Keeping The Dream Alive: Petitioning the NFL for a Barry Sanders Video

Dear NFL executives:

We, the Detroit Lions fans of the Nation, have endured a decade like no other in the history of professional football.

We have seen our team break the record for consecutive road losses, we seem poised to challenge that mark again, we have witnessed an unprecedented 0-16 season, and have endured more than our share of mismanagement, bad luck, and outright decrepitude, while posting the worse record in the league throughout the new millennium.

And though we’ll admit that fan support has waned, and in the last two years the stadium has not always been filled, it’s also fair to point out that many of us have had to make very hard decisions about how to spend our money in the most depressed economy in the nation, and winner or no, professional football had to take a backseat at times.

Unfortunately around the league many have taken the opportunity to spat on us, decrying our Thanksgiving day tradition, ridiculing the city of Detroit, making light of our circumstance, and having the temerity to call us “bad fans.”

But even in the midst of the turmoil, most of us are still here, still passionate about our beloved team, and still looking toward the future with great hope.

We love the Lions and always will.

Proof of that can be observed on the very pages of Bleacher Report, this online forum for sports fans to have their say, where we analyze the potential of the current roster, surmise about the team’s greatest needs, and agonize over their many defeats.

We keep the idea of Detroit Lions football alive and burning, hungry for some success perhaps, but mindful of the greatest ideals of competition: perseverance, loyalty, and commitment to something larger than yourself.

We’ve been tested, you see, but have refused to fold.

And there’s one man who is more responsible than any for keeping that hope alive, and you’ve probably heard his name before.

The great Barry Sanders.

Or just Barry in the state of Michigan.

And though Mr. Sanders is largely recognized as one of the greatest running backs of all time (we say THE best), around here he represents even more.

Around here, for those of us old enough to remember his glorious years in the NFL, he burns as a beacon, and an ever-present reminder that greatness can bloom in Detroit.

Success can bloom in Detroit.

Respect can bloom in Detroit.

Around here Barry Sanders is a name that is whispered, and to the young he’s a bed time story that plants the seeds of fandom, giving them something to hold on to beyond what they’ve witnessed in their formative years.

And at risk of proclaiming something overly grandiose, it might not be too far from the truth to say that Barry Sanders saved a generation of Detroit Lions fans.

He’s the rock upon which modern day fans plant their flag, and he remains the foundation from which we hope to build our legion into the future.

We by no means live in the past, but we relish it, and use it to fuel our optimism in the present.

But even the most steadfast of us could use a little reminder every now and again, and herein lies the point of our request.

We, the long suffering but steadfast citizenry of the Detroit Lions Nation humbly request an NFL production highlighting the Barry Sanders years.

At this point the definitive collection does not exist, and though there is one to my knowledge that has been produced, it covers a scant portion of his career, is largely inaccessible, and could use updating both in the breadth of coverage and in the use of modern day technology.

I can’t think of a more exciting assignment for anyone in your video department.

And though the task might seem daunting, given the sheer number of breathtaking plays incurred during Barry’s incandescent ten year NFL career, this is also what would make it such a rewarding enterprise, and one that we would willingly assist in or even initiate were we in a position to do so.

We realize that the production of such a video would require both man-hours and capital, but also wholly promise that it is a desired item of value to Detroit Lions fans everywhere.

We will buy this product.

We will gift it to our family members and friends.

And they will smile their broad smiles, or squeal with delight, or dance a touchdown dance when they see it.

Can you help us, NFL executives?

We offer our services freely if there’s anything we can do to assist you in this endeavor, forever looking towards the future but proud and sure of our past.

Sincerely,

DLN (Detroit Lions Nation)

This note will be sent to the NFL and will serve as a petition.  Please respond below if you have interest in this request.  We recognize that many fans around the league also have interest in the great Barry Sanders, and would welcome your support as well!

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

When Winning Doesn’t Matter: How the Colts Defrauded The NFL.

Somehow when Chad Ochocinco dons a sombrero after a touchdown he is “damaging the integrity of the game.”

And yet when a team blatantly throws a game in a manner that leaves no doubt as to their intentions, this is deemed acceptable.

Let me say this again because it sounds so ridiculous.

Wearing a sombrero is more damaging to the game than intentionally losing.

Tweeting during halftime is more damaging to the game than intentionally losing.

Criticizing referees is more damaging to the game than intentionally losing.

In an era of NFL football that seems to be more and more concerned with the trivialities, apparently trying to win (the core value) is no longer important.

Apparently throwing a game to a team ensconced in a playoff race is deemed acceptable, exactly the type of behavior that got Pete Rose or Shoeless Joe Jackson banned from professional baseball.

