It doesn’t take much to go wrong in Detroit before the football team gets labeled as the “same old Lions”. Even coming off a 10-6 season and the franchise’s first playoff appearance in over a decade, it took just three weeks before those cries started being heard.

With a 4-9 record and a sub-.500 season guaranteed, the Detroit Lions’ 2012 season is a failure. Same old Lions? The answer is a matter of perspective.

The old Lions constructed under the unwatchful eye of Matt Millen never made the playoffs or even finish a season with a .500 record. These Lions are not those same old Lions. Even with a far worse starting point to their regime, the Jim Schwartz/Martin Mayhew/Tom Lewand led Lions have the 2011 season as a feather in their cap and that success can’t be ignored when considering the 2012 Lions.

These Lions are starting to look a lot more like the old-old Lions – the Wayne Fontes/Bobby Ross era of Lions football that preceded Matt Millen. Those years were defined by a handful of playoff appearances mixed in between years of disappointment and teams that didn’t live up to their potential.

Like these Lions, those Lions weren’t without talent. Barry Sanders has to be named when discussing the best running backs of all time and Calvin Johnson is putting himself in the same discussion for wide receivers. How sad would it be if Megatron’s career ends without any meaningful wins?

The phrase “same old Lions” can also be fittingly used to describe the historical state of the team independent of any particular era. The Lions, and even going back to their days as the Portsmouth Spartans, have never followed a season of ten or more wins with another double-digit win total. A total of six head coaches in franchise history to accomplish that feat and not one of them could do it – Jim Schwartz being the most recent.

Is Jim Schwartz destined to be the next Wayne Fontes or Bobby Ross (minus the San Diego Super Bowl appearance) and nothing more? It’s difficult to say from where we sit today but the answer may only be a year or two away.

Aug 27, 2011; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz during a preseason game against the New England Patriots at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-US PRESSWIRE

Ever since the Lions brought in Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz in 2009, they have been one of the steadier teams in the NFL right down to their ability to keep their coordinators in place. Football relies on repetition more than any sport on earth. Those 11 guys absolutely have to know what each guy is doing during every single play. That repetition has to start in the front office by having the same men in control year after year. “I think one of the hallmarks of consistently successful franchises around the NFL is stability,” team president Tom Lewand said just days before the Lions’ playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.

Lets avoid the black hole that was the Matt Millen era, and skip back to the days of Wayne Fontes, for a historical point of how the Lions consistently couldn’t make up their minds. Wayne Fontes in charge of the Lions always reminded me of Fred Flintstone. He looked like him, and he was sure that his next get rich quick plan [his latest coordinator hire] was going to be the one that put him over the top. Of course it wouldn’t work out and Ol’ Wayne-o would have to sweet talk Mr. Ford out of firing him by sacrificing a coordinator. The worst was going from Mouse Davis’s run and shoot where you needed receivers who did their clothes shopping in the boys section to the Dan Henning’s power offense that required behemoths at every position. No wonder the Lions’ records those years had more up and downs than Jennifer Lopez’s career. The Brutal stats for the eight years Fontes was head coach is 5 Offensive Coordinators and 4 Defensive Coordinators. He changed a coordinator every year from 1991-1996. The good ol’ days weren’t so good.

One of the good things about the Lions horrid past is that they know what NOT to do. This Stability concept is something new to the Leos, and we should start to see results this season in this administration’s 4th year. And by results, I mean Playoff wins. That’s the great thing about this franchise and the players that have been here for awhile – every year they expect more out of themselves, and every year they’ve delivered. That’s the kind of consistency that wins Super Bowls.

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Detroit Lion football history is riddled with teams in perfect position to secure a wildcard spot, only to blow it by losing in the final two weeks of the season. Just ask Bobby Ross about Christmas Eve, 2000. Paul Edinger’s 54-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in the season knocked the Lions out of playoff contention. As every Lions fan who suffered through is aware, the Wayne Fontes era is also full of “almosts” and “should’ve beens”.

Undoubtedly many pessimists nationwide are expecting the same this year. And to be quite honest, who can blame them? Stigmas exist for a reason, and this team hasn’t done much since the 1950s to prove otherwise. This is a great opportunity for the 2011 Lions, the Jim Schwartz Lions, to prove what we all know to be true.

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