Mariucci to have more input on football decisions

[Picksix]

By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com


While there remains one minor element to navigate, ESPN.com has learned that the Detroit Lions and Steve Mariucci have reached agreement on all of the major components of a five-year contract, and that the deal should be completed Tuesday with an introductory press conference likely Wednesday.

Sources close to negotiations insisted Monday night that the last remaining item to be completed is not a deal-breaker and that Mariucci has definitely decided to accept the job. In fact, sources said, Mariucci has spent the past couple days mulling over potential staff members.

"It's too far along now not to happen," said a league source. "Actually, it probably could have been done a few days ago, but (Mariucci) just wanted to sleep on it a while. But it's about as done as done can be without having officially signed the thing."

The Lions issued a statement Monday afternoon which said that a deal was not yet in place but that an agreement could be reached Tuesday.

"While there was significant progress ... no deal has yet been finalized that would make Steve our next head coach," spokesman Bill Keenist said in the statement. "We are hopeful that an agreement can be reached with Steve by the end of the day (Tuesday)."

The contract, ESPN.com confirmed, will pay Mariucci more than $4 million annually. He was to have earned a base salary of $2.25 million for 2003 under his old contract with the 49ers. That salary for 2003 was to have been paid out over a 30-month period.

In addition to financial implications, with Mariucci set to move to new status among the league's highest-paid head coaches, he will have more input into football decisions than during a six-year San Francisco tenure.

Mariucci, 47, will have the title of head coach only, but the contract with the Lions will permit him to review and participate in football-related decisions. His new job represents a homecoming of sorts for Mariucci, who was born and raised in Iron Mountain, Mich., and who played collegiately at Northern Michigan, where he was a three-time All-American quarterback.

The hiring of Mariucci figures to be a popular one with long-suffering Lions fans, whose teams won just five games over the last two seasons, under the stewardship of Marty Mornhinweg. Ironically, Mornhinweg was offensive coordinator for Mariucci in San Francisco before taking the Detroit job.

Detroit has not advanced to the playoffs since 1999, as a wild card entry, and Mariucci will inherit a team that is clearly in a rebuilding mode. There is, at least, a solid cornerstone in quarterback Joey Harrington, the team's top pick in the 2002 draft.

The pending addition means the end of a two-year pursuit by Lions president Matt Millen, who originally wanted Mariucci for the job in 2001, but could not extricate him from his 49ers contract then. It also means that Millen won his gamble in dismissing Mornhinweg last Monday.

After initially indicating Mornhinweg would be back with the Lions for the 2003 season, Millen reversed direction, and fired him once Mariucci became available. Millen acknowledged that the only circumstance that changed was the availability if Mariucci and, had he not landed him, the failure would not have sat well with Lions fans.

Mariucci, in fact, was the only candidate ever publicly acknowledged by the Lions or by Millen.

It remains to be seen how, or even if, Detroit will come into compliance with a league guideline that mandates franchises interview minority candidates for head coach and high-ranking front office positions. The club was turned down by some black coaches, who perceived that Mariucci was the only true candidate for the job, and who did not want to be part of a sham process.

Then again, there could have been candidates whose identities were never made public.

In his six seasons with the 49ers, Mariucci compiled a 60-43 record and took the club to the playoffs on four occasions.

He was fired last month, after the 49ers' loss at Tampa Bay in the divisional round of the playoffs. San Francisco officials suggested Mariucci had sought additional power in the organization, which they said did not fit into their structure. Mariucci denied he ever wanted to be anything but head coach.