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Darrell Bevell was at the Henry Ford Museum about to buy a handmade ornament for his wife on Saturday afternoon when he looked at his phone.
There was a text message from Detroit Lions Chief of Staff Kevin Anderson asking the then Lions offensive coordinator to call team president Rod Wood as soon as possible. Moments later, a dream Bevell was chasing came true.
Wood and Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp offered him the chance to become the team’s interim head coach after sacking Matt Patricia – a job he accepted.
“I hate the circumstances in which this has happened. But it is an opportunity and you have to take full advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you, however they present themselves to you,” Bevell said on Monday. “I’m taken. I’m excited. I have a five-game audition to show what I’m capable of, but I also told them everyone was watching them, whether it was our team, whether it was others. teams, whether it is the opportunities for them to continue playing, people are watching.
“So how do we react right now and how are we able to do our best in these next five games?”
Bevell knows these last regular season games for Detroit could determine if he is considered for the full-time job. Bevell said Monday that Wood had told him he could run for the full-time job, but even Bevell knows those “five weeks are going to be revealing.”
Quarterback Matthew Stafford – who deflected questions about his own uncertain future on Monday – said he knew this was an opportunity for Bevell and that he “will be himself as much as he can”.
Bevell, 50, a former Wisconsin quarterback, had been an offensive coordinator in Minnesota and Seattle before coming to Detroit. He had been mentioned as a potential head coach candidate during his time with the Seahawks.
Bevell has met Lions players twice since being appointed interim coach, but not in person. The team was on leave this weekend after their 41-25 loss on Thanksgiving Day to the Houston Texans, and then NFL-mandated COVID-19 protocols prevented them from meeting in their apartment building on Monday.
Instead, he held meetings from his home – including his first press conference as a coach from his kitchen. Bevell said he still plans to call plays for Detroit because that’s what he was initially brought in to do and he thinks it’s important the offense has continuity. But he hinted at changes – although they may not be in the offensive or defensive plans.
“The only thing I have to do is I have to be me,” Bevell said. “I’ve been to a lot of stops, I’ve seen a lot of different head coaches who’ve been up there and there’s great things about each of them, so as I was doing, you kinda try to see yourself in that role and how you would handle the situations and things that are important to you and that’s what i would do i’m just going to be myself.
“I ask the guys to come with a refreshed attitude, ready to go to work, # 1, but ready to have a good time and let them play with their hair on fire and let them play fast, let them play free, and we will care about the end result at the end. But we are going to play one game at a time and I hope we like what happens at the end. “
Bevell said he told the players he didn’t care what happened in the past under Patricia – who had issues with the players when she arrived in 2018 – and that he was grateful to Patricia and Bob Quinn, who was made redundant as general manager. Saturday, for bringing him to Detroit before last season. But throughout his nearly 20-minute conversation with reporters, he emphasized how much he wanted his players to have fun.
“It’s been a bit inconsistent at times,” Bevell said. “My thing is, I just wanted to be able to have a good time. It’s important to know that being able to have a good time and work hard, you know, doesn’t have to be individual agreements.
“I mean, you can have a good time and work hard. That’s what I told the guys and that’s what I want them to do. It was never really about them. work. They worked hard. So I’m excited to just bring that attitude to them. “
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