And they were just suspected of maybe altering a game by gambling or accepting money.

In this respect maybe there needs to be a serious investigation as to which of the various Colts higher ups had their money on the Jets.

If the Colts were really that concerned that the iron man himself, Peyton Manning, was going to be injured after nearly 200 consecutive starts, then he shouldn’t have even made the trip.

In fact, they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble simply by not showing up.

Why didn’t they try that?

Well for a number of reasons.

First of all, that’s against the rules.

In the NFL you can’t just not show up, but you can show up and intentionally blow the game, though I’m not exactly sure what the difference is.

More importantly, the Colts wanted to gouge their fans for their hard earned money in the middle of a horrific economy, even though they had no intention of winning.

So while some columnists are “sickened” by the way Colts fans booed the team in the second half after shelling out two weeks salary to take their family to a game, I would have condoned them had they rushed the field with pitch forks and demanded their money back.

And if the Colts organization has any integrity left they should consider doing just that.

This was perhaps the worst display I’ve ever seen on a football field (perhaps in any sport), and it will catch up with the Colts.

I’d rather see Dominic Riola flipping off the Detroit Lions fans or Lagarrette Blount popping Byron Hout in the face, because these are uncalculated crimes of passion, the type our legal system has devised lesser penalties for.

What Indy did was calculated and vile and completely destructive to the integrity of the NFL.

First of all, the Indy players themselves were devastated that their chance at history was taken from them.

After all their hard work, trying to accomplish something that no team since the 1972 Dolphins had done, their efforts were scuttled from within the organization itself.

Though they all said the right things (more or less) after the game, not one of them said it was the right decision, and you could tell by the way they hung their heads on the sideline and moped into the locker room that in many ways they felt betrayed.

Peyton Manning doesn’t give up, and the fact that he was forced to by his own coach is gnawing at him even now.  What’s more, it’s gnawing at the whole team and if this season ends badly, I expect some of the players to break rank and point to this humiliation.

To make this episode worse, the Jets are in the midst of a playoff race and by handing them a game, the Colts have inexcusably created a laughingstock of the entire playoff system.

As a Lions fan, there have been many times that I really wanted a win, probably more than most.

But at no time would I have accepted a cheap win like this just to pad the stats or finally make the playoffs.

I’m a fan of the game first and foremost and I find this type of farce absurd.

Being given a win is not winning, and though I don’t blame the Jets one bit for scrapping out a victory, they’ve got to have rather mixed feelings about it themselves.

And in defense of this decision, too many columnists have reiterated the nonsensical verse, “The Superbowl is the only thing that matters,” as if there was any truth in that, or any proof that the Colts have somehow strengthened their Superbowl bid.

NFL history matters.

Sportsmanship matters.

Competition matters.

Integrity matters.

Winning matters.

Because if none of these things matter, then Sports don’t matter at all, and I should be saving my money for something more utilitarian and less disappointing.

The Colts defrauded the entire NFL, it’s fans, and even themselves in their loss to the Jets, and though I’m not a man of mysticism, I can’t help but feel that it’s going to catch up with them.

Too bad for the players and the fans because it’s not their fault.

But there’s a name for people who think that winning doesn’t matter.

They’re called losers.

And the Colts were losers in more ways than one during their disappointing give away to the Jets.

 

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Every Now and Then It’s Cool That the Detroit Lions Suck.

Every now and then it’s cool that the Lions suck.

I bet you gleaned that from the title.

But you’re undoubtedly wondering exactly how that could be.

Well into the worst record in the league in the first decade of the new millennium, the Lions have posted a winless season, broken the record for continuous road losses, seem poised to challenge that mark again, and have generally crafted a Greek tragedy that is somehow so absurd that it’s nearly comical.

I mean if you can’t laugh at the Lions as a true Lion fan, you’ll just end up going crazy.

So I don’t need to enumerate the many failings of this team, and the many disappointments that we fans bear silently, and how this team tends to rip out your heart and beat it with a shovel, as you gasp the word, “Why?”

There are plenty of answers to that question, some obvious and some not so, that occupy much of our time as a Detroit Lions community, trying our best to grasp at something that might add a sense of order to the chaos, and a sense of hope amidst the despair.

These things we’re all too familiar with.

But there’s also an upside to being a Lions fan, and though it may not sound like much, it actually makes you swell with pride a little when it happens to you.

Plainly, true fans of other clubs have a lot of respect for Lions fans and they’ll go out of their way to tell you so if you’re brave enough to flaunt your fandom as you travel around the nation.

I was reminded of this recently, when I took advantage of the latest extravagant snowfall in Virginia (my current residence) and got up in the Mountains for some skiing on some rarely experienced Virginia powder.

