Detroit Lions Weblog

Kevin Jones Signs With the Bears, Et Tu?

I have to preface this entry with an opening admission–I am an unabashed fan of Kevin Jones. I believe that Jones, much like James Stewart before him, was admirably workmanlike in the manner in which he approached his job under less than desirable circumstances. Not only did he approach his job with little complaint, but he approached it with an obvious commitment, in spite of the brief half-life of a player at his position, and yielded maximum effort, while working for the worst managed organization in all of professional sports.

Jones did unfortunately suffer a few injuries in his short time with the organization, and had shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from them in the past, in my opinion.  Apparently, this wasn’t good enough for the Lions, though.   The same Lions who subjected Jones to three or four offensive coordinators, within several flavor-of-the-month offensive schemes, meanwhile, providing a horrible offensive line to block in front of him during his brief tenure with the organization.

With various rumors indicating that the Lions desperately needed to free up the salary cap money which they had previously committed to Jones by releasing him, (due to the unfortunately, very reasonable possibility they had compounded the innumerable grievous errors committed during Matt Millen’s 31-81 regime of incompetence with even more) in order for them to be able to allocate money towards filling out their many personnel needs this off-season, one is left to wonder how does this continue to happen, and why is it allowed?

Most painfully, the Lions will face Jones twice each season for the foreseeable future.   Jones is now a hated rival, as a member of the Chicago Bears.   I have little trouble envisioning Jones rushing for the 1300-1400 yards in ‘08, with 10 touchdowns.   Much like Artose Pinner or Joey Harrington before him, Jones will likely have a field day facing off against his ex-team.   I have no reason not to expect 450 yards rushing and 5-6 touchdowns in his two games facing the Lions.  It’s only karma biting this organization in the hind parts, yet again!

As a Lions fan, I continue to consider the real possibility that the invisible line drawn in the sand, one which I will not cross, a line that formed in regards to the continued failings of this organization, is rapidly approaching.  When Kevin Jones lights up the Lions cover-2 defense this season, I will face a legitimate question:  Do I root for Jones, and the continued demise of the Lions, or do I recoil in anger as the turncoat Jones helps push the Lions towards another top ten draft pick in ‘09.