Sheldon White To Take 'Win Now' Approach As Lions' Interim GM
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
In the chaos of the Lions' team facility two weeks ago, just after general manager Martin Mayhew and president Tom Lewand were fired, employees wondered if there would be an emergency meeting. Who still had jobs? What was next?
Instead of that emergency meeting, they received door-to-door visits from the man who would be promoted to interim GM that day, Sheldon White.
"This is my job," White said. "I have to do it my way, and my way I've done it the entire time I've been here – I did not want to have an emergency meeting, and sit down and talk to everyone about how everything was okay. It's not okay."
White addressed the media Thursday for the first time since his appointment to the interim position, and he made it clear that, while the interim tag was certainly still there, this was his job, and he would put his own touches on it. First on the agenda is not a rebuild – "I don't even like the word 'rebuild'" – but a win-now approach to the rest of the season.
White has been given the same responsibilities as Mayhew previously had. He also said that he had already made "subtle changes" to both the team and "inside the building," although he would not disclose details. As far as contract extensions and possible restructurings with players go, White will work alongside head coach Jim Caldwell and recently-promoted COO Allison Maki. He also wouldn't discuss individual players' deals.
The "interim" addendum to White's job title was made clear when owner Martha Firestone Ford promoted him. It's possible White could emerge as a candidate for the permanent position, depending, he said, on how the rest of the season goes.
"This isn't a Supreme Court justice appointment," he said. "The only person with a lifetime appointment in this building is our owner, and so the way I look at everybody – we're all interim general managers, we're interim coaches, we're interim players. … Will I be a candidate? I can tell you the best way to be a candidate is to win these games."
That, apparently, was the message Ford gave White in their first meeting after his promotion. According to White, she "told me to take the team and win," and stressed that the franchise wasn't giving up on this 1-7 season.
White mentioned the fact that there are players "on the street" right now that can help the Lions win, and it's his job to go out and find those guys.
As far as a long-term future goes, whether or not White remains GM past this season, he expressed his confidence in quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin Johnson, whose names have been rumored as trade pieces.
But for White, looking that far into the future isn't the focus. Winning, and winning now – a message handed straight down from Ford – is the only approach to take.
White, who was on the last Lions team to win a playoff game in 1991, met with players alongside Ford earlier this week. He shared some of his experiences with that team as an example of how an organization can turn it around midseason.
"What I can recall about that 1991 team is we were 6-2 with Rodney Peete, and then came Erik Kramer and we lost two in a row and everything was negative, and we were on our way out," White said. "Then we won six in a row and then won the playoff game for seven in a row. I discussed that with the players. There are situations where you can turn teams around and you can just a lot of confidence."