I wore my Detroit Lions wool cap of course, feeling somehow that I needed to support the team, and oddly, this cap led me to some of the more interesting discussions of the day.

First of all, I ran into a handful of Michigan folks on the hills, who all jumped at the opportunity to discuss the Lions: what they needed, how they can’t even look at Matt Millen without becoming enraged, how they saw the draft shaping up, and any number of tangential Lions jokes or reminiscence about Barry Sanders.

That’s one of the cool things about chairlift rides, by the way.

It’s one of the few times when a group of strangers get packed together on a ten minute trip that generally leads to conversation.

And the Lions hat is a great conversation starter.

Fans of other teams come out of the woodwork to comment about the Lions as well, and you usually get some props for having the temerity to admit your allegiance to this dismal team.

There are NO Detroit Lions bandwagon fans.

Wearing a Lions cap is so much different than wearing the cap of a winning team because the Lions cap says something about you.

It says that you understand what sports are all about, you understand the double edge sword of competition, and you understand that there’s a little more to being a fan than rooting for the team of the moment.

It says you haven’t sold out your convictions and it says that you are true Honolulu blue.

If I had to make a decision to trust a random Lions fan or a random Patriots fan it wouldn’t even be a decision.  I already know that a Lions fan is loyal and will see something through no matter the outcome, whereas we can’t be so sure about the fan of a winner.

They could just be another pretender.

This is what draws people to Lions fans.

When I’m at an out of state bar, I always get invited to sit at someone else’s table, usually preceded by, “How could I possibly deny a Lions fan,” or something to that effect.

Now it could be that people just feel sorry for us, but honestly, I think it’s a little more than that.

We’re the survivors of a dismal episode.

We’re what’s left when all the fakes have been drained away.

We’re fans, plain and simple, and there can be no deceit in rooting for the Lions.

During my hours on the slopes, I struck up a good conversation with a knowledgeable Cowboys fan and we analyzed the in’s and out’s of the playoff picture.

When I asked him if he’d been talking to some of the other people I’d talked to that day about their teams he said, “Naw, most idiots don’t know a thing about football.”

“I figured if you’re a Detroit fan, you must be hardcore.”

And you know what?  He was right.

That day on the slopes I talked to Steelers fans, Redskins fans, Browns fans (misery loves company), Cowboy fans, Atlanta fans, and many others.

Without exception they always approached me, always pointed to the Lions cap, and always afforded due respect.

Now I know it doesn’t replace the thrill of winning, but isn’t it nice to be able to look yourself in the mirror every morning knowing that you aren’t a fake?

We’re the soldiers that have seen the worst fighting but are still standing.

There is nothing for us left to prove.

And somewhere, somehow, I think we do deserve a little recognition.

So in the Spirit of the Holidays I’d like to wish all of you Lions fans out there a safe and happy New Year.

The Lions may suck but we love them just the same, and there’s something rewarding enough just in that.

We’re survivors, and we’ll be here next year and the year after that, a fraternity of the indefatigable.

Happy New Year my friends!

There’s something undeniably cool about being a Lions fan…

…come what may.

 

 

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Meow Mix: On the Road to Find Out with the Detroit Lions

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
There’s so much left to know, and I’m on the road to find out

I doubt that Cat Stevens was considering the plight of the Detroit Lions when he penned his famous song about searching through life, but it seems to be a fairly appropriate summation of the state of a Lions fan.

Wondering if one win means anything, wondering if the front office is for real, and wondering what we’ll see from the Cats this week against the Bears.

Granted, wondering generally means that a glimmer of hope is on the horizon, which is quite a bit better than despair, but at this point in the game I can’t be quite sure if it’s a fool’s hope or not.

During my tenure as a Lions fan, most hopes have turned out as such, which is why our fanbase is probably more cautious than any other in the NFL.

Once burned twice shy right?

A thousand times burned, makes you down right jittery.

Or maybe that’s the morning coffee.

Either way, now that I’ve come down a bit from the big win versus the Redskins, it’s probably a good time to evaluate the team and think about some of the things we can build on as we head out on the road.

Well in the end I’ll know, but on the way I wonder
Through descending snow, and through the frost and thunder

Hailing from the wintry state of Michigan aside, the Lions fanbase has been treated to more frost and thunder than any other, and sometimes I wonder if the glorious Barry Sanders wasn’t just a celestial lollypop given to us by the almighty so he could yank it away.

But they also say that the storm is fiercest just before the break, and we found out last week that there are a number of things the Lions have going for them.

1) The defense is improving.

Opening up against New Orleans was probably not a fair evaluation of a Defense still looking to find its identity.  The Saints have hung points on everyone so far, and seem poised for a monster offensive season.

