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The Lions Finally Roar: The Detroit Lions and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
The epic and tumultuous story of the Lions, the Ford family, the city of Detroit—and how all three have come together on the cusp of a new era.
On Nov. 22, 1963, William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, made a successful bid to buy the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for the unheard-of sum of $6 million. As Ford and his entourage settled down to a celebratory luncheon, their waitress delivered the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas.
"Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford’s ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America’s most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility. Readers meet the hell-raising quarterback Bobby Layne, who is said to have put a curse on the team after he was traded to Pittsburgh; the rock-solid linebacker and future coach Joe Schmidt; the stars Charlie Sanders, Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and, most spectacularly, Barry Sanders, the greatest running back in the history of the game, who grew so disgusted with losing and mismanagement that he walked away when he was on the threshold of shattering the NFL’s all-time rushing record.
But the tide is finally turning. The Lions Finally Roar culminates with the team’s recent turnaround and playoff run under the stewardship of Bill Ford’s daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. Hamp hired savvy general manager Brad Holmes and charismatic coach Dan Campbell—and has stood behind them as they methodically returned the team to the ranks of the league’s elite and, at long last, have made the Lions roar.
Deeply researched and briskly written, The Lions Finally Roar is about much more than football. It explores the American class system, the linked histories of Detroit and its auto and music industries, the city’s changing racial dynamics, the rising power of television, and how all of it played into the NFL’s transformation from a fall sport into the multi-billion dollar, year-round entertainment behemoth that is a cornerstone of American popular culture.
On Nov. 22, 1963, William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, made a successful bid to buy the Detroit Lions of the National Football League for the unheard-of sum of $6 million. As Ford and his entourage settled down to a celebratory luncheon, their waitress delivered the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas.
"Born under a bad sign" is how Bill Ford’s ownership of the Lions began. After a decade of supremacy, Ford led the team on a half-century slog of mediocrity, the fruit of his mercurial nature and undying loyalty to the wrong people. The Lions Finally Roar is bursting with the colorful ruffians who have made the team one of America’s most beloved sports franchises despite its years of futility. Readers meet the hell-raising quarterback Bobby Layne, who is said to have put a curse on the team after he was traded to Pittsburgh; the rock-solid linebacker and future coach Joe Schmidt; the stars Charlie Sanders, Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson and, most spectacularly, Barry Sanders, the greatest running back in the history of the game, who grew so disgusted with losing and mismanagement that he walked away when he was on the threshold of shattering the NFL’s all-time rushing record.
But the tide is finally turning. The Lions Finally Roar culminates with the team’s recent turnaround and playoff run under the stewardship of Bill Ford’s daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp. Hamp hired savvy general manager Brad Holmes and charismatic coach Dan Campbell—and has stood behind them as they methodically returned the team to the ranks of the league’s elite and, at long last, have made the Lions roar.
Deeply researched and briskly written, The Lions Finally Roar is about much more than football. It explores the American class system, the linked histories of Detroit and its auto and music industries, the city’s changing racial dynamics, the rising power of television, and how all of it played into the NFL’s transformation from a fall sport into the multi-billion dollar, year-round entertainment behemoth that is a cornerstone of American popular culture.
- GenresSportsFootballNonfiction
348 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 3, 2024
29 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Bill Morris
37 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Born in 1952.
Born in 1952.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 12, 2025
Book accurately covers the history of the Lions. Brings back a lot of memories. It's a great story.
January 14, 2025
A well done walkthrough of Detroit Lions history. As a lifelong fan, it was awesome to read the history of the team. I loved how Bill Morris drew parallels between what was happening in history and with the Lions. Definitely worth a read for any fan! Go Lions!
Want to read
September 8, 2024I did not need to know that this book exists
January 13, 2025
Well written and great history of the Ford family as well as the Lions. Really enjoyed this book!
December 30, 2024
Once the author exhausted the his primary resource (his father Dick Morris), the book became nothing more than a series of football season summaries. Is it necessary to speculate on the leadership qualities of Matt Millen, Matt Patricia, and Bob Quinn? These men all had great successes at previous positions. To quote sportswriters from such esteemed newspapers (a failure in themselves) such as the Detroit Free Press only adds to this book leaving a sour taste in the mouth of this reader.
August 26, 2025
Why do we care about sports? In one of the many digressions in his book about the history of the Detroit Lions, The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, The Detroit Lions, and The Road to Redemption in the NFL, Bill Morris briefly explores this issue. He quotes Roger Angell, the legendary baseball writer, who said, “It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team.”
