Lions....
Again, It doesnt seem like business as usuall for the lions. Sure everyone is undefeated in training camp, but there is evidence that the lions' coaches, and front office may actually be making progress. Im not saying they go undefeated, but to say this is the same ole same ole for the lions, is not very intelligent. Some great signee's (as i thought after drfat was going to happen) makes the draft look a lot better. I really am excited to see a new pragmatic intellectual approach to coaching here in detroit, combined with some proven players and some depth from youth.
It would be nice to hear about some healthy/heated competion when camp opens.
....the improvement may not translate beyond a 3-4 win season this year, but another strong draft of talent (the 2010 draft is stocked, and Eric Berry or Taylor Mays could be Detroit-bound), and a couple more shrewd free agent pickups, and the Lions could be on the ascendant as the Vikings get older and the Packers and Bears continue to flounder in 6-9 win mediocrity.
What I'd give for that mediocrity...
The Schwartz is an ass-kicker. Love that guy.
While I'm happy to see Foote and Jansen sign they are only one year contracts and they just released Foster who they had just signed to an extension. The draft was questionable in the fact that they have so many holes to fill yet found time to double up on OLB, Return specialist, and TE. They took a reach on a DT from Podunk high and a RB who isn't expected to make the team. Plus, they ignored getting protection for their 41 million investment.
Sounds like the same old Lions to me and until they prove otherwise......
of looking at things i suppose.
where im overly excited though?
is the most important pieces. He has impressed a lot of people with his play at camp. Don't be surprised if Stafford gets the nod to start in the opening day.
Buying into the Lions hype? Have you been alive for the last 25 years? Same old. Same old. Same old.
at all...what does this years team have to do with the last 25 years?
It's owned by the same guy and run by basically the same people who ran it for the last 9. Bad ownership doesn't change its spots. Or something. Point being I have little to no faith in Mayhew, because he's tainted by association with the old regime, and obviously WCF is useless.
I look at it like this. Dominic Raiola is a lousy center. Lousy. Period. The running game starts on the interior line; Raiola has been here for years and the Lions have never had a good running game. But he's the sort of guy the Lions believe is a quality NFL player. I don't think he'd start for probably 28-30 other NFL teams. But the Lions think a guy like him is a good player. That's the sort of lens they're evaluating talent through.
We went through this stuff already with Marinelli. He got rid of all the guys who hadn't been "buying in." Lot of tough talk, lot of great character guys in that locker room, and no talent. Until we see it in action I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe the talent has actually been upgraded.
Mayhew is very very different from his former boss, this is shwartz and mayhews show now. if anything is wrong, its becasue of them, not becasue its the "same ole lions"
cant argue with what you believe. all valid concerns i suppose...
the question is do you want the lions to succed and be wrong in your predictions? or do you want them to be terrible, fire everyone, and start over again, to say you were right?
I want to be wrong, naturally. Even when watching the Packers game last year to wrap up the season I was torn between wanting to see history made and wanting the Lions to win. Couldn't stop myself getting excited whenever they scored and pissed when the Packers would score. It's almost like I don't even have a choice. I just don't think being a fan requires me to be optimistic every time they make some changes. The only difference between me the 27 year old Lions fan and me the 17 year old Lions fan is I no longer take offense when some national publication rips them, because they usually deserve every word of it.
different about 35 year old me and 25 year old me, was learning that its easier to be a fan if you just like watching the team you root for without trying to disect them and expect them to fail...
that and i dont beat people up for no reason anymore.
For fucks sake you can luck your ass into the playoffs in the NFL, man. It is set up to be as even as possible as far as talent on the field (Any Given Sunday, etc.). The Lions are so painfully awful every year that we have no equal for horridness. Even the woeful Cardinals are better than our franchise after last year.
It's shite being a Lions fan. We're the lowest of the low! Don't come in here and try to tell me we are going to be good. I have heard the story so many times I could write a book, a Broadway show and a major motion picture. If you still have any sort of excitement for this team then I am happy for you, but don't expect any one else to get fired up about it.
/end rant
enjoy your nfl season...
Yeah that read pretty dickish on my part. I just don't really know what you expect from Lions fans. I mean, dude, 0-16. There is no equal. We are the shit (in the bad way not the good way). I really am envious of your excitement, but again dude, 0-16.
for the 4th time, i dont see my excitment being so envious and crazy...
im merely saying that the car at least is headed in the right direction...