The D looked much better against the Vikings, holding them to 265 net yards while having to deal with a litany of turnovers handed to them by a struggling offense.

And last week versus Washington, they were impressive in many aspects of the game.

The Linebacking core looked as good as they’ve been in a long time, and this will have a trickle down effect on everyone else.  Larry Foote had a monster game against Washington, and I can’t emphasize enough how stability in the middle (something we’ve been missing since Spielman) can help everyone else.

Louis Delmas (my favorite pick of the entire 2009 draft) has played well throughout the season and came up strong again last week, leading the secondary in tackles (third on the team) and showing the consistent ability to deliver the big hit from his safety position. 

This makes the middle of the defensive backfield (backers through safties) a tough place for opposing teams to make a living and should force opposing QB’s to make more difficult throws.

Though we probably can’t count on our D-line to get much pressure on the opposing quarterback, they have been fairly stout against the run in the last couple games. 

Having a good backing core helps, but if the big men in front can hold up their end of the bargain in the running game, then the Lions should be able to manufacture some pressure with various blitzes and stunts.

The D pressured Campbell a number of times last week.

2) The offense is still a work in progress, but is showing signs.

No team is going to win many games when it’s quarterback is throwing interceptions in the red zone.  So give Stafford some credit.  Instead of forcing the ball into triple coverage last week, he managed the team a good deal better, resulting in field goals that eventually won the game.

Granted, when we put some good drives together, we’d rather come away with touchdowns, but I think the first stage in the maturation of a young QB is to learn how not to lose the game.

By not turning the ball over and instead turning it over to his hall-of-fame placekicker, Stafford took a big step.

His next step is to learn how to throw a fade pattern to his ultimate weapon Calvin Johnson. 

With Johnson’s vertical advantage over every DB in the NFL, a great low-risk  high-reward pass in the red zone is the fade, putting some air under the ball such that only his receiver can come down with it.

When given the chance during the Skins game, Stafford threw bullets that didn’t even have a chance.  Again, better than handing it over to the other team as he did in the first two games, but a throw he’s going to have to learn to make if he wants to continue to improve.

Add a suddenly vital running game into the mix, and it well might be that our young quarterback has a few weapons at his disposal, and his offensive line has at least been mediocre in the early going if not great.

We’ll learn much more about this unit tomorrow against the Bears.

But sometimes you have to moan when nothing seems to suit you
But nevertheless you know you’re locked towards the future

The immediate future for this team is tomorrow.

The Bears are a team that is still looking to find itself too.

After a disappointing opening day loss to the Packers, during which their much ballyhooed off-season acquisition Jay Cutler threw more interceptions than Matthew Stafford, the Bears have responded strongly, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks.

Both those wins were close, however, and both were against teams who like the Detroit Lions are now 1-2.

So while many have called for the Lions to continue to improve against the Bears, a sentiment I agree with, I would also argue that the best improvement they could make would be to walk away with a “W” on the road.

The road.

It’s been a frightening place for the Lions over the last decade or so and represents the next test for Detroit in their search for legitimacy.

So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out
There’s so much left to know, and I’m on the road to find out

Go Lions.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Meow Mix: Zero, One, Infinity and the Detroit Lions

Guillaume de L’Hospital, the great 17th century French Mathematician, wrote the first book of differential calculus and is largely credited with the invention of “L’Hospital’s rule” an expression that allows for the solving of limits of indeterminate form.

What does this have to do with the Detroit Lions?

Well the numbers of “indeterminate form” that L’Hospital was considering, involved fractions in which zero and infinity were either divided by themselves or each other.

For example, how can you rate the improvement of a team that won zero games last season?

As anything times zero is also zero we can’t rightly say that the Lions are twice as good as they were last year because twice as good as zero is still zero.

This is where our old friend L’Hospital comes into play.

In the same sense that zero is the complete absence of anything (in this case wins) infinity represents the other end of that spectrum, a number of largeness beyond reckoning.

It would therefore take a number of this size to transform zero into any real integer such as one, the number the Lions posted with their first win in nearly two calendar years Sunday afternoon vs. the Washington Redskins.

We can now say that the Lions are therefore infinitely better than they were last year, and thus can lay claim to the title, “most improved NFL team of all time.”

Only a team that has spent a winless season can even fathom this type of turnaround.

A team that won a single game in a given year and then 16 the next, would only be 16 times better (from a record standpoint) and thus couldn’t even come close to the infinite improvement of the Lions.

In a game that wasn’t exactly the prettiest ever played, the Lions somehow held on and experienced the phenomenon that mathematicians, religious scholars, and general ponderers have considered for millennia.