It’s a valid point. As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve often wondered why I waste my time with such inanity. In professional sports, the team on the field is nothing more than a commercial enterprise that, through clever marketing, has convinced local fans to promote the business by wearing logoed clothing and has secured free publicity from local news stations, which eagerly broadcast the scores and highlights of the team’s games. The players are mercenaries who offer their services to the team that gives them the biggest paycheck, and they are often far less vested in the local team than the fans sitting in the stands.
I frequently thought about this strange attraction to professional sports teams while reading Mr. Morris’ book, because it’s possible that no team in the history of American sports has asked more of its fans than the Detroit Lions. Despite winning only one playoff game in fifty-six years, the Lions have one of the largest and most loyal local fan bases in the NFL. To the rest of the country, the Lions are an afterthought, a boring team from a dirty and crime-riddled upper Midwestern city probably best known for being the other team that plays on Thanksgiving Day.
Mr. Morris begins his long, sad story of the Lions with their first taste of success when they won what was then called the NFL Championship Game in 1957. At that time, they were owned by a seven-person syndicate known as the Detroit Football Company. That changed in 1963 when William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, bought complete control of the team from the syndicate. In a sign that the deal may have been cursed, it closed on November 22, 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated.
Despite being Ford’s largest individual shareholder and one of the wealthiest men in the country, Bill Ford had little management experience. The company was run by his older brother, Henry Ford II, who hoarded power and gave his younger brother a largely figurehead position as Chairman of the Design Committee. Although the author is kind to Bill Ford throughout the book, perhaps because, as we learn early in the story, his father Dick Morris once worked as an executive assistant to Bill Ford, it is obvious that Ford was an inept manager.
Ford was quick to hire and slow to fire. This was particularly true of the people he hired as general manager. Russ Thomas amassed an abysmal record as the team’s general manager from 1967 until his retirement in 1989. Even worse was the tenure of Matt Millen, who served as general manager from 2001 to 2008, compiling a record that prompted Sports Illustrated to label him one of the worst executives in the history of American sports.
Ford’s selection of head coaches was no better. If you recall anything about the string of forgettable people who coached the Detroit Lions from the 1960s to the 2010s, such as Monte Clark and Wayne Fontes, it was that they were unqualified to coach a professional football team. On the other hand, Ford demonstrated a remarkable knack for letting truly talented people go. Bill Belichick, Don Shula, and Chuck Knox all served as assistant coaches in Detroit before going on to spectacular success with other teams.
It’s a long, sad story, and this tale of endless futility occupies almost the entire book. In a book with 308 pages of prose, the team doesn’t become good until page 284. Although the team’s turnaround didn’t begin until the 2022 season, this still seems like too much emphasis on failure and not enough emphasis on success. Toward the end of the book, the author offers a possible explanation for his lopsided version of a turnaround story: He never intended the book to be a turnaround story. His original working title for the book was Natural Born Losers. Its only objective was to detail the decades of futility in Detroit.
The author’s theme was spoiled thanks to the team’s improbable salvation. When Bill Ford passed away in 2014, his widow, Martha Firestone Ford, acquired a controlling interest in the team. Although her son, William Clay Ford, Jr., had always seemed the likely successor to Bill, Sr., Martha, perhaps jaded by her son’s unsuccessful tenure as CEO of Ford Motor Company in the early 2000s, gave principal ownership of the team to her daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp, in 2020.
To everyone's surprise, Sheila seems to have the eye for talent that her father always lacked. She began by assembling a committee to find a general manager to replace Bob Quinn. After an exhaustive interview process that was worlds apart from her father's seat-of-the-pants style of decision-making, the committee decided on Brad Holmes, who was then serving as director of college scouting for the Los Angeles Rams and was regarded as "a master assessor of talent."
Holmes realized he would need to develop the team from the ground up by making shrewd choices in the draft. This became even more obvious when the team’s franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford, expressed his desire to leave the team. Rather than fight to keep Stafford, Holmes dealt him to the Los Angeles Rams for an up-and-coming quarterback named Jared Goff and a batch of draft picks.
The next key hire for Hamp and her search committee was Dan Campbell as head coach. The foul-mouthed, tough-talking Campbell was working as assistant head coach to Sean Payton at New Orleans, but as a former tight end for the Lions, he was familiar with the team’s struggles.
Despite a mediocre 9-8 record in 2022, the team and its fans sensed that Hamp was onto something, and their patience was rewarded when the team won its division in 2023, the first time it had won a division title since 1993. The book was published in 2024, before the team won its second consecutive division title, but the author's prophecy that the Lions are finally roaring is validated.
