Michael Rothstein at espn.com describes the 10 moments that stood out about the Lions in 2013:
“4. Schwartz and the fans. Maybe this is too high because it is fresh in the mind, but Schwartz yelling at the Lions fans for booing after taking a knee to go to overtime was a standout moment this season. You don't see a coach scream at fans in the middle of a game too many times. Schwartz lost his cool and then it took question upon question for him to admit anything the next day talking to the media. If anything locked up his fate no matter how the season ended, that episode was it.”
No. It wasn't too high. It was too low.
This is the last time I'm going to get a chance to take a shot at Schwartz so I'm going to make it count. His team was defined by a lack of discipline that emanated from the head coach and worked its way down. That lack of discipline was exemplified by this incident. It encapsulated what was wrong with Schwartz's teams during his tenure from poor self-control on the field to poor handling of the public pressures that came with that.
Never have I seen a head coach who so deserved the blame for failure of his team to perform.