Carlos Monarrez

Detroit Free Press

Lions coach Jim Caldwell took a brave, bold and firm stand Friday. Under no circumstance, Caldwell said, would he defend himself, the job he has done or why he deserves to keep his job.

Caldwell was explaining why he told the Lions’ flagship radio station, WXYT-FM (97.1), on Thursday that he loves coaching his team.

“I love what I do,” Caldwell said Friday. “I love coaching, love this team, love the city.”

Then he told reporters he was merely expressing his appreciation and did not want them to think he was making a case for keeping his job, saying, “It’s certainly not my intent because of the fact that I don’t believe in defending oneself.”

I asked Caldwell whether his refusal to defend himself was limited to public comments or whether he also wouldn’t defend himself to owner Martha Ford or his next general manager.

“I don’t defend myself in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Wait. What? Caldwell had just professed his love for everything about his job and the city that “welcomed me with open arms.” I’ve never coached an NFL team — although I won only one game fewer than Caldwell did in the first half this season — so maybe I don’t know exactly what Caldwell is going through right now.

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But I do know this: I fight for the things I love.

So, I tried again. I asked Caldwell why he wouldn’t fight for the job he loves so much and defend himself to his GM.

“I don’t believe in it,” Caldwell said. “It’s not a matter of fighting for my job. When you take a look at it, the record speaks for itself. I’m not going to go into any long sort of explanation or those kinds of things. I never have, never will.”

And then, a few minutes later, Caldwell did an about-face and defended himself out of the blue while answering a question about the offensive line.

As Caldwell began speaking, I’d like to think he looked out at the group of reporters gather before him on New Year’s Day and imagined us newly. Perhaps in the shape of his team’s owner, the one who will decide his fate.

“You’re going to ask me what we think about the season and talking about underachieving,” Caldwell said. “To me, there’s only one position to be satisfied with and that’s winning it all. That’s being absolutely the best one in this league.

“Anything that falls short of that, you’re going to be dissatisfied with, I’m going to be dissatisfied with, and I can say that with full sincerity because I’ve been there on a number of occasions. I know what it’s like. I know what it looks like. Some people (are) just whistling in the wind. So I know what it takes to get there, and anything that falls short of that, it’s not going to be quite good enough, at least in my estimation.”

It would have been more expedient for Caldwell to have directed all of us to his resume on Linkedin, which I imagine reads something like this: “Coach. Won two Super Bowls as an assistant, been to one as a head coach. Knows Peyton Manning.”

Caldwell continued his defense and even jousted with one reporter over the wording of a statement Caldwell made about improving on last year’s 11-5 record. Caldwell bristled when the reporter asked why the Lions had not come close to meeting the mandate for improvement.

“Let’s not say it didn’t even come close, because we had our stretch,” he said. “When you say it didn’t even come close, we had our chances. We had our chances and we just did not play well enough when it counted to get that done.”

Coach, when you follow an 11-5 season with a 1-7 start that leads to three assistant coaches being fired, as well as the team’s top two executives, you did not come close. A 5-2 record after that doesn’t matter. You. Did. Not. Come. Close.

Yet Caldwell continued his defense, reading more from his resume, and crossed over from defense to delusion.

“I’ve captained every team I’ve ever been associated with,” he said. “And, I think, just from working and working in environments with good people that have done a tremendous job in this game, I’ve been able to get in there and they’ve given me some responsibility to lead men, and it’s paid off for us.”

It’s paid off? Really? I wonder if Tom Lewand, Martin Mayhew and Joe Lombardi would agree. I wonder if Lions’ season-ticket holders would agree.

We’ve all heard of the famous Tony Dungy “S.O.L.” line about the Lions. If Caldwell thinks his leadership truly has paid off, maybe it’s time someone creates a new acronym for Caldwell’s season, if not his tenure with the Lions: I.O.U.

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Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

Season finale: Bears

Matchup: Lions (6-9) at Chicago (6-9).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday, Soldier Field.

TV/radio: Fox (Channel 2 in Detroit), WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Even.