With the author's original theme spoiled by the team's sudden turnaround, it's reasonable to ask what the purpose of this book is. It's a mostly meandering account of decades of disappointment by a team that few people outside of Detroit cared that much about. Without the turnaround, this would be a miserable tale, and I'm not sure what the author hoped to achieve with such a story. For me, the book was a case study in generational wealth.
Bill Ford had the means to purchase the Detroit Lions, but he lacked the acumen to run the team or the ability to identify talented individuals who could. This story is all too familiar to anyone who has witnessed a company struggling for survival after control passes to the second generation, following the founder's death or retirement.
Beyond business lessons, the book also offers some explanation for why we care about sports. The author details many of the struggles in Detroit as the auto industry declined and crime rates soared. Amidst these struggles, the city found solace and pride in the achievements of its sports teams, historically the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons, and now increasingly, the Lions. This is best illustrated in the author’s penultimate chapter, where he describes the pandemonium that swept Detroit after the team’s January 2024 playoff victory over the Los Angeles Rams and their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, the former franchise player for the Lions. Yes, the city was cheering for something that’s ultimately meaningless and frivolous, but the Lions' turnaround serves as a symbol of renewal and hope for a city eager for a new era of success after a seemingly endless series of failures. Finally, the Lions and the city are earning some much-needed respect.
It’s a valid point. As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve often wondered why I waste my time with such inanity. In professional sports, the team on the field is nothing more than a commercial enterprise that, through clever marketing, has convinced local fans to promote the business by wearing logoed clothing and has secured free publicity from local news stations, which eagerly broadcast the scores and highlights of the team’s games. The players are mercenaries who offer their services to the team that gives them the biggest paycheck, and they are often far less vested in the local team than the fans sitting in the stands.
I frequently thought about this strange attraction to professional sports teams while reading Mr. Morris’ book, because it’s possible that no team in the history of American sports has asked more of its fans than the Detroit Lions. Despite winning only one playoff game in fifty-six years, the Lions have one of the largest and most loyal local fan bases in the NFL. To the rest of the country, the Lions are an afterthought, a boring team from a dirty and crime-riddled upper Midwestern city probably best known for being the other team that plays on Thanksgiving Day.
Mr. Morris begins his long, sad story of the Lions with their first taste of success when they won what was then called the NFL Championship Game in 1957. At that time, they were owned by a seven-person syndicate known as the Detroit Football Company. That changed in 1963 when William Clay Ford, the youngest grandson of auto pioneer Henry Ford, bought complete control of the team from the syndicate. In a sign that the deal may have been cursed, it closed on November 22, 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated.
Despite being Ford’s largest individual shareholder and one of the wealthiest men in the country, Bill Ford had little management experience. The company was run by his older brother, Henry Ford II, who hoarded power and gave his younger brother a largely figurehead position as Chairman of the Design Committee. Although the author is kind to Bill Ford throughout the book, perhaps because, as we learn early in the story, his father Dick Morris once worked as an executive assistant to Bill Ford, it is obvious that Ford was an inept manager.
Ford was quick to hire and slow to fire. This was particularly true of the people he hired as general manager. Russ Thomas amassed an abysmal record as the team’s general manager from 1967 until his retirement in 1989. Even worse was the tenure of Matt Millen, who served as general manager from 2001 to 2008, compiling a record that prompted Sports Illustrated to label him one of the worst executives in the history of American sports.
Ford’s selection of head coaches was no better. If you recall anything about the string of forgettable people who coached the Detroit Lions from the 1960s to the 2010s, such as Monte Clark and Wayne Fontes, it was that they were unqualified to coach a professional football team. On the other hand, Ford demonstrated a remarkable knack for letting truly talented people go. Bill Belichick, Don Shula, and Chuck Knox all served as assistant coaches in Detroit before going on to spectacular success with other teams.
It’s a long, sad story, and this tale of endless futility occupies almost the entire book. In a book with 308 pages of prose, the team doesn’t become good until page 284. Although the team’s turnaround didn’t begin until the 2022 season, this still seems like too much emphasis on failure and not enough emphasis on success. Toward the end of the book, the author offers a possible explanation for his lopsided version of a turnaround story: He never intended the book to be a turnaround story. His original working title for the book was Natural Born Losers. Its only objective was to detail the decades of futility in Detroit.
The author’s theme was spoiled thanks to the team’s improbable salvation. When Bill Ford passed away in 2014, his widow, Martha Firestone Ford, acquired a controlling interest in the team. Although her son, William Clay Ford, Jr., had always seemed the likely successor to Bill, Sr., Martha, perhaps jaded by her son’s unsuccessful tenure as CEO of Ford Motor Company in the early 2000s, gave principal ownership of the team to her daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp, in 2020.
