Lions coach Jim Schwartz worked his way up the NFL coaching ranks as a scout, an assistant and a coordinator before finally getting his shot as a head coach with the Lions in 2009. Along the way, there have been two coaches that have influenced Schwartz’s career more than anyone else -- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and new Rams head coach Jeff Fisher.
Schwartz spent three seasons with Belichick in Cleveland from 1993-95 and 10 years with Fisher in Tennessee before coming over to Detroit.
Schwartz has talked often about the immense amount of respect he has for both men and how he still keeps in contact with both.
“If I’m going to ask advice, those are two pretty good guys to start with,” Schwartz said Thursday from the Super Bowl. “I was very fortunate in my NFL career to get started with Bill Belichick and I’m also very fortunate to spend 10 years with a guy like Jeff Fisher down in Nashville.”
Neither Belichick nor Fisher is surprised at the job their former protege has done in Detroit over the last three seasons.
“It hasn’t surprised me at all,” Fisher told Detroitlions.com at the Super Bowl Thursday. “Jim would also be the first one to tell you he didn’t do it by himself. Jim took advantage of a coaching staff and players and big plays during the game and surrounded himself with good people, and that’s what happens.
“He’s done a great job. In a short period of time, to be able to do what he did and put that team in the playoffs, it speaks for itself.”
Belichick said he speaks with Schwartz throughout the season and was just as impressed as Fisher with the job his former scout did with the Lions this season.
“He’s done a terrific job turning that program around,” Belichick said of Schwartz. “They weren’t very good when he got there and they’re pretty good now.”
There’s an inherent bond between teacher and student when it comes to NFL coaches. Just like Schwartz learned from Belichick and Fisher, Belichick is from the Bill Parcells coaching tree and Fisher studied under Buddy Ryan and George Seifert.
“I heard Belichick say earlier this week, he was talking about his experience with Bill Parcells with New England and also with the Jets, and said something about, ‘Until you’re a head coach, you don’t know what he’s going through,’" Schwartz said.
“I think that after being in this job for three years, I have a greater appreciation for (Belichick) and what he went through and also the things that come up.
“There’s no better person to ask for advice or to bounce an idea off of than someone like that, particularly since they’re not on our schedule this year and obviously not next year.”
The Lions do however play Fisher and the Rams at Ford Field next season.
