington in 2002 (traded in 2006 to the Miami Dolphins); wide receiver Charles Rogers in 2003 (released in 2006), wide receiver Roy Williams and running back Kevin Jones in 2004, wide receiver Mike Williams and defensive lineman Shaun Cody in 2005, and linebacker Ernie Sims in 2006. He was also responsible for the hiring of head coaches Marty Mornhinweg, whom Millen fired after going 5-27 in two seasons, head coach Steve Mariucci, fired after two and a half seasons on November 30, 2005, and current head coach Rod Marinelli in 2006.

He is widely regarded as a laughingstock in NFL circles, with former NFL executive of the year Ron Wolf's description of his record as "pathetic" and "inept."[5]


[edit] Unpopularity with Detroit fans

After the 2000-2001 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 [6]. However, under Millen's leadership as CEO/general manager, the Detroit Lions are 23-70 as of December 10, 2006, the worst winning percentage of all 32 NFL teams during that time, and the worst record of any franchise in league history over a comparable period of time[7]. Despite the team's poor record under Millen and widespread disappointment among fans and the media, Millen received an inexplicable five-year contract extension from owner William Clay Ford at the start of the 2005 season.

Further rankling fans is Millen's refusal to take up residence in Detroit.


[edit] "Fire Millen" movement

On December 4, 2005, a fan (Duncan deBruin) was tackled by security for his "Fire Millen" protest sign during 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, even at non-football events including the NBA, NHL, and Michigan State and Michigan basketball games. It has even been heard at sports venues outside of Detroit.

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 [8], 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.

"Fire Millen" even turned up in a background sign in the sports-oriented comic strip Gil Thorp [9] on February 20, 2006 (Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin took over as the writer of Gil Thorp in 2004).

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[10], when former Lions first round pick Joey Harrington and the Dolphins hammered the Lions 27-10, dropping the Lions' record to 2-9.

[edit] 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 [11].

In protest of Millen's poor record, some Detroit fans have turned to actually rooting against their team at homes games, desperately hoping that increased losses will hasten his firing. On December 9, 2005, one group of Lions fans, known as "The Lions Fanatics," organized an "orange out" event, which encouraged Lions fans to show up at Detroit's Ford Field clad in orange [12], the color of their opponent that week, the Cincinnati Bengals.

On December 24, 2006 another group of fans plans a walkout protest towards the end of the first half in the game against Chicago, to express their disgust with the current management. [13]

[edit] External links

[edit] Biographical links

[edit] Anti-Millen links

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