Strong Start Makes Lions Weaker

I am a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, though I must admit that my passion for the team has waned significantly in the past few years. Since 2001, they have posted an overall record of 32-80, by far the worst in the NFL over that period. They have not had any non-losing season in that span, and only once did they fail to achieve 10 losses.

In short, they have been remarkably good at being very bad.

The one constant in those seven failed seasons is General Manager Matt Millen, who took over prior to that 2001 campaign. Millen is the poster boy for brown-nosers. He has posted perhaps the worst results of any GM in NFL history, yet he has the complete trust of owner William Clay Ford, which has allowed him to not only keep his job, but also increase his salary and job security several times.

To many fans and pundits, the Lions showed signs of progress in 2007. They started the season with a 6-2 record and were comfortably in the NFC playoff picture. Despite a 1-7 finish that included a six game losing streak, many came away from the year with a feeling of hope for the future of the franchise. But not me. To me, the fast start was the worst thing that could have happened to the Lions.

Now, William Clay Ford will almost surely keep Millen around for 2008 and beyond, and he may even give his favorite son another extension. He will do so with comments about the progress the team made this year and the signs of improvement going into the offseason.

But it's all a lie.

The Lions are as bad now as they have ever been, if not worse. Even in their strong start, they were the beneficiaries of a tremendous amount of luck. They had outscored their opponents by just a few points, despite being 4 games up in the win column at the half-way point of the season. Their defense was one of the worst in the league, and their rushing game was virtually non-existent (partly by choice because of their offensive coordinator - the crazy, pass-happy, egotistical Mike Martz). And then, predictably, the good luck wore off and the bottom fell out.

In the Matt Millen era, seven wins amounts to a championship season. William Clay Ford, who cares only about filling the stadium with fans, and thus filling his pockets with money, is as happy now as he's ever been. Many fans that had abandoned the team over the previous years came back because of their strong start, which means that Ford Field was sold out for every home game again.

All of this means that, like usual, the changes that need to be made to make the Lions a successful organization will not be made this offseason. Ford will congratulate Millen on a job well done, Millen will fill the team with players that don't fit and can't compete, and the team will post another 10-loss season (or, probably, worse) in 2008. They'll have one of the top picks in the 2009 draft, and they will take a wide receiver who will be an absolute bust, and then they will fire head coach Rod Marinelli for not being able to turn a lousy team into a contender. Millen will continue on as the good soldier, perennially assembling a team incapable of winning, and being handsomely rewarded for his "efforts".

The 6-2 start this year has probably left us with an additional 3 or 4 years with Matt Millen at the helm. God help us.