The creation of something from nothing.

Early in the game, the Lions looked sharp with rookie Matthew Stafford hooking up with Bryant Johnson for a touchdown strike that capped off an impressive 99-yard drive.

This was set up by a goal line stand turned in by a ramped up defense that played remarkably well throughout the entire game.

When the field was segmented vertically, with clear throwing lanes, Stafford was accurate and threw darts, showing the strong arm that made him the No. 1 pick.

He still struggled however when the field set up horizontally and required him to put some air under the ball or drop it in between zones. 

Nonetheless, the kid clearly looked the best we’ve seen so far, and with 21-of-36 passing for 241 yards one TD and zero interceptions, I’d say that he might be on his way to some good things for the Lions.

Add a solid rushing effort from Kevin Smith, who broke 100 yards before injuring his shoulder in the second half, and inspired play by the aforementioned defense, and the Lions looked like a team headed in the right direction.

Granted, the Redskins looked absolutely terrible, such that no matter how many times the Lions tried to lose the game the Skins gave it right back to them, but at this point, a win’s a win and Lions fans everywhere should be rejoicing.

Just too bad that not many of them actually went to the game.

In front of the smallest crowd to witness a Lions game in 20 years, the team battled, put pressure on Jason Campbell, bottled up Clinton Portis, and made some timely plays in the secondary.

And though the Lions have a long way to go, as this was a game they probably should’ve won by a good bit more, I’ve got nothing but smiles to offer any of you.

The Lions win!

I’ll say that again because it felt so good.

The Lions win!

It seems like anything is possible.

Super Bowl, Baby!

Er…maybe not.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.  Great minds like L’Hospital were only considering the conundrum of infinity, whereas Lions fans have been considering an even more bewildering enigma for far too long.

But here’s what I know.

From zero came one.

And if it took infinity to get there, then another one, two, or ten can’t be that far behind.

Can they?

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

How The Philadelphia Eagles Stole The Show By Signing Michael Vick.

In the annals of football lore there is a story about a player who came from nothing, achieved everything, then threw it all away.

Well there’s a number actually (perhaps more than I care to admit) but I’ve got a particular one on my mind tonight.  One that keeps on irritating the spot right between the shoulders, the spot that can’t be easily reconciled and causes me to squirm.

It’s the Michael Vick spot, and as hard as I try to reach it, my lack of flexibility keeps me from finally succeeding. 

I guess it’s time to limber up.

So I twist and I turn and I waffle back and forth like an epileptic hula dancer and the diatribe runs something like this:

The Eagles should absolutely not have signed Michael Vick.  The last thing you need to interject into a team on the rise is a guy who allowed himself to bankroll an operation that killed dogs.

The last thing you need to interject into a solid roster is a guy who is bound to cause a media circus. The Eagles are familiar with their system, they’re breaking in some promising rookies, and riding a good off-season. Why on God’s green earth would you sign a walking side-show into the mix?

The last thing you need to interject into a roster trying to reestablish itself is a baggage laden quarterback when you’ve already got that spot more or less locked down. You’ve got the marathon man, Donovan McNabb, who looks to be healthy and dangerous, you’ve got an heir-apparent in Kevin Kolb, and a capable veteran in A.J. Feeley who can help manage things if/when McNabb goes down. How would adding Michael Vick do anything but add controversy into an already accounted-for quarterback situation?

And it’s not like Michael Vick was some sort of angel before all this dogfighting stuff went down.  Has this fiasco somehow fundamentally changed him or does he remain a risk to embarrass the team?

This line of arguement is all rooted in emotion. There is little football involved, as it deals mostly with how Vick and the subsequent media typhoon, will upset the delicate balance that is team football in the NFL.

Egos are egos afterall, and they seem to be ever more inflated the higher up the professional sports ladder you climb.  This is a fear argument based on the chance that the addition of Vick could somehow disturb what is already good.

As such it leaves me unsatisfied and a long way aways from scratching that itch. So with my other hand I try a different technique:

What better team to really scoop up Vick. There is absolutely NO quarterback controversy here, so we know that however Vick is used, it will be for his remarkable athletic skills rather than his abilities as a quarterback. 

The Eagles can now add the most feared version of the Wildcat in the league, which may not be implemented a lot during a game, but can come up with key plays at key times in tight games. Hell throw Vick back on kick returns from time to time, spread him out as a wideout, even just hand him the ball on occasion. 

Such are Vick’s skills that any time you can get him the ball in open space, he can make things happen for you.

What better team to handle the media circus that will follow him? Donovan Mcnabb has lived a lifetime in front of the microphone, dealing with the continual doubting of the Philidelphia fans, to the infantile outbursts of T.O. If there’s one thing that guy can handle, it’s a little controversy. 

