A New Dawn in the Jungle for the Lions

I've been seduced before. Many times. And each time I thought this time it's different. This guy is different. He will make THE difference. He's a winner. And he'll turn us all into winners. This time we won't get hurt. This time, it's our turn! Time for New Orleans.

But of course it always turns to shit. But maybe, just maybe, this time could be different. There is always that potential. And this is why I am stoked with the new head coaching hire of the Detroit Lions, Jim Schwartz.

For one, this guy falls off two of the most successful coaching trees in contemporary pro football. He worked for Bill Belichick (who said he was one of the smartest coaches he’s been around – enough said, right there) and Jeff Fisher. For another he is educated. He has a degree in economics from Georgetown and according to reports is an avid chess player. Which is a bit of switch from their two previous coaches, who were from Northern Michigan and the Marines respectively and like all Lions coaches of the past 50 or so years would do the same thing over and over again hoping for different results. As a chess player, our new hero Schwartz knows that every situation has its own uniqueness and that any move you make effects what happens in subsequent moves. This is what you need in a football coach.

Now the Lions are stinking rotting corpse but at least there is nothing to save, no tradition to uphold. Except for the losing, which like a disease, we went from lovably mediocre to completely pathetic. We could get rid of our whole roster and I wouldn't care. This is the definitive crisis opportunity.

It's that sweet spot of a time to be a Lions fan. A new coach about to be introduced to a ravenously hungry but demoralized fan base and he #1 overall draft pick and five of the first 85 draft picks to get us some new blood and identity and

Restore the Roar. Moew!!!!

Lions Losing Makes it Easy

I had a nice little conversation the other night with some Buffalo Bills fans. They apparently were jealous that as a Lions fan I could be negative and completely bitter all the time while they had to constantly make decisions between hope, disgust and despair. They did see a once promising season come to a nightmarish end. There was the epic fumble and loss in the last seconds against the Jets and then the bone headed management move of scheduling a December game against the Miami Dolphins in a Toronto dome (rather than make those Florida boys play in cold snowy Buffalo.) It was a pretty heady concept they were trying to convey but I can only imagine the damaged psyche of a Bills fan's having come up short in four Super Bowls. They do inhabit a whole different universe of hurt. I could see the intensity of disappointment.

Now I can enjoy the playoffs knowing that my team has already lost all their games this season. My hopes are that the Lions win a game sometime in the not too distant future. Because we are at 17 straight losses and right now we have to build a team that will try not to lose games. We can always build a winner later. The bar has been lowered. I'm just looking for that one victory.

This is the most exciting time for a Lions fan. Like an addict, I am at the start of the cycle fully aware of how things will turn out in the end but psyched that we have new coach on the way and promising draft picks. When the NFL holds their highly publicized Human Resources meeting in Manhattan (i.e. the Draft), I will be in front of my computer imagining the players they will draft that will bring them back to respectability. There is no more losing for now, no more bottoms. We have the promise and the hope that new blood will bring new results for the first time. What is insanity? Being a Lions fans. (I paraphrase, it is actually doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.)