Classy or Clueless: Patricia Presents Sheila Ford Hamp With Game Ball

During Friday's practice at the Detroit Lions Allen Park practice facility, Matt Patricia presented Sheila Ford Hamp with a game ball

New Detroit Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp attended Friday's practice at Detroit's Allen Park practice facility.

Following his team stretching, Patricia gathered his group around Ford Hamp to present her with a game ball to commemorate her first win as an owner. 

“It was very meaningful to her, based on what I saw,” running back Kerryon Johnson said Friday during a video conference. “But, she’s just like us. She wants more, and we want more and we’re trying to give her as many footballs as she can handle. It seems like we played Arizona three months ago now, just because of the bye week and the games in between -- in COVID, everything moves 10 times slower, so we’re just trying to stack them up, stack them up and give her some more.”

The response online to the presentation did not go over very well, as supporters wondered why Patricia would choose to present the game ball in a public manner following a loss?

Also, supporters are all too aware of previous head coaches who used to shower the Ford family with praise every chance they could in order to remain on the job. 

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And it has worked. 

The Ford family has been known to retain ineffective Lions staffers for years. 

Matt Millen's contract extension is still a head-scratcher.

Ford Hamp is now tasked with attempting to turn around the fortunes of one of the worst franchises in sports history.

After a slow start to the 2020 season, all eyes will be on head coach Matt Patricia, as he takes his 1-3 football team down to Jacksonville, Florida to take on the Jaguars.

Patricia and Co. are aware of what is at stake if the next few performances do not produce victories. 

Do you think Patricia's gesture was genuine, or an attempt to save his job by brown-nosing?

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John Maakaron
JOHN MAAKARON

John Maakaron has covered Detroit Sports since 2013. Brings a vast array of experience covering the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans, Detroit Mercy Titans, and Oakland University Golden Grizzlies. John brings a wealth of sports broadcast experience. In 2013, John had the vision to establish the Detroit Sports Podcast Network. Has recorded over 3000 podcasts analyzing Detroit Sports. In 2019, Sports Illustrated Media Group, a historical sports media outlet, partnered with Detroit Sports Podcast to provide daily Lions content for their growing and expanding digital media outlet. Our Lions content can also be read in the newspaper at The Oakland  Passionate about Detroit Sports and it is reflected in his coverage of the local teams!