The Lions
Some people tend to forget that although I'm a big anime and video game enthusiast, I definitely enjoy my fair share of sports. Born and raised in Michigan all of my life, I have had the pleasure of watching many amazing Michigan sports teams through the years: The Red Wings, Michigan/Michigan State football/hockey/basketball, the Pistons, and even the Tigers have been improving in recent years. For those who actually read the title, unfortunately I have had the misfortune of watching the Detroit Lions as well.
I tend to be an optimistic person, and have been a follower of the Lions since watching the Lions as a kid. Watching the great Barry Sanders and his ridiculously entertaining runs was the highlight of my Sundays along with the occasional hours of Looney Toons. Despite the Lions' tendency to lose nowadays, I have always tried to watch their games on TV since the Lions have always seemed to have amazing potential during summer training camp and preseason. After all, the 2008 Lions were the ONLY team last year to be 4-0 in the preseason.
Although he left early, Barry Sanders is the epitome of a class-act. Thanks for the awesome runs over the years.
Then again, I need to keep reminding myself that preseason accounts for nothing since the 2008 Lions also became the only team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular season games. Seriously, it sucks to be a Lions fan. But a REAL, devoted, and trustworthy Lions fan will always think optimistic, unlike the local Fox network who will periodically blackout the Lions game in Michigan because they think airing an infomercial for P90x or Magic Bullet will be more profitable. I admit, some of the Lions' games have been excruciating to watch sometimes, but I'll at least witness what their doing wrong rather than waiting around watching the box score online or something. Apparently the blackouts are directly related to ticket sales, but can you blame fans for not wanting to go to the games?
It's ready in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds!!! 5 second salsa! *shakes head* My dad actually bought a Magic Bullet last year. It's not too bad to be honest.
The Lions' last win was nearly two years ago against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 23, 2007. Sports journalists tend to use gas prices to bring perspectives of time and how long ago it was since _____ happened. Apparently prices were around $3.00/gallon in December '07. Hmm, and gas prices now are around $2.40 here. Wait, that didn't turn out right.
I remember that momentous 2007 season where the Lions were 6-2 by midseason and John Kitna (the current QB at the time) guaranteed that the Lions would get at least 10 wins by the end of the season. Hehe. That was quite a lofty goal since we ended up going 1-7 the latter half of the season. Little did we know that win against KC would be the last win for the Lions in a loong ass time.
For the most part, people today only remember the Lions as that excruciatingly terrible football team that can't seem to get a win (I guess people have already Barry Sanders and his amazing runs). Destined to be the worst team in NFL history bordering 20 straight regular season losses, they finally managed to pull off a win against the Washington Redskins this last Sunday by a score of 19-14. In the flip side, only those 40,000 some fans at the game were able to witness it as the game was blacked out locally here in Michigan. We were probably treated to some Ultra Steam Shark informercial instead. Oh Wow! The stain comes right out! Luckily, I was able to catch the game online through Ustream or whatever; the picture may be small on my laptop screen, and the streaming cut in and out occasionally, but it was well worth watching the triumphant win.
I was a little hesitant when I saw the Lions schedule before the season began, as I was wondering when they would actually get a win. I was seriously thinking that the Lions could possibly go 0-16 for a second straight season. We couldn't beat anyone last season, who says any of the teams we play this season were a shoo-in? Thankfully the Lions got this win out of the way fairly early in the season.
It's kind of ironic now that since all of the criticism, blame, and attacks against the Lions have been lifted; it has all immediately been shifted over to the Redskins, which have the sports journalists thinking: How could the Redskins lose to the LIONS?!? There MUST be something wrong with them...
The Bitch
It may not be obvious for non-football fans out there, so how/why were the Lions so bad these years?
Managed by one of the worst president and CEOs ever, Matt Millen's Lions managed to rack up a deplorable 31-97 record through 2000-2008. Now for a little background on him courtesy of Wikipedia
- Played 12 NFL seasons with the 49ers and the Redskins. Won a Super Bowl with each of those teams.
- After his pro football career, he became a color commentator for CBS and FOX.
- In 2001, he left broadcasting to be the Lions' CEO and general manager. During his tenure with the Lions, aside from the abysmal Win-Loss record, he managed to make some excellent *blatant sarcasm* draft choices which include Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington, and Mike Williams.
Nearly every year the Lions managed to get at least a top 10 draft pick and they've always drafted whatever they did NOT need, another wide receiver. With the Lions drafting another WR year after year, Lions fans began to question William Clay Ford's decision to hire Millen as his drafting/management decisions have snowballed into more and more embarrassing losses.
I'm not exactly sure if people remember, but in late 2005 we began to grow impatient and started the "Fire Millen" movement to you guess it, fire Matt Millen. A highlight of the movement was the tastefully named Millen Man March to protest the extension of Millen's contract. Seriously, for a team that gets so many high draft picks year after year and loses year after year, we need to start pointing fingers.
Thankfully Millen "resigned" from his position with the Lions last year when they started the season off 0-3. I guess his remnants of the Millen curse remained with the personnel/staff on the Lions with their infamous winless season. Since, Millen has returned back to broadcasting and is currently working with ESPN and the NFL network.
"Yo Matt, I'm really happy for you, and I'ma let you finish, but you fucked up the Lions..."
The New Wardrobe
Ending on a lighter note, and to make the title of this blog come full circle, the Lions got new uniforms during this recent offseason; a new start so to speak in my opinion. I think the new unis look pretty nice although they look pretty much the same; nothing too drastic. The most noticeable difference with the Lions' new uniforms is with the logo. The logo looks a lot more fierce and distinct. It's not just a silhouette of the Lion, finally.
Basically after this first win and with these new uniforms, are the Lions are destined to have a spectacular season; have a record over .500, win the NFC North, and win the Super Bowl...right?
One can only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment