If Wayne Fontes is making his final trip to Chicago this week as coach of the Lions, he at least arrives a winner. Common sense suggests he can’t survive another season, but only William Clay Ford will make that decision and Ford has fooled experts from the time he pushed the Edsel.
Clearly, Fontes has not run out of gas. Unlike Jim Mora’s frustrated midseason departure from the Saints, Fontes said Wednesday he still enjoys coming to work, even though he will hear fewer boos in Soldier Field than he does in the Silverdome.
“The night before a game when I go to bed and I don’t toss and turn and I walk on the field on Sunday and it doesn’t make a difference, then I’ll know it’s really worn on me and it’s time for me to get out,” Fontes said. “But I’m not at that stage now and I just hope things keep working out for me.”
Somehow, they always do. A field goal by Seattle Sunday took a mysterious right angle on the final play to preserve a 17-16 Detroit win and keep the Lions locked in the wild-card hunt at 5-6.
“I blew real hard. It looked like one of my tee shots,” Fontes said.
Actually, he was only exhaling from a four-game losing streak. Unless he can put together a six-game winning streak, the Fontes era appears doomed, but Fontes has been here before. Last year, the Lions’ 7-0 finish only served to increase the pressure, and the team’s embarrassing 58-37 playoff loss to the Eagles turned it up another notch. His staff arrived this year under the impression they would have to at least advance to the NFC title game.
Ford himself issued what was reported as an ultimatum to win in the playoffs, then backed off.
The Wayne Watch has since taken on a life of its own that obscures all else. Fontes is the club’s winningest (67), losingest (66), and longest coach (eight-plus years), so all that’s left is what seems beyond his reach, the Super Bowl.
“This happens here every year,” Fontes said of the speculation. “It’s probably the only place in the NFL this happens.”
Ford is quiet on the subject of Fontes’ future and the street-smart Fontes always has been able to persuade the private, patient and sheltered Ford to extend his contracts.
Fontes is helped by the endorsement of his players, such as Barry Sanders, a man of few words, who offered before the season: “I don’t think he deserves most of the abuse he gets.”
With five games to go, Fontes is lining up his arguments for staying.
“When we took over this program, you knew where it was, 2-14, 3-13, 4-12. We struggled the first couple years and we’ve been winners ever since. To go through what I’ve been going through, I’m amazed,” Fontes said.
Injuries are the current theme, and Fontes knows he has a sympathetic audience in Chicago.
“It’s amazing, I listen to TV or watch games on Monday night and a team loses and they say the reason this team is not playing well is they have two guys hurt,” Fontes said, referring to the Packers’ problems at receiver. “We’ve had seven guys miss four or five games in a row.”
Fontes brushes off incidents the way a car wash treats dust. He also has a way of collecting problems that need constant buffing.
In the season opener, Sanders rushed for 163 yards against the Vikings, but was pulled near the goal line for Eric Lynch, who fumbled in a four-point loss.
“I hear it on national TV, `Give Barry the ball 35 times. He should run it 40 times.’ We’ve been in the playoffs every year by giving it to him 16-20 times and that’s how we’re going to use him,” Fontes said.
When the Giants blasted the Lions 35-7 in the Silverdome, Fontes yanked quarterback Scott Mitchell between first and second down, sending Mitchell into a rage. Fontes later apologized for the poor timing and Mitchell showed up at a Halloween party dressed as Fontes, making fun of the situation.
Fontes still sees the bizarre event as a harmless joke.
“We smile, we laugh, we talk. You’d be surprised to walk in the locker room and see Scott and I hanging out,” Fontes said.
Since replacing Darryl Rogers during the 1988 season, Fontes has hired five offensive coordinators and five defensive coordinators.
Two things beyond the record make Fontes’ return more unlikely than ever. Mitchell, the man Fontes said would take the team to a Super Bowl, is a free agent. And Ford’s son, Bill, has been working hard on a new downtown stadium passed by the same voters who are screaming for Fontes’ head.
If either situation causes the coach’s demise, he can always argue he went out a scapegoat if not a martyr.