To everyone's surprise, Sheila seems to have the eye for talent that her father always lacked. She began by assembling a committee to find a general manager to replace Bob Quinn. After an exhaustive interview process that was worlds apart from her father's seat-of-the-pants style of decision-making, the committee decided on Brad Holmes, who was then serving as director of college scouting for the Los Angeles Rams and was regarded as "a master assessor of talent."
Holmes realized he would need to develop the team from the ground up by making shrewd choices in the draft. This became even more obvious when the team’s franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford, expressed his desire to leave the team. Rather than fight to keep Stafford, Holmes dealt him to the Los Angeles Rams for an up-and-coming quarterback named Jared Goff and a batch of draft picks.
The next key hire for Hamp and her search committee was Dan Campbell as head coach. The foul-mouthed, tough-talking Campbell was working as assistant head coach to Sean Payton at New Orleans, but as a former tight end for the Lions, he was familiar with the team’s struggles.
Despite a mediocre 9-8 record in 2022, the team and its fans sensed that Hamp was onto something, and their patience was rewarded when the team won its division in 2023, the first time it had won a division title since 1993. The book was published in 2024, before the team won its second consecutive division title, but the author's prophecy that the Lions are finally roaring is validated.
With the author's original theme spoiled by the team's sudden turnaround, it's reasonable to ask what the purpose of this book is. It's a mostly meandering account of decades of disappointment by a team that few people outside of Detroit cared that much about. Without the turnaround, this would be a miserable tale, and I'm not sure what the author hoped to achieve with such a story. For me, the book was a case study in generational wealth.
Bill Ford had the means to purchase the Detroit Lions, but he lacked the acumen to run the team or the ability to identify talented individuals who could. This story is all too familiar to anyone who has witnessed a company struggling for survival after control passes to the second generation, following the founder's death or retirement.
Beyond business lessons, the book also offers some explanation for why we care about sports. The author details many of the struggles in Detroit as the auto industry declined and crime rates soared. Amidst these struggles, the city found solace and pride in the achievements of its sports teams, historically the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons, and now increasingly, the Lions. This is best illustrated in the author’s penultimate chapter, where he describes the pandemonium that swept Detroit after the team’s January 2024 playoff victory over the Los Angeles Rams and their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, the former franchise player for the Lions. Yes, the city was cheering for something that’s ultimately meaningless and frivolous, but the Lions' turnaround serves as a symbol of renewal and hope for a city eager for a new era of success after a seemingly endless series of failures. Finally, the Lions and the city are earning some much-needed respect.
September 13, 2024
Book is wildly inaccurate and makes a lot of suggestions without knowing the facts. The author never worked in the Lions organization and doesn’t have any true substance to what he’s written besides some quotes from his father who died many years ago. Would not recommend!?
January 14, 2025
That was disappointing.
The book has some strengths, but also plenty of weakness. First off, it's just plain not well-written. The approach Morris has is smart. He's going to avoid the most dangerous book like this. He's not going to fall into recap mode "then this season happened and then this season happened and then this season happened." He talks about other things going on in Detroit and in the nation and with the Ford family and with Morris's own family, and . ... it just doesn't gel. It's like you take a bunch of ingrediants, through them into a pan, and forget to cook it. There isn't always a clear point - and sometimes the Lions themselves get lost in all of this background detail.
Beyond that, Morris is a surprisingly sloppy writer for a guy who has a professional writer. Example: On page 90 he notes how the film Paper Lion helped set up Alex Karras for a career in acting. Then, on page 92 he notes how the film Paper Lion helped set up Alex Karras for a career in acting. You don't say?
It's also weirdly paced. Morris is clearly much more comfortable talkinga about the Lions of his youth, the 1960s and 1970s, then later on. In a book covering 1957-2023, the first third of the era covers nearly two-thirds of the book. There is some talk of nearly every season, and he'll note pretty much every major player on them in some detail. But then he covers 1982-88 in a total of ten pages. He notes that these seasons weren't especially important, and yeah, I'd agree - but it ain't like those earlier teams were so impressive, either. Heck, the five years Jim Schwartz ran the club merit a single sentence. Key players like Brett Perriman and Ndamunkong Suh get one passing mention each.
