Happy Hour 01/10: Where might Mike Martz go?

Oh, sure he's going to stay in Detroit.

Actually, maybe Mike Martz really will be the Lions' offensive coordinator next season. It seems like a pretty sweet gig for him. He was greeted with celestial rays of light and rose-petal covered streets when he came to town. And Sgt. Marinelli lets him do whatever the hell he wants with the offense. He can sign and cut three wide receivers a week or get offensive line coaches fired.

Plus, if you watched a Lions game with the sound turned down this past year, you probably would've thought Martz was the head coach anyway, judging from how many times the camera shows him on the sideline.

He gets all of the credit, and none of the blame. Marinelli has to slog through those what-went-wrong-this-week press conferences. And if the offense doesn't perform, well, it's Matt Millen's fault for assembling such a piss-poor roster, right? Meanwhile, when he's not telling Mike Williams to lose weight, moving back-up QBs over to receiver, or comparing Jon Kitna to Kurt Warner, Martz can just sit in his office and draw plays with crayons on the walls.

But hey, nothing beats being the guy in charge. So we've had a few rumors swirling around Martz throughout the season. And that just feeds into Lions fans' inferiority complexes. No one believes that he'd really want to keep working for the Lions, right? Even if it means being the head coach for the Cardinals or Raiders.

Then we have the Dolphins. As soon as Nick Saban skulked out of Miami like a mouse ducking behind the fridge when you turn the lights on, Martz's name topped the list of potential replacements. And why not? He's essentially the anti-Saban, and how awesome would that offense look under the Florida sun?

Wayne Huizenga apparently thinks so, too, and while the rest of us are watching Pistons-Hornets, or Deal Or No Deal, he'll be meeting somewhere in Detroit with Martz about his currently vacant head coaching position. Since Huizenga's interviewed virtually every other candidate available, however (nine coaches, including the Rooney Rule-mandated minority prospect), I suppose it's not a certainty that Martz will be tanning with Don Shula this spring.

But c'mon, if you were Mike Martz and Huizenga came to interview you, jingling that Blockbuster change in his pocket, wouldn't you start calling realtors in South Beach? (And we already know he likes Joey Harrington - that is, if the Dolphins don't cut him.)