39 later this month. I grew up listening to the Lions on the radio. One of my worst memories was a Thanksgiving where the Lions had a 14 point fourth quarter lead on the Bears. IIRC, Chicago scored with about five minutes to play. They stopped the Lions and drove inside Detroit's 10 with seconds left. The Lions held until, on fourth and goal from about the 4, Jim McMahon dropped back to pass and, finding no one open, scrambled for a slow motion TD. The Lions lost the OT coin toss and the Bears returned the KO for a TD thus ending the game.
It took until my late-20's, and many more frustrating losses, before I was so disillusioned that Lions losses no longer stung. Getting excited about the Lions chances is like believing the girlfriend who has cheated on you about 30 times when she says it won't happen again.
That said, the Lions have left ample room for improvement. I predict that they will improve by winning at least 6.25% of their games this year.
Let's blame McMahon for all the shitty things he actually did. See:
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198011270det.htm
But yeah, I can see how you'd get confused; I thought it was Walter Payton who returned that damn kickoff for a touchdown.
I seem to remember it was Charles White, but in reality he fumbled before he broke the plane.
This is cute. You do realize that this is what every single Lions fan says before every single year. New QBs, new coaches, etc., it doesn't matter. Until this team can fully purge itself of the Millen years (likely somewhere in the next five or six years), they won't even be competitive. Also, this is funny:
"Im not saying they go undefeated"
I should hope you're not. This is also funny:
"combined with some proven players and some depth from youth."
The Lions have... few proven players. And to think that the draftees will come in and make a significant impact is fooling yourself. There are years and years of football history that show that very few players coming out of the draft ever make a significant impact, let alone turn franchises around.
I know you're all praying for Joe Flacco/Matt Ryan out of Matt "Baby Fat" Stafford, but lest we not forget a highly touted QB that was put into a much more similar situation (read: incompetent team): JaMarcus Russell. Far be it from me to make projections, but temper your expectations a bit. Please.
Sister Christian
Oh the time has come
And you know that you're the only one
To say O.K.
Where you going
What you looking for
You know those boys
Don't want to play no more with you
It's true
You're motoring
What's your price for flight
In finding mister right
You'll be alright tonight
Babe you know
You're growing up so fast
And mama's worrying
That you won't last
To say let's play
Sister Christian
There's so much in life Don't you give it up
Before your time is due
It's true
It's true yeah
Motoring
What's your price for flight
You've got him in your sight
And driving thru the night
Motoring
What's your price for flight
In finding mister right
You'll be alright tonight
...nevermind...
too busy singing along to get angry
is assuming just becasue he is a lion, all of a sudden people like foote will be worthless and not better the team. Or that a completly different approac to coaching will net the exact same type of player development. Again there's nothing wrong with ackowledging difference and change without trying to predict a super bowl apperance is there?
saying that i am looking for healthy competetion for once in training camp i would think, shows that my acknowldgement of the lack of anything positive in the past, as well as a limited expectation of this comming season.
I am neither saying that a rookie qb will start, or that he will be great, but rather that it will be nice to have some meaningfull competition. I fail to see how that qualifies as "cute"
just like any person that has a career in football, i understand expectations, and i also understand change when i see it. As i would assume most fans that arent stupid enough to think that "detroit is destined to be bad for ever and ever..."
Its a Lions fan's nature. Remember the 4-0 preseason start last year and the excitement that was leading up to the the games that actually count.
The team went into free agency 20-30 million under the cap and signed garbage the same as the previous two years. I'm under the same until you prove otherwise camp and they have done nothing yet. I hope it works out as it would be nice if the Lions were no longer a laughing stock.
I may be a slappy too, but what the poster is saying, is that some things are different. This may or may not translate to more wins, but at least free agents are signing here that under the previous regimes wouldn't have. The types of players who have the pedigree and some measure of success else where. The tigers were awful before washed up players like maggs and pudge signed. I know, I know, its baseball. There may be as many as 11 new starters on this team. Good or bad, that is way different from any year to year change i have seen as a lions fan.
"washed up players like maggs and pudge signed"
.....um, no. Pudge, one of the greatest defensive catchers ever to live and Maggs whose numbers held exactly the same as they were in Chicago were not, in any way, washed up.
The Lions have drafted great players and coached them to irrelevance. They have traded for bad players. They have drafted bad players. They have done everything wrong for the last several decades.