Again, it's OK to focus on some eras more than others, but it's not really clear why that's the case. Well, check that - there is a reason. Morris notes a few times that he was more a casual fan for a long time. Oh. He personally was less engaged. Guess what? You're still allowed to look into it more. And it's not that he isn't that aware - he makes some pretty glaring errors in these years. He refers to Cam Newton as a cornerback and notes him celebrating an interception. Er ... Newton was a QUARTERback not CORNERback. And I really doubt he was celebrating an interception. No, Newton never played for the Lions, but is it really too much to ask a guy to know who a one-time MVP is? But hey, Morris wasn't much of a football fan then. (So then don't write this book).
Some analysis is really lousy, too. Late in the book, he notes how longtime Raiders owner Al Davis is an example of how self-made men can make lousy NFL owners, as he took the Raiders out of the town that gave them their identity, Oakland. .. .. Er, Davis has plenty of negatives as owner, sure -- but he the general sense is he was a great NFL leader who the game eventually passed by. Also, Davis personally had more than a little bit to shaping the Raiders identity.
Another howling. Throughout Morris notes some times death were part of the Lions story - Bill Ford's purchase of the team was made official the day of JFK's assassination, in 1971 Chuck Hughes became the only NFL player to die on the field, in 1974 head coach Don McCaferty died -- OK, that's fine. But he caps it off with this howler, "First President Kennedy. Then Chuck Hughes. Now Dan McCafferty. It was beginning to appar to more than a few people that this team was truly cursed." ..... Hmm. THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK ISN'T PART OF SOME DAMN LIONS CURSE, YOU DOPE! Claiming that as part of some sports franchise's sad sack story is impressively asinine trivializing of a pretty damn serious thing.
Yes, the book does have some positives. Morris's dad had been a friend a drinking buddy of longtime owner Bill Ford, and that gives him some nice insights and stories (such as the time Ford casually offered Pops Morris the job of Lions GM, even though he had no football experience at all). You get some nice stories I never heard of, like the Upper Peninsula resident who drove to Detroit for every home game for decades.
(Though even in some of those stories, Morris's weaknesses comes through. He later parallel's Ford's offer to his dad to run the Lions with JFK's decision to make Robert McNamara his Secretary of Defense. The parallel: rich boys hiring guys with no qualifications for key jobs). Man, ... say what you will of McNamara, he had some serious administrative experience, and there have been more than a few private sector executives tapped for cabinet offices over the years. But for Morris, no it's the same things as offering your drinking buddy a key job.
Just a damn disappointing book. I'm surprised the overall review scores here and on Amazon.com are as high as they are.
The book has some strengths, but also plenty of weakness. First off, it's just plain not well-written. The approach Morris has is smart. He's going to avoid the most dangerous book like this. He's not going to fall into recap mode "then this season happened and then this season happened and then this season happened." He talks about other things going on in Detroit and in the nation and with the Ford family and with Morris's own family, and . ... it just doesn't gel. It's like you take a bunch of ingrediants, through them into a pan, and forget to cook it. There isn't always a clear point - and sometimes the Lions themselves get lost in all of this background detail.
Beyond that, Morris is a surprisingly sloppy writer for a guy who has a professional writer. Example: On page 90 he notes how the film Paper Lion helped set up Alex Karras for a career in acting. Then, on page 92 he notes how the film Paper Lion helped set up Alex Karras for a career in acting. You don't say?
It's also weirdly paced. Morris is clearly much more comfortable talkinga about the Lions of his youth, the 1960s and 1970s, then later on. In a book covering 1957-2023, the first third of the era covers nearly two-thirds of the book. There is some talk of nearly every season, and he'll note pretty much every major player on them in some detail. But then he covers 1982-88 in a total of ten pages. He notes that these seasons weren't especially important, and yeah, I'd agree - but it ain't like those earlier teams were so impressive, either. Heck, the five years Jim Schwartz ran the club merit a single sentence. Key players like Brett Perriman and Ndamunkong Suh get one passing mention each.
Again, it's OK to focus on some eras more than others, but it's not really clear why that's the case. Well, check that - there is a reason. Morris notes a few times that he was more a casual fan for a long time. Oh. He personally was less engaged. Guess what? You're still allowed to look into it more. And it's not that he isn't that aware - he makes some pretty glaring errors in these years. He refers to Cam Newton as a cornerback and notes him celebrating an interception. Er ... Newton was a QUARTERback not CORNERback. And I really doubt he was celebrating an interception. No, Newton never played for the Lions, but is it really too much to ask a guy to know who a one-time MVP is? But hey, Morris wasn't much of a football fan then. (So then don't write this book).
Some analysis is really lousy, too. Late in the book, he notes how longtime Raiders owner Al Davis is an example of how self-made men can make lousy NFL owners, as he took the Raiders out of the town that gave them their identity, Oakland. .. .. Er, Davis has plenty of negatives as owner, sure -- but he the general sense is he was a great NFL leader who the game eventually passed by. Also, Davis personally had more than a little bit to shaping the Raiders identity.
