OT - Lions fun fact
Saw this in an article about Dan Campbell today. I like Campbell and what he is doing but thought this was too accurate to not share.
“It is hard to capture just how awful the Lions have been for most of their existence. But maybe this do it: The Browns have won as many playoff games in 2021 as the Lions have won since 1957. Theirs is a lifetime of ineptitude that has rendered them a competitive nonentity, incapable of trash talk, unworthy of suspicion. This is how irrelevant the Lions remain”
Ouch
November 11th, 2021 at 10:29 AM ^
What would life in Michigan be if you didn't have the Lions to crap on?
November 11th, 2021 at 1:05 PM ^
Much better! Can't wait until the Detroit area gets a PROFESSIONAL football team.
November 11th, 2021 at 8:13 PM ^
what a magical team that was. Bobby Hebert, Anthony Carter. Hell even the punter played Linebacker.
November 11th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
Fun Fact about the Lions:
S.O.L.
Yet another 1st time head coach WAAAAY the F over his head, players giving up already, and a crap-ton of a crap season left to go.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:37 AM ^
Sounds about right.
" Lions fun facts" sounds like an oxymoron.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
In the 1950s, the Browns and the Lions were the dominant NFL franchises. Even into the very early 1960s the Lions were one of the better teams in the Western Conference, and were good enough to have gotten to the 1962 NFL championship game if it weren't for the damn Packers.
It all started going downhill when William Clay Ford purchased full control of the Lions franchise on November 22, 1963, which was a bad day for the entire country for another reason.
November 11th, 2021 at 12:52 PM ^
I have been saying for 30 years that the only way the Lions will be relevant again is when the Ford family sells the team to someone who actually cares about it.
November 11th, 2021 at 12:54 PM ^
Correlation ain't causation.
But THIS correlation—Ford control=garbage—feels very causal.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:40 PM ^
Seems clear to me that the only way to break the Ford's curse is for them to sell to the Kennedy's.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:50 PM ^
I think the Fords have always cared about the Lions. The problem is that WCF was incompetent at hiring general managers and other front office people, and if your GM stinks, you're pretty much hosed.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:01 PM ^
I think the Fords care about the Lions the same way they care about most of their profit centers but that means they're not passionate and singularly focused on making them champions.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:18 PM ^
As a life-long dong-punched lions fan, my fiance got me a really awesome book called When the Lions we Kings. Mostly documents their fun in the 1950s but its a great read if you can't handle the current ineptitude. Sometimes I think it's fiction but they did have a championship football team at one time.
November 11th, 2021 at 6:47 PM ^
Sounds like the shortest book ever written.
November 11th, 2021 at 6:38 PM ^
Wow I never knew Ford bought the Lions on THAT same day!
November 11th, 2021 at 6:46 PM ^
Ford was a member of the syndicate that owned the Lions, so he was technically already a part-owner. He bought out the other members and the deal was official on 11-22-63.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
I’m typically a long leash kind of guy but Campbell lost me when he rushed three to lose twice two games in a row. I would have fired him before he made the locker room.
November 11th, 2021 at 3:05 PM ^
I mean, what do the Lions gain by winning a few games though? They were never going to be competitive this year, so might as well tank and get the best possible draft position. There's no incentive to be the 2020 Jets, who won two of their last three games to lose out on the top pick...
November 11th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
I get the sentiment, but can you tell me with a straight face that you have any expectation that they’ll make good picks and bring in good players? I sure don’t
November 11th, 2021 at 4:21 PM ^
While the Lions need the No 1 overall, it’s not for them to pick, but instead to trade to the highest bidder with multiple high picks.
No single player improves this team.
November 11th, 2021 at 6:36 PM ^
And of course we're streaking toward the #1 overall pick in what is almost universally being projected as a historically weak first round of the draft. Particularly the top of the round.
