Spare us the torture, Roger
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
You’ve done a great job this year, Roger.
Just one more small favor, chief – stop force-feeding us the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving.
I understand tradition, and I certainly appreciate history, but I’d prefer a competitive game on the one afternoon of the year in which there is nothing else remotely watchable on television outside of NFL football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While it’s impossible to predict which games will be competitive ahead of time (New Orleans at Dallas looked a lot better in July than it does now), the NFL could at least use whatever common sense it has to make an educated guess as to which match-ups best represent its product on a day in which roughly 11.5 percent of American households tune in religiously.
Outside of the Super Bowl, which is an obvious ratings goldmine, Thanksgiving draws more common fans than any other weekend of the year, so it’s in the NFL’s best interest to showcase its top teams while uncles, aunts and grandkids are slipping into a Trytophan-induced coma in front of the TV. The league should always try to put its best foot forward regardless of who’s watching, and anyone who’s watched the NFL for the last 10 years knows the Lions are a piss-poor representation of how football is supposed to be played.
The Lions haven’t had a winning season since 2000 and haven’t been relevant since Barry Sanders roamed the Pontiac Silverdome in the mid-‘90s. Over the past nine and a half years, including this season, they’ve won only 35 games while losing 119, including an embarrassing 0-16 season in 2008 – the first winless season by any team in NFL history since the schedule expanded in 1978. Adding insult to injury, the Lions also lost 24 consecutive road games from ’01 to ’03. To put Detroit’s futility in perspective, the Patriots have already won 29 games since the start of the 2008 season, which is only six fewer games than the Lions have won this entire decade.
What’s even more embarrassing is Detroit has had ample opportunities to rebuild its franchise through the NFL draft, but the powers-that-be have swung and missed horribly in the talent evaluation department. Matt Millen, a former pro who took over as the team’s de facto general manager in 2001, turned the Lions into the laughing stock of the NFL during a hilarious seven-year stretch of draft-day futility. From ’01 to ’07, Detroit drafted four wide receivers in the first round – three who are no longer with the team (Mike Williams, Roy E. Williams and Charles Rogers). The only one who hasn’t been a complete bust is Calvin Johnson (No. 2 overall in ’07), who has caught 31 touchdown passes in just under three years.
Along the way, Millen also drafted quarterback Joey Harrington with the No. 3 overall pick in ’02 and linebacker Ernie Sims (No. 9 overall) in ‘06. Sims has since been traded to the Eagles and Harrington is out of the league, which means only three of Millen’s eight first-round picks during his tenure with the Lions are still with the team. As you can see, the absurdity has extended well beyond the playing field. The Lions are as hopeless between the lines as they are in the front office.
The only reason they still host a game every Thanksgiving is because it’s part of NFL folklore. The Lions have been synonymous with Turkey-Day football since 1934. Honoring tradition is important, but it’s time to cut the umbilical cord attached to the Motor City.
The Lions haven’t won on Thanksgiving since 2003, and their recent losses haven’t been all that competitive either. The Packers trounced them last year, 34-12, and the Titans handed them a 48-10 beating in ’08. The 41-9 shellacking by Indianapolis in ’04 was equally brutal to watch.
Tomorrow, it’ll be the Patriots’ turn to embarrass the Lions on national television. In retrospect, wouldn’t it have made more sense for the NFL to save last week’s showdown against the Colts for Thanksgiving instead of wasting it on a random Sunday in November? The only argument I’d accept in favor of the NFL would have to do with ratings or revenue; in other words, if people are going to watch regardless of who’s playing, then the league has no incentive to waste a potential ratings jackpot such as a Colts vs. Patriots or Patriots vs. Jets game on Thanksgiving when it could save one of those games for an otherwise nondescript Sunday afternoon.
At the same time, the league has made a noble effort in recent years to enhance the viewers’ experience (Thursday night games, weekday season openers, etc.) and if it’s truly committed to putting the fans first, then it should give us something better to watch on Thanksgiving than a bunch of has-beens and also-rans masquerading as professional football players.
The ball’s in your court, Roger.
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