Another howling. Throughout Morris notes some times death were part of the Lions story - Bill Ford's purchase of the team was made official the day of JFK's assassination, in 1971 Chuck Hughes became the only NFL player to die on the field, in 1974 head coach Don McCaferty died -- OK, that's fine. But he caps it off with this howler, "First President Kennedy. Then Chuck Hughes. Now Dan McCafferty. It was beginning to appar to more than a few people that this team was truly cursed." ..... Hmm. THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK ISN'T PART OF SOME DAMN LIONS CURSE, YOU DOPE! Claiming that as part of some sports franchise's sad sack story is impressively asinine trivializing of a pretty damn serious thing.
Yes, the book does have some positives. Morris's dad had been a friend a drinking buddy of longtime owner Bill Ford, and that gives him some nice insights and stories (such as the time Ford casually offered Pops Morris the job of Lions GM, even though he had no football experience at all). You get some nice stories I never heard of, like the Upper Peninsula resident who drove to Detroit for every home game for decades.
(Though even in some of those stories, Morris's weaknesses comes through. He later parallel's Ford's offer to his dad to run the Lions with JFK's decision to make Robert McNamara his Secretary of Defense. The parallel: rich boys hiring guys with no qualifications for key jobs). Man, ... say what you will of McNamara, he had some serious administrative experience, and there have been more than a few private sector executives tapped for cabinet offices over the years. But for Morris, no it's the same things as offering your drinking buddy a key job.
Just a damn disappointing book. I'm surprised the overall review scores here and on Amazon.com are as high as they are.
January 16, 2025
I wish the author cared about Detroit Lions football or at a minimum was a fan of the NFL because a decent book could have been a great book. Privy to inside information and connections due to his father‘s employment as owner William Clay Ford Sr.’s right hand man and also having a cousin that played on several Detroit Lions teams in the 1970s, the author provided insights, owner proclivities and hiring practices perhaps previously undisclosed.
The author’s lack of passion and caring about the Lions teams themselves unfortunately turned some spine-tingling memories of mine into distilled, sterile words on a page. For example, one of my earliest memories watching the Lions was the playoffs of 1983 against San Francisco 49ers and Lions head coach Monty Clark down on his knees praying before Eddie Murray kicked the potential game-winning field goal. Author Bill Morris manages to turn a pinnacle memory of my youth and the Lions’ season into a brief sentence about a field goal missing by inches Final Score: 24-23. Oh author, it’s about SO much more than a final score.
The book is not without its merits. ** I learned a little history as the narrative follows a chronological perspective and the author deftly melds national events and cultural happenings from the 1960s and 1970s into what was occurring within the City of Detroit, Ford Motor Company as well as the Detroit Lions and its players during these time periods.
** I must state I became much more skeptical about the accuracy of earlier information in the book when the author stated “defensive back Cam Newton celebrating an interception” in one of the latter chapters (a casual fan would know Newton, a quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy as best college player in 2010 and led the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl in 2017). This grave inaccuracy circles back to my first sentence of the review: I wish the author was a fan. Roar!
The author’s lack of passion and caring about the Lions teams themselves unfortunately turned some spine-tingling memories of mine into distilled, sterile words on a page. For example, one of my earliest memories watching the Lions was the playoffs of 1983 against San Francisco 49ers and Lions head coach Monty Clark down on his knees praying before Eddie Murray kicked the potential game-winning field goal. Author Bill Morris manages to turn a pinnacle memory of my youth and the Lions’ season into a brief sentence about a field goal missing by inches Final Score: 24-23. Oh author, it’s about SO much more than a final score.
The book is not without its merits. ** I learned a little history as the narrative follows a chronological perspective and the author deftly melds national events and cultural happenings from the 1960s and 1970s into what was occurring within the City of Detroit, Ford Motor Company as well as the Detroit Lions and its players during these time periods.
** I must state I became much more skeptical about the accuracy of earlier information in the book when the author stated “defensive back Cam Newton celebrating an interception” in one of the latter chapters (a casual fan would know Newton, a quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy as best college player in 2010 and led the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl in 2017). This grave inaccuracy circles back to my first sentence of the review: I wish the author was a fan. Roar!
February 18, 2025
This book provides an interesting history of the Detroit Lions football team including information on the owners. It touches on the history of the city of Detroit and how it fit into the sports programs in Detroit. Some of the things mentioned were new to me as a life-long fan and others were reminders. Parts of the book were hard to follow because it listed so many managers, players but I understand why the author felt that was needed. Overall, it is worth the read for anyone who loves sport especially for someone who is a Lions fan.
