Editor’s note: This is Part 3 of a three-part series on how the Detroit Lions became the best team in the NFC after decades of agony. If you missed Part 1: “Matthew Stafford’s secret was rocket fuel that revived the Lions.” And Part 2: “How Brad Holmes transformed the Lions’ draft strategy to build NFL’s best roster.”

There is no honor among thieves. Especially in the NFL.

But it is the highest form of compliment.

You want to know how much respect the Detroit Lions have gained in the NFL? You want to know how this organization is viewed?

The rest of the NFL is trying to steal — or at the very least copy — what the Lions have built.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn are both candidates for head coaching jobs. Chris Spielman has interviewed for the New York Jets general manager job.

This is what happens in the NFL, when you taste success — the Lions won the NFC North and enjoyed a weekend bye.

This is what the Lions had done for years, trying to import success from other teams.

“Right now a lot of people are asking me, ‘How do they find their own Dan Campbell?’ ” Lions president and CEO Rod Wood said recently, smiling. “Well, good luck.”

For years, Wood said everybody tried to find the next legendary coach Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. Now, other teams are trying to copy the Lions Way.

“They’re asking us,” Wood said. “And we said, ‘Well, what do you want?’ ”

But they answer: “Well, we don’t know.”

“How are you going to find the right person if you don’t know what you want?” Wood said.

Right there. That’s the essence of what has changed with the Lions’ culture.

You have to know what you want before you can look for it. Whether that’s front office people. Coaches. Staff. Or even players.

“What we wanted was a leader,” Wood said. “We wanted somebody who was going to embrace culture as a big part of their job, and not necessarily the offensive genius or the defensive genius, or an experienced head coach or a young person or an older person. It was somebody who was a true leader. And leadership is hard to identify unless you see it.”

PART 2:How Brad Holmes transformed the Lions’ draft strategy to build a monster

Spielman’s unique role

Suddenly, other teams are trying to mimic the Lions’ structure, trying to recapture the magic happening in Allen Park. And while the Jets are reportedly interested in interviewing Spielman, other teams are trying to copy his unusual role.

But the truth is, it’s impossible to copy because Spielman is so unique.

He floats through the Lions organization touching everything. He sits in on executive meetings. He watches film with the scouts. He bounces ideas off Holmes, sometimes challenging him, sometimes praising him — “it can be a lonely job,” Spielman said.

He slips ideas to the coaches, offering trick plays to Johnson.

It’s like the spirit of the Lions — the heart and soul — floating through every corner of the organization.

“I will tell you several teams got very intrigued with it and have reached out to me to ask me how this role works,” Wood said. “One team, I even got so far as — I won’t tell you the team or the person — but I talked to one of their legendary players who was considering taking the job, right?”

Wood basically said: You gotta be egoless. You gotta be a servant.

“And when I talked to him, he said, ‘Well, I don’t know that I could do that,’ ” Wood said. “I said, ‘Well, yeah, you have to do it the way Chris is doing that or you’re going to be viewed as the owner’s spy or the president’s spy.’

“So, I think, as far as I know, we’re the only team that has this kind of specific role that is kind of working.”

And it works because of how Spielman is approaching it.

“I think it would only work with somebody like Chris,” Wood said. “You know, he has to be somebody that doesn’t have an ego, doesn’t look for credit, doesn’t look to do somebody else’s job. And I think that’s the way he was as a player. I mean, he’s kind of still a player in his mind. And he just wants me to tell him what to do, and then he’ll go do it. So, it wouldn’t work if it was somebody else.”

Over time, Spielman’s role has morphed.

“He sits in a lot of the top scouting meetings, just like one of Brad’s assistants,” Wood said. “He goes over to Ford Field and talks to the folks over there about the game, talks to ownership about the game. We have an ownership call every week.

