Jon Kitna Interviewed by Mitch Albom

Jon Kitna was interviewed by Mitch Albom last week on WJR and many different things were discussed.  Kitna shared his thoughts on being moved to the injured reserve, what the long- and short-term future holds for him, and other Lions-related topics.  The Free Press has a transcript of the interview up in four parts, and a link to each is provided below, along with the most notable quotes from each part.

Part 1

Obviously when things aren’t going well, and things haven’t been going well for the Lions, changes are going to be inevitable. Typically the first person to get changed is the quarterback position. They way things were handled, it just seemed to me that, you know okay, we were thinking about making a change anyways, and this, all this does is really expedite the process and give even more reason for us to be able to go ahead and do this. That would be fine with me, I wouldn’t like it, but I could understand it. I know how the business is. The problem that I have is that is not what was communicated to me. It was more of, you’re hurt. Yeah, I got hurt in the game but I had the same thing last year but I pushed and could have played in the preseason game.

Part 2

Basically you have a choice of whether you want to rehab there or if you want to set up your rehab somewhere else. For me, and I think for them, it was never really intimated to me, hey we don’t necessarily want you to come and rehab here, but I just think with how things are and the tension that has existed all year in the building in terms of my position, it was best for both parties we just do it outside the building.

Part 3

That’s the one thing that I would say really bothers me the most. You want to make a change? Hey, I can see that. I understand the position. I understand how things go in this league. Let’s make a change and let’s say what it is. Let’s not, you know I don’t like the fact that somehow, you’re making me into being this selfish person or a person that was only out for himself. That was never the case. If that was the case, I would have tried to go a different route and get myself out of here in the off-season. Knowing the philosophical differences and the things that we were going to do differently which were going to obviously diminish the numbers that I would put up individually.

Part 4

What I would I think is going to happen, what I want to have happen, and what’s going to happen are probably three totally different things. For me, I’m going to take this time to just get my body as healthy as I can get it after all the pounding and things over the last couple years. In the off-season, they have a decision to make, whether they are going to keep me or not. I’m not going to go and beg somebody to release me or do anything like that because that’s just not who I am. I let a man be a man and if they want to make that decision, then so be it.

For more from Kitna, check out any of the above links.  You can definitely tell that while he is upset over what the Lions did, he understands why they did it.  I respect that and do feel for the guy.  However, it really was time for a change, and although the results aren't any different with Dan Orlovsky, the Lions must start looking ahead to the future.  By placing Kitna on the IR, that's exactly what they started doing.