November 15th, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
First, that's not a good reason to write off getting a higher draft pick. The Lions are just as likely to screw up a lower pick, so they might as well get the highest pick possible. Plus, their last three top-two picks (Megatron, Stafford, Suh) have been excellent, while the rest of their top-ten picks (and most of their first round picks, really) have been horrible. So I don't think it's unreasonable to expect good player with the top pick.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:47 AM ^
The best thing about following the Lions is that they are so imaginative and innovative in finding ways to be either awful or mediocre. They have dedicated themselves to finding every way to be unsuccessful and it is fun to watch them explore new ideas. For example, Campbell is clearly way over his head being a head coach- not unlike Jim Schwartz or Rod Marinelli. But Campbell is engaging and profane, Schwartz was unpleasant and profane, Marinelli was pleasant but remote. 3 different types of people - all of whom were incompetent as a head coach. See, variety! And hiring Chris Spielman is much like hiring Matt Millen. Both great football players and announcers but unlikely to achieve anything except flattering the Fords. But two completely different types! So, endless variety in the types of people delivering nothing. It is just great to watch, as I have been since training camps were at Cranbrook and Alex Karras and Gail Cogdill were my favorites.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:39 AM ^
Agree to disagree on Spielman as a great announcer... and I love the guy, first class act all the way. But he's prone to, "Third and 5, you might see a run or a pass play here" type of commentary... not exactly the kind of in-depth analysis that good announcers contribute.
FWIW... Former NFL QB's seem to add the most quality content during broadcasts, it's fascinating (to me) when they break down the defense pre-snap and call out exactly how the offense will adjust to it. Romo, the Manning brothers, etc.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^
i think spielman gets a lot of love in these parts not just because he is a great guy, but also because he was such a fantastic pro playing for the lowly lions, making that performance all the more noble. also, he loves (maybe, likes it a lot) U of M, even though he forced to go to that school down south by his father.
agreed re: the recent spate of former NFL QB's in the booth has been good. i am not tiring of romo at all, and what little bit i've seen of the mannings looks like they are a 'hoot'.
November 11th, 2021 at 2:12 PM ^
I love Spielman as a college announcer because of his quick, understandable analysis of ax’s and Os
November 12th, 2021 at 9:22 AM ^
I didn't know he was forced to go to OSU... I guess I owe a tip of the cap and/or a beer to his father then. He was a force to be reckoned with.. both in college and the NFL. As a Lions fan.. I was really happy seeing him inducted into the Lion's Ring of Honor... he deserved every bit of it, and that video of him reading his own announcement was so heart warming... I think someone was cutting onions in my living room when I watched that.
November 11th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^
He was great for a while but I get the feeling he was told to dumb it down. His instant play diagnosis and diagramming replays skills were some of the best.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
My curse to bear is that I am a Lions fan. I take no gruff for it, and loudly tell others to STFU whenever they complain about how poorly <insert team here> is playing. My inclination here is to defend them. Alas, the quote is truth - and all know it.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
Yep. I travel a good bit, so I'll encounter a lot of folks saying "oh, it's so difficult to be a <Bills/Jaguars/Texans/Panthers/Falcons/Cardinals> fan, things always go poorly for us and we'll never win a Super Bowl!"
Wait, what??? Those teams have all won playoff games in the past decade, most of them have been to a Conference Title Game in the past decade, Carolina + Atlanta have been to Super Bowls in the past decade.
I do feel some sympathy for Bengals fans. They have the 2nd longest playoff victory drought (after Detroit, of course) and their 2015 playoff loss to Pittsburgh was an incredible display of ineptitude and stupidity that I'm not quite sure even the Lions could match. But then again, they went to a couple Super Bowls in the 80s! But I do think they're the only fanbase with a comparable degree of misery to Lions fans.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:09 AM ^
The Browns think they have a case too, but I clearly remember them being "this close" to the Super Bowl several years in the 80s. Sure, those losses had to be bad, but the Lions have never even been "this close". It was 41-10 on their ONLY chance.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:16 PM ^
Yep. The Browns were on the wrong side of the John Elway 4th qtr heroics...
November 11th, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
"their 2015 playoff loss to Pittsburgh was an incredible display of ineptitude and stupidity that I'm not quite sure even the Lions could match."
per wikipedia: "But with less than a minute left in the game, two consecutive personal fouls against Cincinnati's defense got the Steelers close enough for Chris Boswell to make a 35-yard field goal with 18 seconds left on the clock."
Ouch.
November 11th, 2021 at 2:21 PM ^
Not to mention --- that drive followed Cincinnati having the ball and needing 1 first-down to be able to ice the game.
