Ben Johnson told both the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Commanders that he didn’t want to coach either of those teams, according to various reports.
He says he wants to stay in Detroit as the offensive coordinator for the Lions to win a Super Bowl there.
Gabby Johnson, Howard Johnson, Olson Johnson, Dr. Samuel Johnson and the rest of the Johnsons in Rock Ridge — made famous in the film “Blazing Saddles” — think Ben Johnson might be a little confused. Maybe Commanders owner Magic Johnson as well.
Does Ben Johnson realize the Lions have never played in a Super Bowl? Does he know the Lions haven’t won an NFL championship since 1957?
Even his boss, Detroit head coach Dan Campbell, questioned the logic of banking on another Super Bowl opportunity with the Lions after their loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game Sunday.
After speaking to his team, Campbell told reporters, “I told those guys this may have been our only shot. It’s going to be twice as hard to get back to this point next year.”
Who knows what will happen next year or beyond? By then, the 37-year-old Johnson may not be the golden boy genius of coaching vacancies like he has been for the past two seasons. The Green Bay Packers, with their young coach Matt LaFleur — 44 now, but 39 when he took the Packers head coaching job — may get in the way. Stuff happens. Nobody is promised tomorrow.
Did Johnson really bow out because of his loyalty to the Lions? Or was it his loyalty to money?
There have been several reports that Johnson, with supposedly a $15 million annual price tag, may have turned off suitors with those salary demands. So was the vaunted Commanders search committee flying back out to Detroit for a second interview with Johnson to tell him he costs too much money?
If new Washington general manager Adam Peters really wanted Campbell to be his head coach, would new owner Josh Harris let money get in the way? After all, isn’t this how it is supposed to work? The GM picks the coach and the owner says, what, “too expensive”? There’s no salary cap on spending on coaches, no restrictions on how much you can pay your head coach other than your own purse strings.
Was it simply that Johnson felt he wasn’t ready to be an NFL head coach yet? He turned down an in-person interview with the Carolina Panthers last winter and withdrew his name from consideration for jobs in Indianapolis and Houston as well.
In a conversation last year with mlive.com reporter Kyle Meinke, Johnson said this:
“Talked to my wife about it, and we just came to a really good decision of, ‘Hey, you know, we’re happy where we are. We love where we are. We love being in Detroit, love the people here,’ and just decided then to go ahead and put the brakes on it right now,” Johnson said. “Just wasn’t the time for us.
“I think some people — I can just speak on a personal level — some people, they really want to climb as fast as they can,” Johnson said. “I know particularly young coaches want to do that. That’s not been the case for me, per se. I want to be around football. I want to win football games. I want to be around good people. And when I finally had a chance to step back and take a deep breath and look at it, that was the most important thing.”
Apparently, he still feels this way — admirable l traits for an assistant coach. Not so sure it’s a good look for a head coaching candidate.
It’s really not a good look for Josh Harris’ celebrated search committee either. You would expect the connection of consultant Rick Spielman with Detroit — his brother Chris is the CEO of the franchise — should have helped the Commanders be aware of Johnson’s thinking.
Now they lost another candidate. Mike Macdonald, the hot young defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, flew to Seattle Wednesday and took the Seahawks job. Maybe they should have made that search committee bigger.
As of press time, the list of candidates was down to former Atlanta Falcons head coach and current Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and Ravens defensive line coach Anthony Weaver.
Remarkably, former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has not been reported to be among the candidates. When this is over, someone should form a committee to explain that.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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