Everybody Loves Rod Marinelli

Former Lions coach was disaster in Detroit, but don't tell former players

By EAMONN BRENNAN

Updated 3:00 PM CST, Mon, Jun 22, 2009

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When Lovie Smith and company hired Lions coach Rod Marinelli, it was not without a few sideways glances. After all, Marinelli is Marinelli. He just led the Detroit Lions -- a talentless team, sure, but still -- to an 0-16 record in 2008. It was the first time a coach has accomplished that highly dubious feat. Naturally, Marinelli was fired. Not so naturally, he was soon hired by the Chicago Bears.

Wait -- wha? Why hire an 0-16 coach? Is there no one else available? According to the single-season record, one could argue that Rod Marinelli is the worst coach in the history of the NFL. Why hire him?

But there are good reasons why. For one, the Bears aren't hiring him to be a head coach, the job at which he failed so miserably for the Lions. They're hiring Marinelli to be a defensive line coach. Marinelli's entire career has been built on his ability to coach the defensive line. It's his NFL calling. Today, helpfully, the Chicago Tribune's Dan Pompei collected a whole batch of quotes from former players discussing how much Marinelli helped them. It's pretty refreshing, actually. From Cory Redding, who played for Marinelli in Detroit:

"I took so much from him, I don't even know where to start. First of all, he's a man's man. He was accountable as a coach and man. "He didn't want to hear about how you can't get something done. He wanted to hear about how you're going to get it done. [...] "I got tired of him every day pulling me in the corner and working for 10, 15 minutes. Just working hands, hips. He did it every day. I'd get so mad, I'd start beating his arms until they turned blue. He didn't care, he just kept going. He's one of those old tough guys, and he instilled that in us. No matter how dark it looks in the tunnel, you don't stop digging to try to see the light at the end. You just keep digging no matter what. That's what I took from him."

The story is full of this sort of thing, and while it's not exactly surprising that Marinelli's former players love him -- a lot of former players love their coaches; it sort of goes with the territory -- it is slightly exciting to hear some of the virtues of a new Bears coaching hire sung so loudly. Marinelli was a disaster as a head coach, but there's every reason to expect his Bears d-line tenure to go much more smoothly.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.