Sports

Lion: symbol of pride, leadership, years of torment

By Greg Monahan GVL Columnist
2/3/2010

As to be expected, everyone is on the first page of the sports section excited for what is shaping up to be a noteworthy Super Bowl game while the Detroit Lions are, for yet another year, brushed aside as one of the bottom feeders of the league.

To be a Lions fan is to commit oneself to a lifelong curse of low expectations followed by results that fall well short of said expectations.

The team's last championship was in 1957 before the Super Bowl even existed. To say it has been a tough ride for followers of the team would be a massive understatement.

Since I came out of the womb I have been a diehard Lions fan. A few weeks ago I came across a picture around my second birthday that had me decked out in a Lions' T-shirt and holding a Lions' football. Little did I know that would be the only year of my life it would have been possible to witness a Lions playoff win.

In the '90s, the Lions were a team that made the playoffs six times, had one of the most prolific and exciting players in NFL history and, after closing the decade with another playoff appearance, seemed positioned to enter the most recent decade with hope of expanding on their success.

Well, we all know how that went.

The Lions finished the decade with a 42-118 record, and yet, the record doesn't even begin to tell the whole story of their futility.

No other team in the NFC lost even 100 games. The team won eight road games all decade. Eight!? The New England Patriots won eight road games in one season.

Every single NFC team made the playoffs in the 10-year span not once, but at least twice. That is, except for the Lions. I could argue with anyone that our best player this decade was our kicker. And I'd be right. Oh, and I don't even have to mention the 0-16 season, do I?

But that decade is done, and it gives us Lions fans a reason to look forward.

Millen is gone and with him are about a half dozen coaches we burned through. The big question is if anything will change. That question should be answered through the NFL draft and how the Lions approach it from here on out. No high-caliber player wants to sign as a free agent to play for Detroit, so the Lions have to draft well and draft wisely. That is somewhat of a foreign concept for the Lions' front office. In other words, no more Joey Harringtons, and please, no more Charles Rogers.

The team took a step in the right direction by selecting Matthew Stafford, Louis Delmas, and DeAndre Levy in last April's NFL draft. It was a promising sign considering it was the team's first draft without Matt Millen since 2001 and looks to have been its best draft since that same year. But it is now a matter of stringing drafts such as those together since the Lions' roster questions aren't what positions need to be filled but rather what positions don't need to be filled.

This decade has to be better than the last for the Lions. How could it get any worse? Can't we at least field a team that's competitive? Can't we make the playoffs once? Maybe twice? Lions' fans don't need a Super Bowl, and they sure don't expect one. But the team has to win more than a quarter of their games. The team has to make the playoffs once. And please, please, don't let the best Lion of this decade be our kicker.

gmonahan@lanthorn.com

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