Bill Ford bought the team for $6 million in 1963. As the youngest grandson of Henry Ford of the automobile fame, Bill had a lot to prove. Unfortunately his love of football blinded him and he made poor decisions. He hired people he liked but didn't have any experience or even knowledge of professional sports. He kept managers despite their terrible records and this book highlights many them. It seemed as if the Lions were known as the team that could grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
The fact that the Lions were awful was blamed on bad luck because Ford bought the team when President Kennedy was assassinated. It was also attributed to the "curse of Bobby Layne" who allegedly cursed the team when he was let go. Realistically, the team was bad because of Bill's leadership. His management traded athletes who later became extremely successful, they refused to pay more for outstanding athletes, and they kept players that weren't motivated. Some famous athletes, like Calvin Johnson and Barry Sanders, even retired early just to get away.
Bill Ford died without ever having a good team. The ownership passed to his wife and now is in the hands of his daughter Sheila Ford Hemp. Under her leadership the team has improved and was close to making it to the Superbowl. We'll see how the story continues.
Bill Ford bought the team for $6 million in 1963. As the youngest grandson of Henry Ford of the automobile fame, Bill had a lot to prove. Unfortunately his love of football blinded him and he made poor decisions. He hired people he liked but didn't have any experience or even knowledge of professional sports. He kept managers despite their terrible records and this book highlights many them. It seemed as if the Lions were known as the team that could grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
The fact that the Lions were awful was blamed on bad luck because Ford bought the team when President Kennedy was assassinated. It was also attributed to the "curse of Bobby Layne" who allegedly cursed the team when he was let go. Realistically, the team was bad because of Bill's leadership. His management traded athletes who later became extremely successful, they refused to pay more for outstanding athletes, and they kept players that weren't motivated. Some famous athletes, like Calvin Johnson and Barry Sanders, even retired early just to get away.
Bill Ford died without ever having a good team. The ownership passed to his wife and now is in the hands of his daughter Sheila Ford Hemp. Under her leadership the team has improved and was close to making it to the Superbowl. We'll see how the story continues.
March 26, 2025
The Detroit Lions, in my lifetime, have always been an organizational "cluster f" from top-to-bottom. They are the team your favorite team beat on Thanksgiving. They are the team that screwed up having arguably the best running back in history in Barry Sanders, forcing him to retire early. They are the team that had an 0-16 record in 2008. They are the team owned and run by the Ford family (as in Henry Ford) like a nepotistic parasite determined not to succeed as an organization.
All that being said, I never knew the real why and/or the details as to how the Lions came to be as is. I also was more interested in how they turned it around in recent years. As a rabid football follower, I knew it was through patience and good drafting, but I also wanted to know the "behind the curtain" details.
Bill Morris' book The Lions Finally Roar fills in those gaps while giving readers a historical look at Detroit as a city and some inner workings of the Ford family. When completed, readers will find that their football heart strings have been pulled so much that you might even root for the Lions when they aren't playing your favorite team. It is a must read for football fans of all ages.
All that being said, I never knew the real why and/or the details as to how the Lions came to be as is. I also was more interested in how they turned it around in recent years. As a rabid football follower, I knew it was through patience and good drafting, but I also wanted to know the "behind the curtain" details.
Bill Morris' book The Lions Finally Roar fills in those gaps while giving readers a historical look at Detroit as a city and some inner workings of the Ford family. When completed, readers will find that their football heart strings have been pulled so much that you might even root for the Lions when they aren't playing your favorite team. It is a must read for football fans of all ages.
August 1, 2025
In some ways this is a strange book, as Bill Morris acknowledges, with Morris's dad having worked with William Clay Ford, Sr., at Ford Motor, and Bill Morris seeming to want to settle some scores. But aside from that, it is a well-told narrative of the many years of futility and the way Shiela Ford Hamp, Chris Spielman, Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, along with the many new Detroit Lions players, contributed to turn things around for the remarkable 2023 season that led to their near-miss against the 49ers in the NFC Conference Championships. I have been a Lions fan all my life and appreciated the deep history this book provided. At the same time, I wish this history had been written by another writer, who actually was a lifelong Lions fan, and who was closer to the story—such as Mitch Albom or Free Press Lions beat writer Dave Birkett. All the same, I enjoyed this book.
January 16, 2025
"The Lions Finally Roar" takes us 'back' to the time when 'professional' wasn't taken as a great thinkg to warch. This book takes us through of what was one of the things (the BIG things) that made Sunday afternoons for football. And for Monday night too.
