Rod Wood Can't Leave Detroit Lions Soon Enough

Wood appears to be far too transaction in his approach, not seeming to understand the importance of what players mean to the fanbase and the level of attachment established for players who have layed it all on the line for the team.

With his retirement happening before the start of the 2026 season, it cannot happen soon enough. Since his tenure began in 2015, he never seemed all that personable.

He got off on the wrong foot with fans when he said he was not really a football person and not many other team's in the league would have hired him for the position.

The issue that completely derailed his tenure was the team asking Calvin Johnson to give back a portion of his signing bonus, causing a significant rift that lasted many seasons.

Others had to work diligently to smooth things overs. Luckily, both Johnson and Barry Sanders are seen regularly representing the organization.

Salary cap specialist Jason Fitzgerald called the Lions petty and noted not many teams would have taken the measure to ask for money from Ragnow, a player that embodied everything the City of Detroit and the Lions are about.

"To chase after a signing bonus, when there is only 1 year left that you can chase after the bonus, and after 67% of a long term contract has been honored is petty on the part of a team. This was not a blindside situation," writes Fitzgerald. "He had been contemplating retirement and it was very clear that the team knew this since he announced his retirement on June 2nd, which was the day the Lions could place him on the retired list and split his dead money across two years."

Fitzgerald added, "He didn’t belittle the team, demand more money, or anything else. In fact he tried to come out of retirement during the year and it didn’t work out. I don’t think any other team in the NFL would have done this to be honest even though it is their right."

Hopefully the new president has the media saavy to be able to avoid public relations disasters.

More importantly, the hope is the next leader has a level of reasonable level of compassion for the players that are the driving force of an organization's success out on the football field.

I am asking for Wood to return his March salary back, because the team still does not a defense that is reliable.

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