Can the Detroit Lions finally conquer the demons of their past?

There is truly only one franchise that has been around as long as the Lions that have known the type of frustration, this organization has lived with over the last 60 years. Ironically enough the Lions will open their season against them today; the Arizona Cardinals.

The majority of the Cardinals frustrations occurred in their birth city of Chicago and their second home of St. Louis. Outside of the controversial title they were awarded in 1925, which I won’t bother to go into detail about, the only championship this franchise ever really won was the 1947 title by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles.

Between 1948 and 2007, the Cardinals participated in five playoff games losing four of them and as an organization, they were as hapless as the Lions as well as equally easy to dismiss.

However, in 2008 under second-year head coach Ken Whisenhunt they made a run to the Super Bowl and came within inches of defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers to win it all. In the 10 seasons since, the Cardinals have made the playoffs three more times and won two of five postseason games.

So even though they start today with a new beginning of their own, in 2008 they turned the corner and became relevant. They became a franchise that has garnered some respect, while the Lions have continued their long, lowly hibernation from true relevance.

But as the Cardinals have proved, a team can have a long, losing and frustrating history, but eventually get it right.

Which brings us to the Lions current quest to shake off their own moribund history to become an actual contender. To become a team to reckon with. To become relevant themselves.

What the Cardinals proved in 2008 is that it takes the right people making the right decisions to change the course of a franchise. To turn a long-time loser into a title contender. But most importantly that it can be done.

Franchises that win consistently have no idea how difficult it is to become winners. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any effort involved with re-building when the time comes, but teams like the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers who won with different coaches and personnel in different decades don’t understand the kind of weight the Lions have had to drag around from decades of losing.