The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat

Kevin Smith, the running back who’d just rolled over Albert Haynesworth and the Redskins for 101 yards, was undergoing tests; per the Twitter feed of Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, he’d suffered a shoulder subluxation.  Ernie Sims had a shoulder problem of his own, and missed the first of what might be several games.  Starting cornerback Patrick Buchanon was again a late scratch, and his replacements Eric King and Will James were scorched for 340 yards.

The game was played before the smallest Lions home crowd since 1989--and many thousands more were prevented from watching the game at home by NFL blackout policies.  Afterwards, the Lions’ record sat at 1-2; once again looking up at the rest of the NFC North.  So why were all of the Lions’ players out on the field, celebrating with the fans?  Why did owner William Clay Ford say  “we got King Kong off our back”?  Oh yes, that’s right—the Lions hadn’t won a game since Brett Favre played for the Packers.

Center Dominic Raiola perfectly captured the emotions of both the players and fans: "All those people out there have been through a lot more than we've been through. They're fighting for their life out there, buying tickets to come to the game, losing their jobs," he said.  About celebrating with the fans, he said “It's something very little that we did just to show our appreciation."

It’s an important point: Lions fans have continued to support this team, throughout the second-longest losing streak in the history of football—one that capped one of the longest periods of futility in NFL history.  It speaks volumes about the dedication and passion of Lions fans that they came out 40,000 strong to see the streak get snapped.

“It had the feel of a post-season win--the jubilation,” said head coach Jim Schwartz.  “Players went back on the field and wanted to go celebrate with the fans that stayed. I thought that sends a strong statement about the kinship we feel with the city of Detroit."

However, this win is just that: one win.  The first words of Schwartz’s statement to the press were, “We'd like to get to a point where a regular season win isn't celebrated that much,” and he’s exactly right.  If the Lions are to turn the positive momentum of ending this nightmare into anything that will last, that’s the approach they have to take today.  The Lions are 1-2, alone at the bottom of their division, and are sandwiching a game against the reigning world champions with contests at Fields Soldier and Lambeau.

With key starters like Smith, Sims, and Buchanon out, and five rookies starting, the Lions have a mountain to climb just to get to the bye.  But with the confidence of this win under their feet, and the weight of King Kong off their backs, who knows how high this young, talented team can climb?

Discussion here, in The Den!

The jumble at CB -- and who's that with the Fords?

Detroit News football writer John Niyo reports its become a sad rite of spring for the Lions in recent years -- the annual roster purge of the team's secondary.

After an historically bad performance last year, the Lions are at it again. The top four cornerbacks on last year's roster are gone, and only two of the eight in camp -- Keith Smith and Ramzee Robinson -- have been with the team longer than 10 months, Niyo writes.

Coach Jim Schwartz admits he has "a stew" at CB -- a mix of young and veteran with backgrounds in a lot of different schemes. (Feeling confident about the secondary's improvement this year yet?)

Still, things are beginning to take shape. The starting CBs look like they will be Phillip Buchanon and Anthony Henry, and Eric King, who was with Schwartz in Tennessee the past three years, has been making plays in practice and may be tightening his hold on a nickel back spot.

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As an odds-and-ends aside at the end of his article, Niyo notes that Wednesday's practice was attended by owner William Clay Ford, vice chairman Bill Ford Jr., and former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi.

What's that all about? No explanation. Is Accorsi a buddy of the Fords? If that's the case, where was he during the Matt Millen era, when we needed him?

Talk about it in The Den!

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Examining NFL owners: Inheritance babies vs. Self-made men

Den member skinnyjimmy took advantage of the slow time to do a little research on NFL owners:

Jimmy looked at the background of the owners of 31 NFL teams (Green Bay is publicly owned), then looked at how those owners made their money. Turns out it's almost an even split -- 15 owners inherited the majority of their fortune; 16 are considered self-made by Forbes.

So does how the owners got their wealth affect the performance of their team? Look what skinnyjimmy's research found (emphasis mine):

Looking at the past 10 years (or as long as the current owner has had majority ownership) the self made owners have won 55% of their games compared to 45% for the inherited group. Also, of the bottom 10 teams, only 1 owner was self made and that was Robert McNair of the expansion Texans.

Competitive business requires continuous improvement, self made owners understand this. The lions are just a hobby for Ford. I wonder how long Henry Ford would have put up with Millen.

In a league built for parity, this a pretty significant success gap, in my estimation.

They're talking about it in The Den!

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William Clay Ford Sr. speaks out

John Niyo at detnews.com has a fairly lengthy interview with Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr., Ford's first since the firing of team president Matt Millen early last season.

