One of the first orders of business for the Detroit Lions this season was a no-brainer decision: Extend their two football leaders.
Lions president Rod Wood was a keynote speaker at the Detroit Economic Club's NFL draft panel Thursday afternoon at the Motor City Casino Hotel Sound Board hosted for members of the DEC and students from high schools and colleges in the metro Detroit area. Wood spoke about the excitement for the upcoming draft hosted downtown, the Lions' offseason and gave hints to the new uniform designs that will be unveiled April 18.
Wood was on an individual panel before three journalists, the Free Press' Dave Birkett, The Athletic's Nick Baumgardner and WXYT-FM's Will Burchfield, answered questions about how the Lions will potentially handle the draft.
Wood conducted a 20-minute Q&A session moderated by WXYZ-TV channel 7 sports director Brad Galli. One of the first questions Galli posed to Wood was regarding the contract extensions for general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell that were announced March 14. Wood said the extensions were on his mind during the season, and were a priority once the calendar turned to the offseason.
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"We really didn't start serious conversations until the season was over, " Wood said. "I didn't want to get anybody distracted from anything but it was certainly on my mind knowing where the season was headed. When we initially hired both of them, Dan initially got a six-year contract, Brad got a five-year contract, so one of my objectives was to get them aligned with the same end date. So, extended Brad by two years, Dan by one, so they are both with us for the next four years at least and hopefully much longer."
Once the conversations began, it didn't take long for Holmes and Campbell to sign. Wood said he has good relationships with the representatives for both Campbell and Holmes and worked on extending the contract and being "fair to them" in the deal, given the performance of the Lions in 2023 and what the leaders of the team mean to the city.
"Both their representatives I know well, we've done other deals together," Wood said. "So it was a win-win and it really took basically a week from start to finish to get it done."
It was different from the prolonged process that brought Campbell and Holmes to Detroit during the search for a new GM and coach during the end of 2019 and early January 2020. Wood said the team was focused on creating a lasting culture for the Lions with the hires, and were diligent with long interviews lasting two to four hours on average with 12 GM candidates and eight head coaching candidates before landing on Holmes and Campbell.
Holmes caught Wood's eye in the first two minutes of his zoom interview, prompting Wood to write a note labeling him as "the guy" for the GM opening because of his ability to convey his personality, leadership and intellect through a computer screen with ease.
"It was just dynamic," Wood said.
Campbell brought the energy he has become loved for throughout the Lions' fanbase to his interview. He interviewed around 8 a.m. the morning after coaching in a playoff game with the New Orleans Saints and showed up caffeinated and ready to state his case to Lions leadership.
"Now that you all know Dan, you can imagine this: He's drinking a double coffee like this," Wood said while mimicking chugging a drink, drawing laughs from the crowd, before delivering a Campbell impersonation from the interview. "He goes, 'I want this job.' He didn't need a job, he wanted our job. He wanted the Detroit Lions job. He played here, he knew the city, knew the culture.
"He knew what it would mean to bring a winner to this town and thankfully they both delivered on it."
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New Lions uniforms will be 'one of the great uniforms' in NFL
The reveal date for the new Lions uniforms is a week away and Wood remained tight-lipped on giving any details to the crowd before the April 18 reveal.
The Lions made the decision to update the jerseys "a few years ago" after passing the five-year period of not changing uniforms required by the NFL following the latest update in 2017.
"We've worked on this for two years with the league office, with Nike who designs the jerseys led by Brian Facchini, our chief communications officer, and (chief operating officer) Mike Disner and members of their team."
Wood said it will not stray far from the classic Lions' look with a "modern twist."
"I think our goal was to honor the past — we have great colors, we have great history — but also put a modern twist on it," Wood said. "So I think when you see them, you'll see both of those things. And you'll see, hopefully, uniforms that propel us for at least the next five years to be one of the great uniforms in the NFL. And we're never going to change them dramatically, but there's always an opportunity to modernize them and I think people will see that."
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