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New Detroit Lions president Rod Wood admitted he is "not a football guy" when he met with the media on Friday and faced questions about his qualifications. The Lions hired Wood, the former CEO of Ford Estates who has dealt with finances for the owners of the team, on Thursday. The move came two weeks after the Lions fired team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew after a 1-7 start to the season.
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Team owner Martha Ford had said the team would hold a national search to find a replacement for the Lewand.
"As most people have noted, I'm not a football guy, that's not in my background," Wood said Friday. "What I am pretty good at is hiring great people and letting them do their job. I would expect that we'll do that by finding a great GM to lead the football side.
"I think I'd be crazy if I ever thought I would (run a sports franchise) but the opportunity has presented itself. My career has taken so many turns that I would have never predicted. Sometimes you can end up in the right place at the right time. It's been a pleasure to work with the Ford family and get an exposure to an NFL team. And from that, this opportunity just kind of presented itself. I would probably say that I'm not qualified to run any other NFL team. But I think I'm qualified to run this one because of the connection to the Ford family, understanding the business for the last eight years working with them."
Wood visited with the team after Friday's practice.
"I would probably not be directly involved in personnel decisions," Wood said. "But certainly, as it relates to the financial impact on the team and the salary cap and helping facilitate the best use of our resources to put the best team on the field on a consistent basis, absolutely."
Jim Caldwell said he and Wood spoke on Thursday, but they did not talk about his future as head coach.
Caldwell declined to discuss specifics about the next general manager for the Lions. Martha Ford, Wood and Ford's four children comprise the search committee to find the franchise's next GM.
"There is no person that's got any right frame of mind, that's got good sense, that's going to make a decree on what he thinks his boss should look like, act like, think about or anything of that nature. It doesn't make any sense," Caldwell said Friday. "That's ridiculous. That guy is my boss. I'm his subordinate and he'll come in and set the pace, obviously, with the vision of Mrs. Ford.
"It trickles down, so we have people that are extremely capable of making the decision. What that person should be, who he should be or she should be and go from there."