Among the interesting tidbits:
* Ford did get input from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after Millen's firing regarding a new front office leader. But he went with Millen holdovers Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand because he knew them, liked them and found them qualified.
* An admission that both Millen and former Coach Rod Marinelli didn't have the necessary experience going into the job.
* That Ford relied on Millen to make the decision to hire both Marinelli and Steve Mariucci, but new Coach Jim Schwartz was his call and his alone.
* That Ford's son, Bill Ford's, public declaration that Millen would be fired were he in charge, days before Ford Sr. actually fired Millen, did not influence the decision. In fact, the elder Ford told Niyo, he had heard his son's dissatisfaction with Millen multiple times -- days before he went public with it; weeks; months; and years earlier.
* That Ford has never directed a coach or team executive to play or not play a player.
* That the supposed dispute over remaining money to be paid to Millen is resolved.
* That Ford feels for the fans, praises those who remain loyal to the team; understands those who have finally bailed out; and that he actually listens to the fan complaints.

A lot of meaty stuff here, obviously.

Ford's been psychoanalyzed in the past by armchair pundits. He certainly has a different way about him, and it shows through in the interview. He pays lip service to wanting to win and doing what it takes. But then he casually explains away sticking for years with Millen despite his abysmal failure at all levels, with the entire world including his son howling at him to make the necessary change.

We hear Ford casually talk about blowing off the NFL Commissioner's attempted help on not making another Millen mistake, and why his grand search for a way to turn around 0-16 ended at the end of his nose, with the front office guys right in front of him. (Don't get me wrong; that might actually work out. That still doesn't make the lack of a real examination of the situation or a search outside of a 31-97 franchise any less maddening.)

I continue to think Ford doesn't have a clue how to win, and the bottom line of why it hasn't happened for decades is it's simply never been high on his priority list. We can only hope he's stumbled into the right people who can make this successful in Mayhew, Lewand and Schwartz.

They're talking about it in The Den!

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Millen heaps love upon Lions, Detroit in press conference

Get your bricks and disposable televisions ready, Lions fans. Matt Millen's coming back. As Nicholas Cotsonika reports at Freep.com, Millen held his first media session since being hired as an analyst by the NFL Network. Millen disclosed that his pay issue (the Lions' money was apparently cut off after they fired him) remains unresolved. But he said that won't affect how he talks about the Lions on TV.

"I’ll handle the Lions like I do any other football team -- just look at them and break them down and see where they’re at."

Millen was asked if his atrocious record as an NFL executive with the Lions will cause him a loss of credibility with viewers.

“In the National Football League, you’re only judged on wins and losses, so my tenure was not good,” Millen said. “I mean, it was very poor. And so it’s been said, you learn a lot from failures, and I learned a ton. So I can bring that to the table. I view my experience in Detroit as a positive.”

Millen was effusive in his praise of Detroit during the press conference (as if that will win back any hearts and minds):

"Here’s the thing with Detroit,” Millen said. “I love Detroit. I love … I’m a huge fan of Martin Mayhew. I’m a huge fan of Jim Schwartz. I think that’s an excellent hire. I think Jim did a good job of putting his staff together. “But there is no bigger fan anywhere of Mr. Ford than me, and I would love to see him holding a trophy. That would be great for me -- for him, rather -- but more importantly, it would be great for the fans of Detroit. They deserve it. They’re awesome fans."

He then turned his praise to the Lions rookies:

“But I know this: I really like Stafford. Stafford has a real arm, and Stafford can make real throws. In our league, you have to have that guy. … “I couldn’t speak to what they would win or lose, but I can speak to they’ve got themselves a guy to really work with. I also like the tight end they got. That kid’s a good player. So there’s some pieces up there.”

My take? I think Millen's forever tainted by his toxic time with the Lions. That's not to say he can't go on and be quite successful once again as an NFL analyst -- a job he was once quite good at. It just means that there won't be nearly as much buy-in into his analysis as there was prior to his taking the reins in Allen Park. Talk about it in The Den!

The Generation Gap, Ford-style

Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press has written a really nice article about the decades of struggle the Chicago Blackhawks went through under late owner Bill Wirtz, and their resurgence fostered by his son Rocky.  Guess which Detroit-area franchise he drew a parallel to?  Of course, he compared them to the Lions, where, in the eyes of the fans, aging owner William Clay Ford is already the Bad Cop to his son Bill Ford, Jr.

Of course, we have very little real understanding of where the lines of power are drawn in the Lions' boardroom, how tight of a hold Ford Sr. still has on his franchise, how much of a say Junior has in the operations, or what level of interest he has in taking over the franchise and throwing himself into its revitalization.  From an outsider's view, William Clay Ford meets all the critera for a good owner: he runs his organization with class, he fearlessly reinvests in his own franchise, built a new stadium with his own money, hires football men to run his football, and gives them all the time and resources they need to succeed.  The only problem is, he's hired lousy football men.

Discuss it here, in The Den!

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