Detroit Lions Weblog

Bears Tommie Harris Provides Some “Bulletin Board”-worthy Quotes

Tommie Harris has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet.   Harris, as excellent a player as he has been, clearly must have jarred something loose in his head on Sunday, though.   Is stating the obvious really a motivational tool?  Are the Lions his Bears team will be facing on Sunday the same Lions team of seasons past?

Harris’ not-so-bold statements could eventually be damning ones.  “Detroit don’t come to Chicago and win in our stadium…” said Harris.  Clearly, the Bears 3-4 start hasn’t fully registered with Harris. 

The fact of the matter is that week to week, the NFL is as unpredictable as any professional sport can possibly be.  One week’s triumph doesn’t protect a team from the next week’s failure, that’s for certain.  

The Lions have proven to be a resilient bunch through six games.   They have embraced concepts like “slaying media dragons” and a we-against-the-world frame of mind that allows Mike Furrey to say “The Lions are 4-2, media. Kiss my butt.” which apparently, doesn’t sit well with the Detroit News’ scribe Rob Parker . (or the better informed Pro Football Weekly)

Parker’s column misses the point, clearly.   In spite of the Lions struggles, both past and present, they currently have a different quality about them.   I, like nearly everyone who has watched this franchise flail away miserably, have been waiting for, and expecting, the much cliched “other shoe to drop” this season. 

Something catastrophic may yet still happen, but the mere presence of players like Mike Furrey and Jon Kitna, among others like Corey Smith, Paris Lenon, and Troy Walters, all whose NFL careers have clearly defied odds, leads me to believe that this Lions team is built with another type of fabric which has been woven of a much higher consitution by Head Coach Rod Marinelli.

I wrote the Lions off on Sunday, and should have known better.   Jon Kitna’s two yard scramble/plunge is indicative of the type of desperation the Lions have utilized to achieve every victory that they have earned this season.

These victories don’t guarantee anything.   Yet, if I were Tommie Harris, or the Lions for that matter,  I would focus clearly on the task at hand.   Sunday’s game will be a huge factor in determing which team will emerge as Green Bay’s primary divisional competitor down the stretch.