If you are a sports fan, chances are that there was one team from your childhood that really got you started on your lifelong journey of fandom. It is that team that oftentimes colors your perception of sports for the rest of your life. If you spent your formative years watching your favorite team constantly compete for titles, like the Cowboys or Lakers, you will always expect your team to compete. If, like many generations of Red Sox and Cubs fans, your team suffers from a long title drought and a mysterious curse, you are likely to be pessimistic in nature, always waiting for the worst to happen.
Then there is the special breed of fan, which I can say whole-heartedly that I am: The Detroit Lions fan.
Before you pour out your condolences at my misfortune of living anywhere near a Lions TV broadcast in my youth, you need to remember back to the 90's and get past the utter disgrace that the Millen era Lions have been.
The 90's were a time of great hope and the continual failure to build a winner. This was a team that was usually competitive enough to fight for a playoff spot, but not competitive enough to ever do anything with it when they got there. It seemed like the team was in a rut for my entire childhood, each year squandering the talents of the electric Barry Sanders (who deserves his own post, and might eventually get one, for the impact he had on my childhood) with a .500 season or first round playoff exit.
My first real memories of the Lions didn't start until I was 8 or 9, which would place them past the NFC championship run of the 91-92 season. Every Sunday afternoon was devoted to the Lions games, consumed either on TV or the radio. And through the years as the failures built up, I learned how to be a sports critic. Never happy with the failure of the franchise to surround Sanders with the players that would help him reach a championship. Optimistic Augusts gave way to a creeping sensation that the team would come up short once again, which it always did. I hoped for the best but expected the worst, and I resigned myself that my favorite team might flounder in mediocrity forever.
Fast forward to 2009. The Lions have just emerged from what might be the single worst era endured by a professional sports team. Draft picks squandered on too many WR's (4 in 7 years) and too many busts (Charles Rodgers and Mike Williams), an abysmal record or 31-81, and the utter abortion that was the 2008 season.
This should be a time of hope for Lions fans. We finally have new management, albeit 4 years too late, and an elite wide receiver who may be capable of carrying the offense. To top it all off we even have the first pick in the draft.
Maybe its all those years as a Lions fan that have jaded me, but I'm not convinced. Some management from the old regime actually got promotions, and we still don't have anyone worth a damn to throw the ball to Calvin Johnson.
The first pick in the draft should ideally fix that last problem. But, this is still the Lions we are talking about. Management failed to turn the pick into a proven QB, Jay Cutler, because of the egregious contract that is guaranteed to a #1 pick by the NFL's CBA. Furthermore the Lion's history of taking QB's in the first round picks isn't exactly inspiring. Think Andre Ware and Joey "don't call me Joe" Harrington. Add this to Mel Kiper's claim that Matt Stafford is a can't miss prospect, as well as Football Outsiders troubling point that Stafford's collegiate completion percentage and number of games started are strikingly similar to some legendary early round picks such as Shaun King, J.P. Losman, and Jake Plummer, and you can see why I'm not exactly optimistic.
Time will tell how the Lion's franchise will recover from the Millen era, but one thing is for sure, I won't be surprised if things stay the same. I will still give in to the hype that builds around training camp as coaches and players speak of a new attitude, a renewed commitment to blue collar football, or growing excitement in the locker room. But, come the end of the season, I will most likely be feeling the same ache of hopelessness that I get yearly. I want my team to win, but it'll take sustained success to rid Lions fans everywhere of their defeatist attitudes.
Don't blame me, blame the team I grew up watching.
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