Detroit Lions Weblog

The Cosmology of the Detroit Lions

Saturday night I was gazing at the heavens like I usually do through my specially designed Honolulu Blue-lensed telescope. I was feeling particularly confident and delighted as I saw the lay of the universe and the wonders of it’s design. Conjecturally, the Lions planets all seemed to be in alignment. The team was going to be facing a mortally wounded Packer team at the friendly confines of Ford Field. I reflected on the facts that suggested that the Lions seemed to be moving in the right direction. This should be the game that they can make a statement against their long time intra-division and intra-conference foes and that they were about to arrive and become competitive amongst the NFL elite.

Yet, as a long time Lion fan I had forgot many important factors that have dogged this franchise immemorial. Their always appears to be some sort of karmic counter-balancing force in place to maintain the Lions standing in the NFL pantheon. While many football fans are blessed to view their teams rise to great heights floating in aether, Lions fans seem to always to have to be reminded of how mired and earthbound their team’s mucky existence has been. Dare a Lion fan, grow to have any expectations or hopes of their team’s future successes, these universal forces will knock said fan down a peg with imminent disappointment and failure.

Remember folks this is an organization that has been coached by Darryl Rogers, Monte Clark, “Cocaine” Wayne Fontes, and Marty Mornihnweg (et tu Marriucci ?). This is team whose recent history includes first round draft selections of Aaron Gibson, Chuck Long, Andre Ware and Bryant Westbrook. This is a team who has invested money in free agent duds like Pat Swilling, Bill Schroeder and Scott Mitchell. In essence, Sunday was a stern reminder that we Lion fans are rooting for the same old Lions and that their are ominous forces at play in the universe that will remind us of that with a quickness if we forget.

So that my rambles don’t take on that of your standard, garden-variety, doddering old fool, I will inform you that I have been recently been reading “Papa Bear”, a George Halas biography, that is virtual compendium of the history of the NFL from it’s inception. In this tome, Davis helps to see how inextricably linked the life of George Halas and the ups and downs that have lead to the current status that the NFL holds in the lives of many Americans. At any rate, Davis recollects an anecdote from Lions past that seems indicative of the trajectory the Lions have taken through history. “The fates definitely had to be smiling down on Halas when he landed Bulldog Turner on the seventh overall pick” says Davis on pg. 151. Halas already possessed the most dominant team in the NFL and was able to acquire a future hall of famer due to a Lion’s blunder. George A. “Dick” Richards had purchased and moved the Portsmouth Spartans to Detroit in 1934. Richards, was sworn enemies with Halas, and had made arrangements for Turner to receive $200 to get his teeth fixed-in other words keep his mouth shut and to tell anyone who asked he was uninterested in playing professional football. At the time, this was not uncommon, college football was king and in many circles professional football was considered to be legion with rogues, gamblers, drunks and undesirables of all stripes. (Sounds vaguely familiar) In the 1940 draft, the 5 teams ahead of Detroit all passed on Turner seemingly opening the doors for the Lions to get their man. Enter, Lion coach, “Gloomy” Gus Henderson (his real nickname). He stunned Richards and all others present by selecting USC tailback Doyle Nave. Halas jumped up and screamed “Clyde Turner, Hardin Simmons”, before Gloomy Gus had an opportunity to reconsider.

A furious Richards, fired Henderson on the spot. Henderson responded by producing letters citing Richards illegal wooing of Turner while he was a collegiate athlete. Even though these tactics were semi-common practice, they were illegal. Richards was eventually fined $5000 dollars for tampering. Unaffected Richards kept after Gloomy Gus. Henderson produced more letters for the NFL stating that Richards had in fact gambled on games featuring his own Lions. Again, throughout the course of NFL history this is not an unheard of practice but it was not conventionally accepted. Halas was aware that these gambling accusations would all but kill the league. Halas and the other NFL owners kept the accusations secret and brought in Fred Mandel to buy out the franchise from Richards. (with a little help from Halas ally and part-owner of the Bears Charlie Bidwill, who was also future owner of the Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals) In the process, Richards gained a 700 percent profit but also may set the wheels in motion that may predicate all future events that may occur within this franchise.