“Chris is on that and helps explain to Mrs. Ford what happened in the game from a football perspective, and he brings a ton of credibility, not only inside the organization, but with the Ford family, because they remember him as a player, loved him. So … our organization structure, I don’t think it could be easily replicated.”

It might be the most unique role in the NFL.

“Everyone wants a piece of Chris,” Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp said. “The coaches love him. The players love him. You know, everyone on the staff loves him. You know he’s incredible.”

Yes, now some teams want him as well.

There is something intriguing about what Spielman has done. When Spielman gives his weekly talks to the business side, he will tell them secrets about the team.

“With the understanding that whatever said in there stays in there, and it’s establishing trust,” Spielman said. “It’s like marriage or relationships. Once trust is gone, it’s over, it’s done.”

Anyone who works for the Lions is invited.

“We don’t want people to feel like they work for the Lions,” Spielman said. “We want people to feel like they are Detroit Lions. And in order to do that, you have to invest in them. You have to extend trust to them, and you have to take some risk involved with that. And you know, I thought that it’s worth the risk. It’s worth the investment.”

Spielman and his wife went to a cheerleading practice.

“We did football drills with the cheerleaders,” Spielman said. “We’re doing one-on-one tackling and showing how to wrap. It was fun.”

And Spielman has given talks to the people who work in ticket sales, role-playing talking to a customer.

“You didn’t make the sale today. So what?” he said. “Make the next one.”

He paused: “That culture has to permeate throughout the whole organization,” he said. “Has to permeate with suite sales, ticket sales. I mean, when I go and talk, I don’t just talk about football. I talk about life and stuff I believe in.”

As he explains it, it starts to feel like a motivational talk.

“There’s also a standard that has to be set within all parts of the organization,” Spielman said passionately. “And that standard must never be compromised. It can’t be compromised, or you can’t be a part of it. …

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t fear. Can’t operate out of fear. You operate out of victory, right? And I think that’s what we do.”

And yes, that, too, is now part of the new Lions culture. From the way they hire to the way they draft. To the way Campbell goes for it on fourth down.

You can’t live in fear — that’s part of the culture.

Culture to the test

Earlier this season, in late November, Lions GM Brad Holmes was driving to Lions headquarters, and his phone started going crazy.

“I think it was after the Thanksgiving game,” he said. “We had multiple players on IR. I’m driving in and I’m getting these text messages. So and so is on IR. So and so is on IR.”

It has been the story of the 2024 team: A ridiculous number of injuries.

“I hate it for the players — that’s who I hate it for,” he said.

He pauses: “But I’m not gonna pout about it.”

No. It’s another challenge. Another obstacle. Another fierce test of the culture.

“Again, it’s back to the culture, back to what Dan says all the time, ‘it’s about the work,’ ” Holmes said. “I’m the same way. It’s about the work.

“This what it’s about and we just were aggressive in attacking guys that we thought could fit.”

Now, from the outside, it looked like the Lions went into scramble mode, pulling guys off the streets, just trying to find bodies.

But that’s simply not true.

“A lot of people say, ‘How do they find these guys off the street?’ ” Holmes said. “Really, the only guy that was technically on the street was really Jamal Adams. All these other guys were on practice squads.”

They were players the Lions had identified long ago. After all, players on any team’s practice squad are fair game to sign with another club.

They were players the Lions were monitoring because they fit the Lions. Fit the culture. Fit everything. These were Lions who didn’t know they were Lions yet.

“We knew these are the guys that we like, guys that fit,” Holmes said.

The Lions have truly become an egoless organization. No one takes the credit, but everybody seems to credit somebody else. And Holmes gives all kinds of credit to Rob Lohman, pro director of scouting. “We had those guys stacked up,” Holmes said.

The other part of the culture is being patient.

So, when the outside world was screaming for a defensive end to replace the injured Aidan Hutchinson, Holmes didn’t rush or do anything rash.

