When the current smoke finally clears over the Detroit Lions new head coach once being accused of sexual assault -- and it will -- there will be only two people who know for sure what happened on that "fateful" day way back in 1996. The initial accuser, and Patricia himself. All the rest, now and into the future, will be no more than idle speculation. Did he do it or not? We'll likely never know.
Yes, like most other things these days, many will jump on one side or the other, but it doesn't matter.
Here's what should.
The responsibility for this "mess" rests squarely on the shoulders of the Detroit Lions organization -- hence the Ford family and their minions. This never should have happened. Why?
Because any semi-competent billionaire, which the Fords surely are, should have done more homework before signing Patricia as their latest head coach.
Tell me a billionaire doesn't have enough "juice" to get the FBI to run a thorough background check on a future high profile guy, and I'll tell you I don't believe it. The Fibbies run countless thousands of such checks on various individuals every year. The sexual assault charge, regardless of how long ago it was, and even minus a trial, much less a conviction, would have shown up on their radar in about 5 seconds. The Fords would have at least known about it.
But OK, let's assume the G-men aren't for hire by "private citizens", which they technically should not be. Right.
That's still no excuse. For the price of a few thousand bucks, five figures tops, a drop in the bucket (chump change) to the Fords, any semi-competent private investigator could have done at least a basic background check on his/her computer within no more than a few hours. For a small fee, web sites are even available whereby even the average citizen can type in a name and gain access to a whole slew of background info on them. Age, date and place of birth, places of residence, phone numbers, email address, parents, kids, other relatives, education where and when, marriages, divorces, job history, the whole shooting match of their life. Which also includes any brushes with the law, whether convictions resulted or not. If a private John/Jane Doe citizen can access all that, how much more could a skilled private investigator turn up?
But the Fords/Lions didn't see fit to do that.
So now they're stuck with potential egg on their faces -- again.
True, the Patricia case from so long ago is deader than Jimmy Hoffa. No way will it ever be resurrected again, at least officially. Originally, the accuser refused to testify, citing she didn't want to go through the rigors of a trial, hence the charges were dismissed.
Even if she were to come forward today, having changed her mind, there's two good reasons why it wouldn't make the slightest difference.
One, the statute of limitations has long since run and expired.
And two, even if it hadn't, no judge is going to allow such a he said/she said case to come back alive 22 years later in his/her courtroom. They have better things to do with their always crowded dockets than take up the court's (and potential jurors) time with such a non-starter.
What is somewhat comical is New England Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick stating on the record that he and that organization knew NOTHING about Mattie P's brush with the law.
They still don't know anything about Spygate or Deflategate either. Right. So they highly recommended Patricia to the Lions.
But let's give the Hoodie Man the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he and the Pats DIDN'T know.
After all, Patricia started off his tenure in Foxborough as nothing more than a lowly assistant. Nobody checks out those guys too closely. And he eventually rose through the ranks to defensive coordinator. If he'd been a loyal and and upstanding employee all along, and getting the jobs done very well, who would think to delve into his past? And why would they?
But being a coordinator is a very large step BELOW that of a head coach. The latter are high-profile figures that represent the faces of the franchises, and make millions of dollars more every year to boot.
Hiring a new head coach is a huge deal for any NFL franchise. So one would expect them to have done their due diligence in thoroughly checking him out before inking him to a multi-year contract and introducing him to their fans/public, and media.
But the Lions obviously didn't do that. And now this little PR mess has blown up in their faces.
Hey, nobody expects the doddering old widow Martha Ford to get things right, when even her late husband William was clueless for decades. I mean c'mon. This is the same Martha that hired an "estate manager", you know, a guy who's expertise is in wills and trust funds, to be President of a professional football team. Even HE admitted he was clueless regarding NFL football. But he's still there. It's the Ford way. So were Edsels, Pintos, and those pesky exploding tires a while back. And, of course, the cursed reign of Matt Millen, which took them eight -- count em -- EIGHT years to realize he was even more bumbling and ignorant than they were.
Nevertheless, here's wishing Matt Patricia the best in his tenure with the Detroit Lions. Maybe he can finally be the one that guides the team into some semblance of respectability. But he's facing long odds going in.
The Lions are where head coaches go to die. Many have come and gone, with no shortage of clowns in the mix, but they've all had one thing in common over the decades.
None, not a single one, even in today's world of the merry-go-round of head coaches, has ever gone on to a different head coaching job after travelling through the twilight zone that is the Honolulu blue and silver. A coordinator here and there, but never again trusted as the head field general.
So step right up, Mattie P. Collect your millions from the Fords and try to whip that sorry bunch into some sort of contenders. Good luck with that.
And we'll forgive you for whatever it is you did or didn't do way back in the middle of the Clinton administration. Old Willie got away with a few things two, if memory serves.
But know this will be your last stop.
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