PHOENIX – Rod Wood went viral on his first day as Detroit Lions president when he acknowledged that his lack of NFL experience left him unqualified to run any team other than the Lions.
Sixteen months later, Wood can now say that he’d be comfortable running any team in the NFL.
“I think I probably could,” Wood said today at the league’s annual spring meeting. “I have no plans to run any other team besides the Detroit Lions. That’s my hometown team and I work for the best owner in the league and I’m very happy with what I’m doing.”
A trusted adviser to the Ford family that owns the Lions for years before he took over as team president, Wood has been a quick study in the business of the NFL.
He’s spent the past year serving on the league’s investment committee, the group that oversees pension plans and player 401k contributions, and after overhauling the business side of the organization last year, is in the midst of a $100 million makeover to Ford Field.
The changes include new video boards, an enhanced wifi network and new premium seating and club areas in the stadium.
“I think it’s been a good year and a half,” Wood said, citing improvements to both the football and business sides of the organization. “There were a lot of things that were big additions, I think, to the fan experience. There’s still more to do, and a lot of what we learned this week we’re taking back and going to think about in terms of how do you keep the fans of the future engaged.”
Wood said the Lions have ended their consulting agreement with Ernie Accorsi, who led the Lions’ general manager search last January and served as an occasional sounding board for both him and GM Bob Quinn during their first season together, and that he’s become “a little bit of a resource” to the league over the last year.
Wood said the Lions have notified the league that they intend to bid for both the next round of Super Bowls and an upcoming NFL draft.
As for his comment from November of 2015 that he would “say that I’m not qualified to run any other NFL team, but I think I’m qualified to run this one,” Wood said he made that only as a way to illustrate the trusted relationship he had with the Fords.