“It got to five edge rushers (who were hurt),” Holmes sighed. “That was like, whoever thought of that? But it was like, well, you can’t be a prisoner of the moment just because the whole world is creating this urgency of, ‘What are you gonna do?’ … And it’s like, no, we have a process. We’re gonna find the right person. We’re gonna be patient.”

Laughter in the halls

Winning, of course, makes everything easier.

But the vibe around the Lions is unmistakable.

It’s a culture where “everybody’s in it for the right thing and the right result, with nobody looking for credit and nobody looking to blame anybody if things don’t work,” Wood said.

And it’s making everybody feel valued.

“Really, I wanted everyone in this organization to feel that their role is important, that they’re honored and I think, you know, they really do,” Hamp said. “And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a joy to see.”

Actually, she can hear it.

“You’ll hear laughter in the halls,” she said. “We actually have fun. It’s apparent. You know, it was never that way. It was like creeping around here. To hear, people chatting and laughing and having a good time — it’s all over the organization.”

But no one is satisfield.

“We are in no way a finished product,” Lions chief operating officer Mike Disner said. “But hopefully we’re trending toward a place where players want to be here, coaches want to be here, staff wants to be here, and everyone is moving toward the same direction and thinking about the whole organization, the whole community, the city of Detroit and what each of us can do to improve every aspect of the organization.”

Before every game, Campbell meets with ownership and explains how he expects the game to play out.

“It almost always goes the way he envisions,” Wood said. “If we do this, this is what’s gonna happen if they do that. It’s amazing how accurate he is.”

For all the work they put into hiring Campbell, he turned out to be a home run.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around anybody who’s as good a leader as him or as emotionally intelligent as he is,” Wood said. “He knows exactly what to say at the right time, the right way, when to not say something. He’s incredibly funny. I mean, it’s just a fun guy to work with, as is Brad.”

Holmes is known for his draft picks, but Wood has seen him grow as a manager.

“He had never really managed people,” Wood said. “I think he’s got a really good eye for talent, not only players, but people that work for him, right? And he’s grown a lot in terms of how he grows his staff. So I think, right now, he’s become an excellent manager of people. In addition to being a good general manager.”

Primed for playoff run

Campbell sprang up in the Lions locker room.

“You guys look like you remember who the (expletive) you are!” he screamed a week ago after the Lions won their 15th game, clinched the NFC North, earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs .

Pacing back and forth, brimming with pride, Campbell flashed a huge smile.

“That was awesome!” he screamed. “All I could think about is, man, we’ve been forged in this stuff now.”

Forged — what a perfect word, as if they were formed in a fire.

“This has been three years in the making — some of it four,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Like that just doesn’t happen.”

No, it doesn’t. It’s an incredible story, really. How this organization has been transformed — blasted and hardened and turned into something new.

Hamp was in that locker room that Sunday night, celebrating with her team after the Lions beat the Vikings. St. Brown, that kid from USC, took a photo with her, which only seemed fitting.

She set the culture and he embodies it.

What a story.

How the daughter of an auto icon turned a losing organization into a winner. She had never hired or fired anybody before taking over this organization. Didn’t study business at Yale. Didn’t even study it while getting her master’s degree.

But she had a vision, hired the right people, stayed patient during the rough times and was smart enough to get out of the way.

This was her vision.

Actually, it’s bigger than her vision.

“I thought if, if we could actually do this thing, the city would go crazy,” she said. “What I didn’t anticipate was the state, the country, in a lot of ways.”

It all comes back to people. Hiring the right people.

“You know, I think about my dad a lot,” Hamp says. “I know he knew Chris, from the old days. He loved Chris. I know he would love Brad. I know he would love Dan. I know he loved Rod. And he would love Mike.”

And now, Hamp is carrying her father with her into the playoffs.

“I think he loves what’s going on,” she says. “I really do. I think he’s watching.”

Editor’s note: To read the first two parts of this series, find Part 1 and Part 2.

Contact Jeff Seidel: [email protected]. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This story was updated to add a video.