Bevell: ‘It was an agonizing decision’ to fire Coombs
Despite the brazen decision made by Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs, interim head coach Darrell Bevell agonized over making the call to terminate Coombs.
“There are clear lines of communication, (and) there’s basic protocols that we use each and every game. Going into a game, we have meetings to determine parameters of what we want to do in a game,” Bevell said Monday explaining his decision.
Clearly, Coombs’ actions were viewed as undermining the authority of the head coach of a National Football League team.
“Obviously, the decision yesterday that was made in the game was not a correct decision,” Bevell said. “And so I thought long and hard about it last night. And, I ended up talking to (team president) Rod ( Wood), and I told Rod what my thoughts were. And then Rod and the rest of the leadership group made a decision.”
In his first season working with the special teams unit, Coombs clearly established himself as a young and bright football coach.
Players were fond of him, and the production on the field spoke for itself.
Did Bevell consider a lesser punishment for the decision made by Coombs?
“It was an agonizing decision,” he said. “It was hard, really hard for me. I thought it would be really important to think on it a lot. I really thought about it basically all night long. I ended up getting ahold of Rod and talking it through with Rod. There are some things that you can do, and I feel like you can come back from it. And, I think there’s some decisions that — you don’t make those decisions. There’s got to be repercussions. I’m just trying to do what’s best for this team and put this team in the best situation to be able to win.”
When asked, Bevell declined to address what Coombs’ reasoning was to take such an action.
“I’d like to keep the communication that we had in private. I hope the best for Brayden. But, it just was a decision that I felt I needed to make,” Bevell said.
“I think it’s important that I have a philosophy and I have a belief in things that I’m trying to instill in the team, instill in the coaching staff and instill in the program,” he explained later in his media session. “When things happen that are outside of it, then there needs to be something that happens. If something doesn’t happen, then really you lose some credibility.”