Whats with the Detroit Lions

My son is 26. Never in his life has he heard the Detroit Lions and Superbowl used in the same sentence. The NFL allows the worst teams to draft first. We have had high draft choices forever. We lose. Every now and then ,owners get serious and buy some talented players. They lose. They drafted Barry Sanders and collected turnstile fees. We lost. We support the team and talk in Detroit is common but derisive.
Do the owners actually have that much to do with a teams success.? If not ,who?
The playoffs are starting again ,and I see threads starting about the playoffs. That must be fun. We will never know.

Yes, they absolutely do.

And given the TV revenue sharing that pro sports leagues engage in, a team doesn’t need to be a winner or have superstars (thus packing its own stadium) in order to be profitable. Take an owner who sees the team as strictly a business venture, and he may find that his bottom line is actually best served by not going all-out to have a great team. The L.A. Clippers are a notorious example of this phenomenon.

<perk> We have a football team in Detroit?

William Clay bought the Lions in 1964. Since then, they’ve won one playoff game (in 1992). The decade prior to his purchase, they’d won 3 NFL titles.

So, yes, an owner can have a big influence.

Interesting column in today’s Free Press (or was it yesterday’s News/Free Press? I get confused over the holidays). Drew Sharp, I think - his point was that Ford will tolerate a loser if he’s a “good guy”; give him one more season to prove himself. Matt Millen seems to be an expert at playing on this vein in Ford’s makeup.

Very much so. Ultimately, the owners hire the team’s managers and usually have final say on money matters. (Not every team maxes out cap room.) The most successful teams have owners that hire the right people, and also trust those people to do the jobs they’re hired to do.
I’ve personally been heartbroken by the 49ers change in ownership from a dynamic and passionate football fan who wanted to win to a group of bumbling, tightwad idiots who wouldn’t recognize a football if it fell out of the sky and landed on their faces.
Across the Bay there’s a meddling owner who insists on being right all the time, but hasn’t actually been right for thirty years. He’s the George Lucas of the NFL: he’s only successful when someone tells him “no,” but gets rid of anybody who does.
I believe neither team will get back to the Superbowl without a regime change.

Yes, but he cuts such a dashing figure in his track suits. :stuck_out_tongue:

Now you’ve made me imagine George Lucas in a track suit.
:eek:
damn you…

I read once that the maximum profits for a team is the first game of playoffs. That later playoffs have so many tickets earmarked that the profit is gone. The rumor was that the Lions were aiming at ist game of playoffs. Superbowl was not in the wish list ,just maxing profits.
Ford bought cheap and had 2 stadiums built. for him The franchise is worth a fortune.

I remember the Lions drafted a wide receiver with their top overall pick three years in a row. Only one of those is actually still even WITH the team, let alone any good (the other two aren’t good either). The team doesn’t seem to ever bring in marquee free agents anymore (again, management and ownership) and there doesn’t seem to be an expectation to win there. If you think it may sound funny that the expectation to win is such a big deal, ask the Arizona Cardinals how important it is.

In summation, fire everyone. FIRE EVERYONE.

Martz has now been fired, that should solve the problem :slight_smile:

BTW, has anyone asked Kitna about that 10 win guarantee- what a douche.

There are plenty of NFL teams who go for years without making an impact. I’m a Jets fan, and they’ve had almost as futile a record as Detroit.

It’s not just football. Other sports teams can make tons of money for their owners even if the teams are consistently mediocre. It’s been a few years, but in the late 80s, the Atlantic magazine showed how the San Diego Padres could make more money with bad players and one superstar (Tony Gwynn) finishing in the second division than if they spent to get into the playoffs. It was only a change of ownership that started them winning again.

I personally watched Clavin take rubbish throws and turn them into unthinkable yardage from one of the worst quarterbacks ever, several times a game. His hands were anywhere and everywhere at all times. Not only this, but I believe he ran a 4.3 Anyway, I’ve watched a few Lions games recently, and he’s a complete turd now. That angers me and I wish for the Detroit Lions to rot in hell.

Yeah, the Martz firing solves very little. It doesn’t appear Millen’s going anywhere, however. He seems to be the Isaiah Thomas of the NFL.

They can START by drafting for need, rather than talent. I think Calvin Johnson will be great and all but this year they need to work on an offensive line. What are they, 29th in sacks allowed and 31st in Rushing? I don’t watch a great deal (read: any) Lions game so that’s just going by the stats. I suppose Jake Long will by way gone by the time the Lions pick (what are they, 17?), but Sam Baker or Otah should be there. Even drafting secondary is a pretty good bet. At worst, draft a QB in the first round but the only guys I’m really sold on is Brian Brohm and Andre Woodson but they won’t get them.

You just know they’ll draft DeSean Jackson from Cal or something though.

Kitna is a huge step up from Herrington. The team was much better with him in there.
There are about 15 teams with 7 wins or less. .We will not draft as high as usual.There must be an interesting tie breaker there though.
Ford bought the team in 1964 for 4.5 million. It is now worth 840 million. That is successful ownership by some standards. I am unconvinced that they really want to win.
The Silverdome sat 80,000 and was filled. Then we built him another stadium. He needed the fancy seats and boxes. Poor baby.

Salary caps contribute to this too.

Let’s not forget the Lions weak defensive line either. Rogers was just about the best we had (how much does that say? :frowning: ) and it’s safe to say that his chubby butt won’t be back after another underachieving season. We rarely came close to sacking the quarterback and player could gain insane yardage after the catch because we couldn’t tackle anything. Detroit used to at least have a good defense. Now the only thing we have is the ability to make any offense look like the New England Patriots.

If the lions had any sense, and I know that they don’t, they’d pitch the lot and start the rebuilding process that they needed to start years ago.

Winning demands consistant results. Losing, is an easier standard to maintain.
Ford is a classic example of what is really wrong with Detroit’s industry in general. Old School Mentality of " We’ve always done things this way." and " Why should we change, things are as they always are." The automotive industry is pretty much the same way. Thank Og the Red Wings are owned by a Pizza Guy instead of a Car Guy.
If the Japanese and Germans had football teams if Japanese could become 300 pound linebackers. it would be frightening, yet fascinating, to watch.

I don’t know about that. At least the US auto industry has had some successes in the last 20 years. The Detroit Lions (and Arizona nee Phoenix nee St. Looie Cardinals, owned by the equally incompetent Bidwells) haven’t.

Oh come on now. Of course the Japanese can become 300 pound linebackers. I’m surprised we don’t have more Sumo wannabes come over to America for a few seasons. The hard part would be avoiding the holding calls, since they’ve been trained since childhood to grab onto that diaper-looking-thing and wedgie the other guy to Okinawa and back.