Collective blame
May 20, 2008Mike Moore
Sports Editor
Maybe it is all of us. Maybe we are all to blame. After all, we keep coming back. Are you one of them, are you in this group? If you consider yourself a Detroit Lions fan, then while I point my finger at you in shame, I open my arms for a consoling hug. You are part of this misled, mistreated, misunderstood collection of fans who just can’t learn a lesson.
Every season there is new hope, a new reason to think success is right around the corner. Yet every season there is the same heartbreak, the same disappointment, the same confusion. So what do we, the fans and the followers of this franchise, do?
We get in line to buy more tickets, we make time on Sunday afternoons to watch, and we hope, and hope and hope and hope. After all, hope has been the precursor to some of the greatest accomplishments in history. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
But while we, this unlearned group, continue to hope, we have blinded ourselves from reality and confused even our own expectations. Just five seasons ago, a Bobby Ross-led group finished the season with eight wins and a postseason berth. This was not seen as good enough by management, and less than a year later he was run from town. Now, an eight-win season would be celebrated as a grand achievement.
We had a quarterback in Scott Mitchell who played the position as well as any Lions QB in recent history. He, too, wasn’t good enough and was also run from town.
Now, as Joey Harrington, week in and week out, solidifies his place in the fraternity of poor Lions QB’s, we give standing ovations when a fifth-round draft pick from Rutgers, who has a career passing completion percentage of 42, enters the game for Harrington. Not that I disagree. At least Mike McMahon makes his failings on the field more exciting than Harrington, who finished with 156 yards passing and six fewer touchdowns than counterpart Peyton Manning last Thursday as the Indianapolis Colts feasted on the Lions.
Maybe it was that game, Thanksgiving Day, that set off the alarm for me. Did I expect the Lions to win? No. Did I expect them to compete? Yes. Did they compete? No. Was I surprised? Well, no.
“When you’re exchanging blows with a team, you can’t trade touchdowns for field goals,” said head coach Steve Mariucci after the 41-9 loss.
But, coach, the problem is you weren’t exchanging blows. While the Colts were throwing haymakers you countered with slaps on the wrist.
On the other hand, maybe this franchise was never meant to succeed. Cursed, if you will. Consider the following: since 1957, when the Lions were the champions of pro football (the Super Bowl had yet to be created), this city has seen just 10 playoff games and has not witnessed a playoff victory since 1991.
Wayne Fontes, who coached the Lions to more career wins then any other coach (67), holds the franchise record for career losses for a coach (71). And possibly football’s greatest running back, a runner who literally left you breathless, shaked-and-baked his way to retirement after 10 seasons even though he sat less than 200 yards from the NFL’s all-time rushing record.
And while we criticized, hated and shook our heads at Barry Sanders for retiring, that may have been the best move he made during his football career. He, unlike us, couldn’t take the failings, the frustration and the unavoidable disappointment every week. He did what we all should do: turn, run and don’t look back.
Will we? Never. In the last two and a half years the Lions have a record of 12-31. But in that same time, Lions fans are a perfect 21-for-21 when it comes to selling out Ford Field, which seats only about 63,000. Another 20,000 usually packed into the Silverdome for home games before 2002.
Have we accepted this losing, have we grown content with it? Are we willing to pay professional dollars for minor league entertainment? Or is it that concept we hold so dear? Is it that feeling of hope that keeps us coming back, keeps us watching, keeps us… hoping.
This cycle of losing and frustration has to come to an end eventually, doesn’t it? I don’t have the solution, and unfortunately neither does general manager Matt Millen or Mariucci.
There has been progress. This year’s team is better than last year. Draft picks have improved, and even the uniforms are sharper with that black trim around the numbers and on the facemasks.
But looks can be, and have been, deceiving. After a 4-2 start to this season, radio shows and newspapers talked about the playoffs and an ESPN analyst spoke of the Lions as “the team to watch.” Six weeks and five losses later the talk has faded, ESPN gives the Lions as much coverage as Major League Soccer and Detroiters are starting to miss the Red Wings.
So, what do we do? What can we do? Have we not learned our lesson? For some reason, I haven’t. I am now a 22-year member of this loyal group. I find myself watching, cheering and believing things will improve.
On Dec. 26 I will be at Ford Field, watching and cheering, and deep down, for reasons I simply cannot explain, I believe the Lions will play well, I will be entertained and above all else, they will win… I hope.