The book goes through a large (very large) weally Detroit family that has been around for a long (yes, very large). They have been in Detroit for many years, starting when a lot of people began using cars. And the Fords were the cars for many years.
The book gets us a sense of what the "big families" did in those days. And the book gives some of the problems they have in those days.
This book is a way to show students (and others) about the life of this name of Detroit. College factors of history (and maybe some other themes) could you this book in the classes they use about in in country.
The book goes through a large (very large) weally Detroit family that has been around for a long (yes, very large). They have been in Detroit for many years, starting when a lot of people began using cars. And the Fords were the cars for many years.
The book gets us a sense of what the "big families" did in those days. And the book gives some of the problems they have in those days.
This book is a way to show students (and others) about the life of this name of Detroit. College factors of history (and maybe some other themes) could you this book in the classes they use about in in country.
January 31, 2025
I really enjoyed reading this book. I loved that that it included a good bit of Detroit history as well and went chronologically.
I only know about the Patricia era and the Campbell era I was too young prior to those to understanding the happenings off the field. The author made a mistake mentioning Cam Newton as a cornerback instead of a quarterback for the Carolina panthers and I’ll be honest that mistake feels kinda big and makes me a little suspicious of other potential errors as far as the facts go.
Despite that I still enjoyed the book and liked learning about the early seasons of the lions.
I only know about the Patricia era and the Campbell era I was too young prior to those to understanding the happenings off the field. The author made a mistake mentioning Cam Newton as a cornerback instead of a quarterback for the Carolina panthers and I’ll be honest that mistake feels kinda big and makes me a little suspicious of other potential errors as far as the facts go.
Despite that I still enjoyed the book and liked learning about the early seasons of the lions.
April 10, 2025
The author has written the most accurate history of the Detroit Lions, including all of the misery experienced by Lions' fans since the late 1950's. The book also covers the history of Detroit itself during that period, as well as that of the Ford Motor Company and the Ford family. The only complaint I have is that, as a resident of Detroit during that time, the book forced me to relive the misery that I, as a Lions fan, experienced all over again. Unlike the past, the last two years have been just the opposite, thanks to the new ownership of Sheila Ford Hamp and her ability to hire good management personnel and let them do their jobs.
January 15, 2025
I thought this book presented some interesting information on the history of the Lions and the Ford family's ownership of the team, but I didn't like how the author made his father a secondary focus of the book. Quotes from personal friends and explanations of how he came about the title for this book were also unnecessary and gave the book an amateurish slant. I had wished for a more focused, professional, and historical account of the Lions, but this was not it.
August 31, 2024
Devoured this one 🦁
This was a great look into the history of the Lions and the remarkable path their on. As a huge Lions fan, I enjoyed every part of this book!
This book had a lot of research and personal touches from the author that helped it along.
This was a great look into the history of the Lions and the remarkable path their on. As a huge Lions fan, I enjoyed every part of this book!
This book had a lot of research and personal touches from the author that helped it along.
March 23, 2025
Fascinating history of the Lions and their ownership since the 50s. For a lifelong fan and season ticket holder it was a very enjoyable read even if maddening at times but thankful for how times have changed.
August 31, 2025
A very interesting history of the Lions and the city of Detroit. I do wish at times the book provided more insight than just rattling off records and scores but that would have required an author more closely connected to the team.
October 7, 2024
Couldn’t read that last chapter on the NFC Championship loss but good stuff nonetheless
October 17, 2024
A good history of the Lions. Also enjoyed the history of the Ford family, Ford Motor Company, and City of Detroit.
The Lions will probably win the Super Bowl one day.
The Lions will probably win the Super Bowl one day.
October 23, 2024
An interesting look at the turbulent history of the Ford family and the Detroit Lions
November 4, 2024
An interesting read. Learned a bunch about a team I love. Author was a bit too loose with some of his assumptions/ conjectures for my taste but overall, the book gets the job done. Also, Go Lions!
November 8, 2024
Loved it. Though it was pretty much written for people like me. Lots of depressing history but a good study on what not to do if running a franchise sports team.
November 17, 2024
How can you not be romantic about football?
November 29, 2024
A great read for any Lions fan!
January 9, 2025
A lot of just re-writing and rehashing the history of the Lions. Nonetheless GO LIONS!
January 13, 2025
A fantastic telling of the intriguing, and often times sad, history of one of the NFL's best franchises. Highly recommended for football fans!!
March 16, 2025
The moral of the story is that curses are man made.
March 27, 2025
Good and very interesting facts for Lions Fans
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