Thirty Years of Losing Broke a Record Today But When Next September Rolls Around Lions Fans Will Hope Against All Hope. There is not much left in Michigan or Windsor and old habits die hard with Lions fans all over North America.
My wife and I have been married for nearly 16 years. She's known that the Lions are losers for most of marriage and she hates football. It's got a place somewhere next to barbaric acts of human kind.
With the exception of a few magical seasons when the Lions had Billy Simms and Barry Sanders at Running Back they have been losers. They haven't even been beautiful losers like the one's in Bob Seger's song. They stink. Today they stunk so bad they made NFL History. They are the first team to go 0-16 since the NFL expanded to 16 game seasons.
The only coach who got anywhere close to the Super Bowl was a guy named Wayne Fontes. He was the friendliest guy you would ever want to meet. The players loved him. He had the luck to have Barry Sanders on his team. He took over the Lions with a thin resume. He got them to the playoffs. One time they got to the NFC Final and were soundly trounced by Washington. He never coached again after he got the boot. Great motivator, poor strategist. Sanders quit football soon after
The Lions have the best kicker in the League, Jason Hanson and excellence at running back, wide receiver and a few other spots from time to time but that's where the good news ends. .
In the 1990's they had a damn good defense and a string of inept #1 draft pick quarterpicks busts like Chuck Long, Andre Ware, and Joey Harrington and also plenty of retreads like Scott Mitchell, Gus Ferrote who is still playing with the Vikings who are playoff bound and just about anyone who has ever put on a quarterbacks jersey for a pro club in the last three decades and been released. They've all found a home for a short or long time at the Pontiac Silverdome or the posh new Ford's (Losers) Field in downtown Detroit.
They had Matt Millen as General Manager for 7 years who hired 4 coaches. All have been wipeouts. Barry Sanders could have been a Hall of Fame running back but he took his millions after 7 years of setting records and decided that he had had enough losing and punishment on the artificial turf. He is one of the smart ones. He invested his money and he is living the good life.
There is someone to blame for 30 years of losing, heartbreak and ineptitude in the Motor City under the Lion helmet. It's the Ford Family which owns the team. They have run their auto empire into the ground and now they have run their little hobby into the ground. Sell the team to someone like the Tigers, Red Wings Mike Illitch and that mess of a team will turn around. I just hope that the Ford Family doesn' t have the nerve to ask for a bailout for the Lions from the Federal Government. This team stinks so bad, they just might get it.
Oh and by the way, I am a life long fam who travelled frequently to the Pontiac Silverdome to watch these stiffs and listened to them on radio when they couldn't be found on tv. Imagine what the radio talk shows are saying about one of the NFL's oldest franchises which is now the raunchiest team in the NFL.