Coach Andy Reid is an old wiley vet at this point, has no trouble laying down the law, and has no trouble pushing on the media when they push at his team. A veteran core with a veteran coach, is the perfect place for Michael Vick.

What better time to have Vick on your team? You can bet he will be giving 110% to prove himself, he’s still under house arrest so he can’t go out partying, he just saw three years of hell that I’m sure he’d rather not repeat. 

Vick is playing for his NFL life here, meaning he’s going to be giving his all, and staying out of trouble. The media hubbub will die down quickly if there’s nothing to talk about. It will rise up again quickly if he starts making some plays, but that’s the type of attention that the Eagles will gladly take.

What better idea than to sign him for two years rather than just one? This was a great move because it gives Vick some trade value if he flashes some promise this year. Vick isn’t just going to be riding the sidelines in Philly and you can bet that he’ll be getting plenty of reps in various situations: Late in games at QB, on reverses, on pitch and passes, on all sorts of trick plays.

If he succeeds, he suddenly becomes a hot commodity which means that the Eagles will either be able to keep him on the cheap for another season, or demand good value for him on the trade market. 

Either way they are essentially adding players while preserving their cap space.  And teams that weren’t willing to sign Vick today, will be more than willing after someone else had the cajones to do it first.

What a great move!

Ahhhhhhh, that’s the spot.

The itch is gone.

It makes so much sense now.

I’ll come out right now and say that every other team that didn’t try to sign Mike Vick did it out of cowardice. They bought the fear argument and neglected the football argument. They shrank like sniveling wimps away from the media and failed to embrace the glorious upside that is Michael Vick.

The guy killed dogs.

That’s bad.

But he also more than paid the price for that crime.

And really it’s the Eagles who should be pictured on America’s most wanted tonight, because they just committed grand larceny.

They stole the show.

And I have no doubts that this bit of thievery is going to pay very large dividends.

Meow Mix: My Matthew Stafford Pipe Dream.

O.K. I know I said that drafting Matthew Stafford would be asinine.

I’ll stand by that because it’s not the numbers play, and neglects some gaping holes particular up front on both sides of the ball.

Great teams are generally forged inside out.

But after it was a done deal he instantly became our next best hope, meaning that I’d take a bullet for the kid if he has any shot at reversing what has been a dismal string of quarterback woes throughout the recent (and not so recent) tenure of the Detroit Lions.

And let’s face it, when you have names like Eric Hipple, Joe Ferguson, Chuck Long, Todd Hans, Rusty Hilger, Bob Gagliano, Rodney Peete, Andre Ware, Erik Kramer, Scott Michell, Dave Krieg, Don Majkowski, Frank Reich, Charlie Batch, Gus Frerotte, Stoney Case, Ty Detmer, Mike McMahon, Joey Harrington, Dan Orlovsky, Jon Kitna, Josh McCown, and J.T. O’sullivan on the roster, your outcome is probably predetermined.

Omitting the current roster, these are the names that have led the Detroit Lions since 1985, and I just didn’t have the stomach to keep going back, as the picture remained just as terrible.

You get the picture.

So as queasy as I was that we might be courting another Joey (don’t call me Joe) Harrington, I’ve got to say that I’ve been rather impressed with Stafford in his limited time with the team, and the reports out of training camp are ubiquitously glowing.

They say he can make all the throws and that his arm strength is as advertised.

They say he can put the ball into tight spaces and make the correct reads.

They say he’s mobile and can throw on the run.

They say his mechanics are flawless.

They say that he’s distinguishing himself as the front runner for the starting job this season.

They say all this and then are quick to say that they would rather stay tight-lipped until they actually see him in action.

Tight lipped?

The reports from camp have the kid nearly walking on water, and you’re telling me he’s even better?

God I hope so.

I hope he’s a hall-of-famer with a long and distinguished career with the Detroit Lions.

Beyond that I hope for even more.

I hope that talent translates into wins, and I hope the front office doesn’t simply sit on those wins and do nothing else to improve the team.

And I hope for a Divisional title, a playoff win, a conference championship and dare I say it?

No I best not.

Slow down there tiger.

There’s still a lot of work to do and a mountain to climb.

Because right now all this amounts to my Matthew Stafford pipe-dream, and though there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, it’s about time for us Lions fans to step out of our dreams and into the NFL.

We’ve been absent for so long, that Rip Van Winkle himself would be astounded by the length of our slumber, and we’re still looking for that wake up call.

Is it Matthew Stafford?

Only time will tell.