Rod Marinelli was supposed to be the culture change that turned the Lions around. That didn't work because of the front office. I don't doubt that sometime in the next decade, the Lions might be relevant, but to think that this is the year that it'll happen (that this is the year that they'll even approach .500) is reaching at straws. Could it happen? Sure. And Big Blue could go undefeated this season. But we're smarter than that.
because he is not a head coach! He made his name because of Monte Kiffin the same as the idiot son-in-law he brought in to be D coordinator. Isn't it strange that Ernie Sims best year was his rookie year and he has gone downhill in the 2 years Joe Barry was there. Marinelli was the one who wanted to bring in players who practiced hard and encouraged the signing of a bunch of old Tampa 2 players yet the team they took those players from kept getting younger and better on D. This team has had tons of cap room the last three years to start free agency and has dwelled on signing back ups!
Apparently you didnt get the sarcasm, my bad. At the time these players were thought to be old or washed up, that is why they supposedly signed with the tigers. I never felt this way .
looks like i have been proven wrong once again.
this is the exact same thing that has always been done.. I appologize for speaking on football, a topic i obviously have not studied enough, or the lions a team i obviously do not follow, or trying to be positive, a trait that is not tollerated around these parts...
all opinions are good and fine.
i just dont get the "HATRED" and the condensending attitudes towards people that acknowldge that maybe the lions are moving in the right direction...
I guess its the same problem i have had with many around here on michigan game days int eh cil's.. and its why i dont come around very much....
im trying to be the nice everyone get along commentor that i use to be, but some of you make it very difficult.
I don't see a lot of hatred, dude. You got called "overly excited" and asked if you've "been alive for the past 25 years," which doesn't sound like a lot of hatred and condescension to me.
By the same token, I don't understand the optimism. Different isn't always better (though in this case it literally can't get worse) but are we really going to be just super-thrilled over a 4-12 season? I see newspaper articles about the people running out and buying #9 jerseys and such, and doing that seems to me to be basically the exact same rationale battered women use to stay with the guy who hits him. "He's different now. He promised to change. I can't imagine life without him. He loves me. etc. etc. etc." I can't let go of the Lions either, but that doesn't mean I have to swallow their rainbow promises every year.
i will rescend my prediction that this team is moving in the right direction, and that training camp will have better competetion...
Dude, there's no way to move BUT the right direction. Literally, you can move no more in the wrong direction than where the team was last year. So yes, it looks like they won't go winless again this year, possibly because of the offseason moves. Is that what you want to hear?
um yeah sure, that would be great...
we could do worse in the Pre-Season.
It's not that people are being overly pessimistic. It's that you're making some leaps in logic that you can't rightly make.
Did we make a good off-season signing in Foote? Sure. Did we have a decent draft class? Sure. But what exactly have you seen that makes you think this will be any different? Local news highlights of competition in practice? A new attitude (something they were supposed to get years ago)? Because frankly, we haven't "seen" anything yet. We signed some players, none of whom will be more than role players. The same dredge from years past is still on the roster and competing for playing time. Depth is still a huge problem.
I'm glad you're hopeful for this team. But there has been absolutely nothing done in this offseason to make me think that the Lions stand a chance of winning more than 4 games this year. And winning 4 games is not much of a change from years past (let's be completely honest).
i havent seen much about the lions, just what i can catch online form time to time, being out of the area, and actually help run a football program takes up a lot of my time.
competent coaches, good draft, good offseason moves. Not sure if its enough to jump up and down, but i dont beleive in judging future soely on past. guess thats why i never bought into the the idea that the wolverines will never have a bad year, just because they havent in a long time..
I don't think anyone here is reserving Superbowl or playoff tickets. The OP sees some reasons for optimism and I agree. The hole is too deep to expect a single draft and some free agent singnings to make a big impact.
My hope is that Mayhew is different and was hindered by his boss and that Schwartz can coach. I'd love for Ford to sell the team but I can't make that happen. Maybe it well be 45 more years of futility but if I believe that, I better find another team. I'd rather have some cautious optimism about these moves.
The Lions are horrible awful terrible until they prove otherwise on the field. They were undefeated in the preseason last year. There is nothing about the team that anyone can report to us right now that will definitively say anything about how they will perform in the fall.
BACK-TO-BACK PERFECT SEASONS
DREAMS DO COME TRUE
wow....I'll be sure to never say anything positive about the Lions here. Yikes.
ITT: We yell at people for not lowering expectations.
ITTB (In the thread below): We yell at people for lowering expectations.
When fans discuss and debate my beloved Loins, I just don't get it. Those that believe in the Loins or are disappointed in the Loins, usually just haven't smelled them long enough. The Loins are the most consistent thing in all of sports. That's the beauty of the Loins. They ruin everyone. You can be the greatest football player in the league and and you will be ruined once you don the Honolulu Blue. I don't want my Loins any other way. STINKY.