If the situation described above happens and Ford, Sr. keeps on Lewand and Mayhew and doesn’t hire Pioli or someone of his ilk that would have TOTAL control of the franchise, I will never root for the Lions to win again. I consider myself a loyal fan (go to games when I can, root for them through thick and thin and even buy official Lions merchandise all the time) but there is only so much one can handle from an incompetent owner.

Sr. has no business running the team any longer. He has not done anything worthwhile with them since he took over decades ago. They were actually a good team before then and have, at best, been mediocre with him at the helm. The ‘sports guys’, experts, commentators, etc that everyone listens to seem to believe that Pioli is the perfect fit for the job. If not, they all agree that a clean sweep is needed in Detroit and that all the Millen era personnel need to be cleaned out. If this doesn’t happen, I can guarantee that fan loyalty will disappear quickly and the Lions will begin to see many more blacked out games and less money from merchandising, etc.

My wife bought me a K Smith jersey for Christmas. I’m having her take it back to the store and exchange it for a Soto Cubs jersey. I will not ‘proudly show my loyalty’ by wearing Lions paraphernalia until the Lions ownership does something to actually earn that loyalty.

Does anyone have an e-mail or direct contact information for Ford, Sr? Maybe a petition needs to be put together and sent to them. Not that it would actually do any good as Sr. won’t listen to anyone anyways.

I will watch the game against Green Bay next weekend (and even root for them to try and win) as it will be history making. The Lions will officially be the worst team in NFL history. After that, it will be up to the Fords as to whether I ever root for them again.

Merry Christmas everyone.

but wanted to comment on this: there is precedent for the NFL Commissioner to step-in and basically force the Lions to hire a good GM. At the end of the 1978 season, the Giants had only had 2 winning seasons in 15 years, and hadn’t made the playoffs over that time. The low point came against the Eagles, in the so-called “Miracle at the Meadowlands,” or what Giants fans call “the fumble.” The Mara’s had always run both the business and football side, but the game was clearly passing them by. Commissioner Rozelle basically stepped in and told them they had to hire a GM, and suggested George Young. They hired him, his first move was to draft Phil Simms. 2 years later he drafted Lawrence Taylor. The year after that he hired Parcells as head coach, and in 1986, only 7 seasons after taking over, the Giants went 14-2 and won the Super Bowl.

In todays NFL, with free agency, that scenario could happen in 3 years, as long as the right people are hired. Look at the Dolphins – they were a lucky OT play away from an 0-16 season last year, and today they are one game away from winning the AFC East. I hope Goodell steps in, you guys get a competent GM, and turn the franchise around.

Good stuff, Sean. You’ve basically echoed the thoughts of the more informed Lions fans (can we even call ourselves that anymore?) out there. Not giving away full control means that we’re going to lose out on the most optimistic part of this whole winless season, and that’s the fact that Pioli might be on the horizon. Nobody wants to come to a horrible team and work in a committee when they are proven to be one of the best GM’s in the business. It’s just pathetic. It would’ve been hard enough to get a guy like Pioli to come here anyways, and now? Ugh.

This isn’t a football team anymore. It’s a mockery.

What? That’s freaking crazy. It’s like putting braille instructions on drive-up ATMs! I’m so glad I’m a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, at least since the end of the 2007 season, the Pirates have hired a new front office and have tried to address long term problems instead of just keeping all the same guys around to do what they were doing before. Like that ESPN article said, this is just tweaking what already doesn’t work. This would have been like Bob Nutting keeping McClatchey and Littlefield around to hire a new GM for the team. The Pirates have made some painful and unpopular decisions in the last 15 months, but necessary ones to rebuild the Pirates. I’m not a Lions fan, but like that ESPN article said, they need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. I hope that the Lions owner sees the light and hires good people to take over the front office. If not, I can’t imagine that the Lions will be a good team again anytime soon.

Look, even the closet Lions fans are calling themselves “Visitors”!!!! I dont blame you one bit. I may become a visitor myself after this CRAP!! I may just pull for whoever MSU’s Javon Ringer plays for.

