Three reasons to love (and hate) the 2020 Detroit Lions
Reason number three to love the Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are the only team in Michigan with any hope of doing anything this year.
If you’ve glanced at the Tigers, Red Wings, or Pistons, lately we don’t even have to remind you. The Pistons dropped in the draft order after winning only 20 games this year, to the seventh pick when they should’ve picked fifth at worst. The Red Wings were the worst hockey team in the NHL and are picking fourth despite winning only seventeen games, eight less than the next-worst club.
The Tigers started off well but are on a 9-game losing streak and are in last place. They have a current 20-game losing streak to the Cleveland Indians, for Pete’s sake. All standings are from the Basketball-Reference and Hockey Reference websites, draft orders are from the Tankathon.com website.
Lastly, Big Ten college football is on a hiatus and all of the best college players are leaving school to prepare for the draft. No college football is likely, either.
Looking at observations and storylines out of Lions camp, Stafford is looking sharp, Swift has been a tough guy to cover, and the other rookies seem to be getting their footing. Even if you are a cynic, what team from the Motor City would you say had a better chance in the near future? Every other Michigan team is getting screwed by their league’s drafts and has little prospect of digging their way out of the basement in the short-term.
Why hate reason number three
It is true that every other professional team in the state is riding some bad luck and is currently near the bottom of their respective sports. Let me introduce you to the Detroit Lions, though, the worst-run team in professional sports. No draft lotteries to blame, no shifting owners with conflicting visions, there isn’t even a young quarterback to blame for needing to figure things out.
The Detroit Lions have been continuously owned by the same family, the Fords, since the Kennedy assassination, which is THE day that the sale was approved by the its board of directors. November 22, 1963, is usually only remembered for a sad event that took place in Dallas, Texas, but it also marks the Ford ownership of the team. William Clay Ford owned the team until 2014, when it was turned over to his wife, Martha Firestone Ford, and is now under the majority ownership of their daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp.
Since that date, the Detroit Lions have won exactly one playoff game, while all of the city’s other sports teams have won multiple championships during that span. Consider the futility of never having participated in an NFL championship game, the Super Bowl, even once in it’s 55-year history. Well, if you’re a Lions fan, you don’t have to imagine what that feels like- if you’ve lived that long.
Pretty amazing to be that bad for that long when the Lions have had some great players like Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson, Lem Barney, Charlie Sanders, Jason Hanson, and Matthew Stafford, to name a few.
Reflection
Normally we try to discuss facts and statistics or supply analysis of football-related topics but we are all waiting for the season to start, which is a good time to reflect on our fandom.
Many people rely on sports to give them a sense of normalcy and an escape from the regular doldrums of our routines and the demands of our lives. We favor the reasons to love the Lions but many must also admit that we can easily be shoved into the alternative choice.
Must Read. Predicting the Detroit Lions final roster: Who stays, who goes?. light
As the regular season approaches on September 13, let’s collectively try to appreciate the best sports league in the United States. The NFL has never deviated much from its schedule and looks to be on course to play a normal schedule in a few weeks. For that, we should be grateful, even if it isn’t perfect.