Both the Detroit Lions and their fans must be better
From NFL coaching staffs to its players, these are significantly well-compensated individuals who do not need to be coddled or have things sugarcoated for them during the more bitter moments.
And during those moments (such as Monday night for the Lions) when things are going as bad as humanly possible, do you really think that they need to hear your boos/insults? Is your fragile fandom any more battered and broken than the bodies and pride of the players who put their health in jeopardy with each snap of the ball?
Resident iron man and class act, Matthew Stafford, who played as bad a game as anyone else did handled the criticism with dignity during his postgame comments. He should have been embarrassed after that performance overall, but as the leader, he also has to keep his eyes on the future and set the way for his team.
For the fans to be incapable of even showing a modicum of respect for a player who has given the city his all for a decade, it makes me hope and pray that he doesn’t decide to spurn our already jilted fan base with an early retirement such as Barry Sanders or his former all-pro teammate, Calvin Johnson.
Even if he did, I don’t think I could blame him if he decided against the prospects of playing another season in front of seemingly ungrateful fans. Stafford is literally the best quarterback that the city has seen in the Super Bowl era!
Unfortunately, Detroit already has the stained reputation of running their best-ever running back and wide receiver off, please let’s not add quarterback to that dubious distinction also!
The Green Bay Packers recently endured a few hard times of their own during their game, you may have heard. During that first half in Lambeau Field, I do not recall hearing so much as a single jeer cast in the home team’s direction, even with them being down 20-0 going into halftime.
As the rest of the story went, Aaron Rodgers went on to work his usual magic in the second half (as we’ve all witnessed firsthand) and literally willed his team to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, the likes of which had never been seen in Green Bay’s long and vaunted history.