Thanks Sean for putting this together and everyone here makes good points, very good points quite frankly. WHEW, where do I stand. I think that Ford is borderline senile actually, I think the NFL should put a impartial panel of winning personnel around the NFL to visit Motown and give both the Lions and the NFL an action plan to improve upon running this organization. Recall that the NFL has 32 products to sell, it would behoove them to have 32 viable products, not 31.

This seems like a long shot but I do think the NFL needs to step-in. Keeping Mayhew around may be good, maybe not – noone can predict the future. I would hire Pioli if there were any possible way in the world he would come here and keep Mayhew on as Director of Scouting or something like that. I don’t know what on earth Ford is thinking by telling fans he’s bringing people back from what will forever be known as the worst football team ever assembled. That is not sending the right message to PAYING fans Mr. Ford.

Boy, talk about taking the wind out of our sails. WCF rarely talks and so we fans clammor for his opinion to try and get a sense of what he’s thinking. But then when he does finally talk, we all just want him to shut up. To me, it just simply sounds like he doesn’t know what the hell he is going to do. He fired Millen months ago and he still doesn’t know??? This just makes me insane. A comprehensive, strategic plan should have been in place weeks ago, with exactly what this team is looking for and a thorough list of prospects. He really doesn’t understand this stuff. You know, we all joke around about WCF as a senile old fart that sits in a dark room babbling gibberish to himself and sending out nonsensical orders to his staff like some child-like baffoon. But deep down I really thought that Ford was a shrewd businessman with a true passion for the game, but a misplaced sense of loyalty. He may still have that misplaced loyalty, but now I think he is little more than an autopilot at the helm… steering to wherever looks nice. No real plan, just out for a Sunday drive at the fans expense.

I guess the only real hope now is that Mayhew is the real deal. No one should really gripe about Lewand… he’s just a finance guy and has actually done a pretty good job keeping the Lions out of cap trouble… especially with all of the high picks that have ended in dead money. He’s got little to do with personnel, which is what the Lions need to desperately upgrade. I highly doubt that Pioli would ever come here to share duties. He’s doing that now with Belichick. What would be the incentive to do the same thing here? Nothing, that’s what. Well, I guess we need to put our hope in the slim chance that Mayhew is the one. The only other scenario that I’d support is keeping Mayhew and bringing in Ron Wolf as a consultant to train him. That would probably work. But from what I’ve heard, Wolf is comfortably retired and the Lions mess probably will send him running the other way. Maybe he’s up for a challenge.. who knows. Anyway….

Merry Freakin’ Christmas Lions Fans!!!

but wouldn’t it be great if every remaining season ticket holder gave up their tickets until Ford gave control over to Jr. Although I doubt that that would be enough to get his attention at all.

I feel that I’m a diehard lions fan. Everyone that knows me gives me hell for being a lions fan and my famous quote, “next year/this year will be better” is the butt of every joke. But through all of this, through the terrible draft picks, through the void of a qb for 20 plus years, I’ve stuck with my lions for my 23 years on this planet. But following the game yesterday (which I drove all the way from muskegon in west michigan, 3 hours the lousiest weather) which I had hoped would be “the one” I get my other hopes dash as I hear the guys on 97.1 the ticket tell me that WCF wants to keep Mayhew and Lewand around. What? What?! How can you keep anyone around from this losing team short of the grounds crew and the 8 or 9 players that show potential on the field (and no, that doesn’t mean Standeford, as he is mediocre at best, sorry my friend that came with me to the game seems to thing Standeford is a stellar reciever) I’d like to say that if the lions don’t pull a Falcons/Dolphins this offseason I’ll throw the towel in, but I’m sure the draft will give me hope and then I’ll just be back to making excuse after excuse until they are 0-8 and out of the playoffs for sure and then I look forward to the following draft and offseason. Oh well, I always have backup teams like the Eagles, Titans, and Giants that I can actually get wins from on Sunday, while I still root for my true team that is hopeless as well, so it’s almost a win-win I guess.