 

 

 

Meow Mix: And Still They Came

The rain came down from the puffy grey heavens dusting the dirty concrete until it glimmered something like silver.  And though the skies enveloped the sun such that it was impossible to tell the time of day, for the faithful that stood in line to catch a glimpse at the revamped Detroit Lions there was nothing but true Honolulu blue in their hearts.

And still they came.

They came despite the proclamations of a loud and growing contingent of spoiled NFL fans who feel that the futility of the Detroit Lions no longer merits a Thanksgiving day game, oblivious to the fact that the Lions haven’t been given a Monday night game since 2001, oblivious to the fact that without the Lions there would be no Turkey-day games at all, oblivious to the fact that the Detroit faithful deserve what they invented.

Or more sinister, in full knowledge of these things, yet uncaring.

And still they came.

They came despite the trashings of the Detroit fanbase by professional and amateur writers alike, for booing at the team as if they wouldn’t boo 0-16, for screaming “FIRE Millen!” as if they wouldn’t have yelled the loudest, for organizing marches and dinners and websites to try to force the hand of a distant and uncaring owner.

They failed to notice that we were still there, still hoping, and still caring.  Would they have cared after all these years?

And still they came.

They came despite the fact that the Lions are rebuilding again, just as they’re rebuilding every year, just as they were rebuilding through the entire Barry Sanders era, just as they’ve been rebuilding since the day Bobby Layne left town in a fit of ire.

“The Lions won’t win for 50 years!”  He decreed, filled with the Farve-like bitterness of an athlete betrayed by his team, and for once God listened, unleashing his biblical plagues upon the Detroit Lions.

And still they came.

They came in the full knowledge that the Lions still have a lot of work to do; that their offensive line is not up to snuff, that their defensive line put on the worst display in the history of the league last season, that our promising rookies always seem to get injured, paralyzed, killed, or bust.

Those that stood in line in the Michigan rain were there with their eyes wide open not shut.

They came despite the disparity of the economic turmoil around them, they came despite the temptations of a world that tells them to root for winners not losers, they came despite the swirling gale of defeat, the dearth of success, and the knowledge that the team still has the full hill to climb if it ever wants to stand on top.

They came to see a practice.

We talkin’ bout practice Allen Iverson?

Yeah, practice.

They cheered for every good play, let out nervous groans when the play went badly, and got almost boisterous on occasion, when their first round pick Matthew Stafford zipped a particularly impressive pass down field.

They shook hands with each other, draped arms around their sons and daughters, and smiled genuine smiles at one another, reminiscing about the teams past and surmising about its future.

And one can’t help but feel that something magical happened that day in the Michigan rain, amidst the stack of nature and economy and history and woe.

Hope has returned to the land of the destitute.

And still they came…15,000 strong.

Meow Mix: How My Detroit Lions Mug Changed My Life

I am not what you might call an early riser.

You might not even call me a late riser because left to my own devices, I’ll sleep past noon.

This after going to bed at around 10:00 pm.

I’m a marathon sleeper and suffer greatly when I don’t get a good 10 hours solid, and really only start to feel like myself after I’ve had twelve.  Back in the day, I’d indulge myself and put in a good 24, this before I had anything resembling responsibility.

In fact, it may be true that for many years I avoided responsibility at all costs in terror that I might not be able to sleep as much as I’d like.

Obviously, this had it’s repercussions.

These days, I have to get up in the morning and it’s something that I’ve never gotten used to, no matter how many years it has has been going on.

My body has never adjusted, my mind has always retaliated, and it generally takes me at least a good hour to go from awake to actually coherent.

I have to set my alarm well before I can expect to do anything, let alone get in a car.

I’ve found that coffee helps the situation, and I’ve found that with a really strong cup or two (we’re talking mud black personally ground stuff here), I can cut that response time to maybe a half hour, even though it does little to stem the nausea and dizziness that occur every time I wake up early.

But not so long ago I received a gift from my mother that made everything marginally better.

Though I’ve always been a heavily geared Detroit Lions fan (from jerseys to hats, to pens, to sweats, to T-shirts, to coats, to socks, to whatever else), I’ve never had a Lions mug.

This was the gift that measurably changed my life.

Every morning now when I wake up, I have a cup of coffee in my Honolulu blue wide-rimmed Lions mug, featuring the old school profile of the Detroit Lion in attack position.

And for some reason, every morning, this makes me smile.

I guess the difference between the gear you wear and the tool you use is that the gear you wear is really designed for other people to see.

When I wear my Lions hat, I know I’m wearing it, but I don’t see it and therefore forget that it’s even on my head shortly after I’ve put it on.

The Lions mug, on the other hand, is always there looking at me every morning, coaxing me through what amounts to my daily hell.

