With a lengthy run of ineptitude there are certainly a lot of candidates to consider on some level, but here is the Mount Rushmore of the most hated figures in Detroit Lions history.
With no championships since 1957, and one playoff win since then (more than 30 years ago), the Detroit Lions are an easy punchline. Great players like Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson have retired early with something left in the tank just to get away from the dysfunction, and they didn’t leave on good terms.
High draft picks have been continually botched by general managers (with plenty of opportunities, of course), coaches proved suddenly incapable, were in over their heads or stuck in their ways upon landing in Detroit. The common thread has being losing, whatever the path has been.
This year’s Lions are on a good track now, winning four of their last five games to put themselves into playoff contention. These may not be the “Same Old Lions”, as left tackle Taylor Decker declared after the lone loss in that last handful of games.
The Lions are set to play games that mean something more than determing draft position in December. But expecting the other shoe to drop soon is natural, with that long run of inept history to blame.
Leaning back into the last 60-plus years of mostly finding ways to fall short, here is the Mount Rushmore of the most hated figures in Detroit Lions history.