The Bengals fumbled the ball on their first play of that drive.
November 11th, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^
Dear Billy Goats Gruff, don't take no guff.
November 11th, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
I'm not from Michigan, nor a Lions fan but are there really any "fun facts" about them?
November 11th, 2021 at 2:12 PM ^
Fun fact, no.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
0-16! I thought they would win a couple of games. A friend of mine thought they would be just under .500. They have been so bad for so long, you think just being mediocre in the draft would at least have them being close to a .500 team. But look at how this team failed in drafting talent over the past 6 years.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:09 AM ^
So they'll win the 17th game?
Sweet!
November 11th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
The new coach is in a tough spot - he's facing down history, a weak roster and a really awkward QB deal that was done to get future picks. Basically it is a situation no one wants to be part.
At this point, it is important to keep in mind that the Packers and Vikings are in the playoff race and so those games at the end of the season are probably going to be lost - they won't let up. The Bears if they continue to improve will also probably win. They'll want to justify their QB strategy. So pencil in them at 0-11.
That leaves these non-division games:
At Pittsburgh
At Cleveland
At Denver
Home with Arizona
At Atlanta
At Seattle
Seattle and Atlanta are not having great years and appear to be the best chance to get wins, but have good rosters and playing there could be tough - plus at that point, the Lions are staring down an no-win season.
A 0-17 season is a real possibility.
November 11th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
The Vikings are 3-5 and have Kork Coupons at QB, there is no playoff hunt for them.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:20 AM ^
Lions fun facts!
- The Lions are the only NFL franchise that has existed for the entire Super Bowl era that has not made the Super Bowl.
- The Lions are not making a run for 0-16; they are making a run for 0-17.
- I live in an area that's roughly 70-30 Vikings-Packers in fan distribution. When people ask me who I cheer for, and I say the Lions, I don't get trash talk; I get expressions of sympathy.
- The Lions lost a game to the Saints when Tom Dempsey kicked a 63-yard field goal, a record that would be unequalled for decades and not exceeded for 43 years. The Lions lost a game to the Ravens when Justin Tucker kicked a 66-yard field goal, a record that is still young but is a full two yards longer than the previous mark. Naturally, it bounced off the crossbar and through.
- The Lions enjoyed the entire Hall-of-Fame careers of both one of the top five running backs and one of the top five receivers of all time, while being a bottom five franchise for the duration of this period.
- Only the Lions could do this:
November 11th, 2021 at 11:27 AM ^
- I live in an area that's roughly 70-30 Vikings-Packers in fan distribution. When people ask me who I cheer for, and I say the Lions, I don't get trash talk; I get expressions of sympathy.
This, exactly. I have lived for the better part of the last 20 year in Wisconsin. Unlike the vile hatred spewed toward Vikings and Bears fans, the local Packers fanatics usually extend condolences and genuine words of support when I declare that I'm a Lions fan. Sometimes laughter, but mostly support. It's a terribly pathetic existence, but I've learned to lean into it.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:31 AM ^
I have a Lions hat I wear here in NC and it generates mostly the same response. Either laughter or condolences. Since living here (6 years now), I have never met another Lions fan.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:48 PM ^
my yooper buddies were/are the same. they have never given me crud for being a lions fan and i'd say because of them i don't mind when the packers do well.
November 11th, 2021 at 12:28 PM ^
- The Lions are the only NFL franchise that has existed for the entire Super Bowl era that has not made the Super Bowl.
The should have an asterisk (Cleveland). I think it's worse to have a team leave your city, then go on to win multiple Super Bowls elsewhere.
November 11th, 2021 at 1:11 PM ^
No asterisk. My wording was precisely chosen. Yes, Cleveland has it bad, and yes, it did stink royally to lose the franchise and then have that franchise win SBs (Houston also has a beef in this category). But the Lions, as a franchise, is the only franchise to exist in its city for the entire Super Bowl era to not make it. The only other franchises that have not made it are the Texans, Jaguars, and the current Browns franchise, and all of these franchises are expansions that are less than 30 years old in their current constitution.
November 11th, 2021 at 11:28 AM ^
Still waiting for the fun part?