Sure you could say that it would be an omnipresent reminder of the team’s futility, but that’s not how fandom works with me.  I may complain from time to time, but really I’m more proud to be a Lions fan than any of the other Detroit teams I root for, and it’s that pride that makes me smile every morning when I take a sip of my wake-up elixir.

It’s the Detroit Lions mug I see through blurry eyes, half still dreaming about a Super Bowl victory.

It’s the Detroit Lions mug I see when I’m cursing the world for not stepping to the ticks of my internal clock.

It’s the Detroit Lions mug I see when I finally become cognizant of the golden sun peaking up behind the shroud of darkness, and it’s the Detroit Lions mug that feeds me my morning sustenance, like a baby’s bottle nursing me into the conscious world.

Am I losing my mind?

Have the years of perpetual losing finally cracked what was left of my marginal sanity?

Does the emergence of the Lions mug as a pivotal part of my daily routine speak more about my fandom or my pathos?

*Shrug*

At this point I don’t really care, and for those of you out there that loathe getting up in the morning like me, I would highly recommend the Lions mug.

It’ll make your life better, too.

Meow Mix: On the Need to Believe in the Detroit Lions

They say that the football is a religion unto itself in the United States.

If you’ve ever been to a big-time SEC game or tailgated with the Cheeseheads, or gone rabid in the Dawg Pound, you could posit that the fervor displayed might arguably validate this point.

If you’ve ever stumbled onto an Ohio State–Michigan game you might see some of the same ugliness incurred in the Gaza Strip, with hatred born of neighbors who worship differing mascots.

Only religion can provoke such unreasonable discord, as surely as it can elicit such camaraderie among the myriad of individuals that join the same fraternity. 

Black, white, red, yellow, or brown, we all hold hands under our respective banners.

The introspective among us might then ask what exactly religion is, as it often defies logic, fact, or evidence to the contrary.  Religion, you see, is all about faith.

In some camps that faith is perpetually tested.

In the same way that I have an unwavering respect for the handful of Jews who have settled in Iran (talk about chutzpah), I tend to gravitate towards those fans who show an unwavering faith in their team despite the futility of the situation around them.  Lions fandom does that to you.

In some camps, faith is rarely tested.

Just as it’s easy to be a Christian in America, it’s easy to be a Steelers fan too.

Just as it’s easy to be a Red Wings fan (guilty as charged) it’s easy to celebrate Hanukkah in Jerusalem.

The problem with religion made easy is that it tends to lose many of the positive qualities upon which it was founded, and often gets replaced with the very opposite.

Humility becomes vanity, thankfulness becomes greed, vigilance becomes complacency, and we becomes me.  We lose perspective on the fragile beauty of the thing itself (be it life or sport), and instead prefer to glut ourselves on the riches they provide.

But every time I find myself caught up in a whirlwind of self-adulation, it is my Detroit Lions that draw me back to my better nature.

It is the Detroit Lions that have taught me the true nature of belief, and in essence, the meaning of faith.  This unwavering love that expects nothing in return is my personal trial of Job, and through all the boils and festering lesions, I would like to think that I’ve acquitted myself admirably.

This by no means makes me Biblical.  At times I’ve admitted disappointment, at times I’ve wallowed in my own gloom, and at times I’ve rejoiced in another’s misfortune.  I’m only human after all.

Yet through it all I’m still here, still hopeful, and still finding reasons to think that the Lions might have a decent season ahead of them. 

Though I was in part critical of this year’s draft class, I’m starting to suspect that the front office may indeed have a plan. 

The pickups of Larry Foote and Julian Peterson surely will upgrade the backer core, while the acquisition of Louis Delmas and Anthony Henry will surely improve a fairly deep secondary.

And somehow the appearance of Matthew Stafford 50 years after the infamous curse of Bobby Layne has me consulting my astrologer to see if the planets are indeed aligned.

I’m starting to believe that a change of preacher might really liven up the schemes and I’m starting to believe that eight years of ineptitude under the vision of a false prophet might finally have the Lions on the path to truth and righteousness.

Yep, I’m starting to believe.

It happens to me every year about this time, and despite the 0-16 record last season and the 50 years in the wilderness, my faith continues to carry me through.

I need to believe in the Detroit Lions.

And for those of you worshiping at the cup of glory let me tell you something…you do too.

Next Page »

NFL Sport Channel Latest

• Just How Far Would You Go?
• Sorry Rex, But It Isn’t Happening
• Super Bowl Predictions: Five Stat-Free Reasons Why the Eagles Will Reach The Super Bowl
• Seahawks Attempt to Turn Corner With Heavy Pursuit of Pete Carroll
• Bill Cowher Unlikely to Coach in 2010