Detroit Lions: Remember when Jon Kitna became a folk hero?

Aftermath

The Lions were 2-0 and temporarily at the top of the NFC North. Kitna described his return to the Minnesota game as “nothing short of a miracle“. Kitna won over fans in Detroit, in spite of themselves, on this day. The miracle stuff sounded a bit overdone, but maybe he knew what he was talking about after all!

For the next six weeks, the Lions continued to lead a charmed existence. The win over Minnesota snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Vikings.  They followed this up with two wins over division rival Chicago, one against Tampa bay, and a 44-7 demolition of the Broncos at the start of November.

With an improbable 6-2 record at the halfway mark, Kitna’s prophecy was alive and well. His ten win projection was right on target, and may have even been too conservative of an estimate! Unfortunately… the bottom fell out from there. For Kitna, for the 2007 team, and for the entire franchise.

The Lions lost seven of their final eight games and didn’t come anywhere near the playoffs. Kitna ended up with a rare double, leading the NFL in both interceptions thrown and sacks taken.

By the next season, any goodwill generated by Kitna during the run to start 2007 had completely evaporated. He was injured/benched early in the 2008 season and that was it for his career in Detroit.

Next: Remember that time Suh kicked an extra point?

Kitna’s three years as a Detroit Lion started off slow and ended in disaster. However, for that brief time in between, the 35-year-old journeyman quarterback rose to mythic proportions around Ford Field.

For a little over a month in 2007, Jon Kitna was a folk hero in Detroit.