lion down

Since I was living in the upper peninsula of Michigan when I first became interested in sports as a kid, I have been a Lions and a Tigers fan. This is not an easy proposition if you know anything about the records of both teams over the last twenty years, but as I have noted before, I take some pride in pulling for my team even when things are bad. This also diminishes my patience for bandwagon fans.

While the Tigers were horrible for a while, they have at least been an average team over the last three years. The Lions, however, have genuinely stunk for the entirety of this decade. They stunk in the 1980s as well, and they were an average team in the 1990s only because they had Barry Sanders. They constantly battle to just stay out of last place, not just of their division, but of the entire NFL. Part of the appeal of fantasy football is that I can watch football games and pay attention to something other than the score of the Lions game. At least I have some control over how good my fantasy team is. It's a way for me to be emotionally detached from my team until some day in my fifties when they have a winning season again.

Just how bad are the Lions? They have a 31-84 record and have never in that time finished in higher than third place in a four-team division under the leadership of the current team president Matt Millen, which has spanned about seven years. This year they have already been blown out by two teams, the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers, that were among the laughingstocks of the league last year. The Lions have only won one playoff game since 1957 in a league where twelve teams every year advance to the playoffs.

I have heard many commentators express the opinion that Millen is the worst team president in the history of the NFL. It is now common at Lions games for the crowd to chant, "Fire Millen," as the team makes yet another opponent look brilliant. Even so, Millen still has the full support of William Clay Ford, Sr., who owns the team. The fans, however, don't have the same warm feelings or patience for Millen. The opinions of most fans can be summarized by the thoughts in this letter from a former fan and this bit of opinion from an ESPN contributor. Even Bill Ford, Jr. has issued an opinion that Millen should leave the team.

Normally, I am not a person who wants to see someone else lose his job. I really have to make an exception for Millen, though. By now he shouldn't need the money, and all indications are that he is not suited for the job. Part of the human experience is learning to accept that you cannot be good at everything. So, in helping him understand this part of the human experience, and to help the Lions actually have a winning season sometime this century (I wish that were hyperbole), Millen has to go. It would be nice to see the Fords sell the team to someone who understands football as well, but I can only hope for so much.

In this spirit, I have considered rooting against the Lions this year in the hopes that a lousy season will force Millen's ouster. It goes against my nature, and I suspect at this point that Millen wouldn't get fired if the team went 0-16 for the next three years, but it is all I have to hold on to at the moment. That, and my mediocre fantasy football squads.