For captain of sinking Lions ... a twisted fate
Known for fighting through tough times, Marinelli's legacy could be 0-16
Charles Rex Arbogast / APRod Marinelli has a lot of backers who hope the Lions win one of their last three games and avoid infamy.
Bruce Snyder played high school football for a man named Jim Ellis. In 1976, after Snyder was hired as head coach at Utah State, Ellis called Snyder and asked him to add Marinelli to his staff. Snyder, who didn’t know Marinelli, said he couldn’t. The staff was full and there were no vacancies. But he agreed to speak to Marinelli. Marinelli then asked if he could meet with Ellis.
"He said, 'Coach if I were in Logan, Utah, would you talk to me?'" Snyder recalls. "Now, he was in L.A. and I was in Utah. I said, 'Yes.' A week later I'm in the basement of my home in Utah, working on recruiting. It’s 10:30 or 11 at night and the phone rings. Logan, Utah at that time of night is really dark and really cold. There was nobody out. Rod was on the phone. He says, 'Could I make an appointment to see you tomorrow.'
"I said, 'Well, where are you?' I hear the pay phone door go 'squeeeaaak!' Then he says, 'I'm at Fort North and Main Street.' He'd just gotten off the Greyhound Bus. So I jump in the car and here's this guy I never met."
Marinelli stayed at Snyder’s house that night, went to work with him the next day and was told Snyder still didn't have a spot for him.
Three days after their visit, a large package arrived at Snyder's house entitled, "How I Can Help Bruce Snyder and Utah State WIN!"
| The worst teams everAs the Detroit Lions finish with a 0-16 record, we look at some of the most futile teams in sports history. NBCSports.com |
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"You say that, every coach will listen," admits Snyder. "I read it, he called me again and I finally relented. But I said, 'Rod, I don't need another problem.' I can’t have you coming to me in a month saying, 'I can’t afford this, my wife's going to divorce me ...' He didn’t make a penny working for us that year. Slept on the sofa. Worked at night at the cheese factory. Then we got to spring ball and I could tell. 'This guy can coach!' He was very detailed. Very focused on the player in terms of eye contact and helping them play better. Well prepared. Enthusiastic. Energetic without being, 'Rah, rah.' He was as good as anyone we had.
"A little while passed and I decided to talk to him," said Snyder. "It was getting to the point where I wanted to help him, somehow, financially. I said, 'I am concerned about you.' Now Rod was very respectful and never raised his voice to me but he said to me, 'Coach, I told you I'd never be a problem to you and I won't.' And that was it. But the next year, we were able to get him on the staff."
Snyder, now retired, is in a serious battle with cancer. He’s having chemotherapy treatments and taking it "one day at a time," he says. Still, you can hear the empathy he has for Marinelli.
"My heart breaks every time I see the Sunday night ticker and see their score," says Snyder. "I know it's killing him and he wants to be strong and won't want anyone to see weakness in his armor. I bet he never shows his staff holding his head in his hands. I just don’t know how he's going to get out of this thing. It's really turned out sad for him. He’s too good a guy and too good a coach. To have this attached to his name would not be right but people are not that kind."
Said Dungy, "I never imagined this would happen to him. But I believe he's one guy it won't impact, one guy who knows who he is personally and will be the same because he knows he accepted the challenge."
Three games to go. At Indy. Home with New Orleans. At Green Bay. Marinelli doesn't think the Lions will win one of those games. He knows it. He "believes in the invisible." He has faith in himself and his team.
"If you don’t have (faith in success) you're nothing," he said Monday. "You're not a man. If you just say, 'I give up. We can’t do this. Woe is me,' and look for pity, that's disgraceful to me. I can’t dwell on the negative. Everybody else does that for me. I go out and try to make it better."
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