Detroit Lions Weblog

WCF Speaks!

Emerging from whatever obscure station he currently resides within, Lions owner William Clay Ford provided some in-depth and interesting responses to questions from the Detroit media yesterday. The quizzical and mysterious nature of Ford takes on a philosophical caste whenever he briefly appears to make a few statements and seemingly disappears again from the spotlight.

In some ways, I would compare Ford’s statements to Plato’s cave allegory.

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of the cave entrance, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

In a heavy-handed way, Lions fans are analogous to the chained denizens of cave-land. Their perceptions of the Lions football organization are ascribed meaning and forms are given to the formless, since they so rarely are given a real glimpse of the malfunctioning operations of the team. Amid the “projected shadows on the wall” or the public relations presentation of the franchise, there are mixed-in moments of clarity, despite that department’s best wishes, where Mr. Ford will provide treasured revelatory comments:

Q : Speaking of that, why did you part with Matt Millen and was it difficult for you?

A : Yeah … that’s a friend of mine and always will be. He has a lot of wonderful qualities, it didn’t work out. We parted ways, it’s history.

Q : What spurred it then?

A : You can answer the question as well as I can. Everything. It just wasn’t going right.

Q : There were reports you hadn’t paid him since then — are those accurate?

A : Oh, we’re all squared with the board and I’ve talked to him on the phone a couple weeks ago. Everything’s fine. We’re still friends. And I’m glad he’s got the job he’s getting.

Q : So there’s no issue anymore?

A : No, no, no, no.

Q : What about (general manager Martin) Mayhew? Why did you decide to stay with him and Lewand?

A : I’ve always liked Martin. He’s been a little bit in the background and never really had an opportunity to shine. And when those positions came open, I thought, well, we’ve got a guy right here who’s eminently qualified. And he’s risen right to it, handled it without missing a beat. He’s been terrific. And the same with Tom. He’s a terrific organizer and manager and does all the things you’d like to have him to do. They do it without any fuss or pretense; they just get the job done. Their attitude is kind of the same thing I’d like the players to get: “We’re here to do a job and we’ll do it.” So I’m very happy with the whole front office setup.

Ford is both candid and expects the fans to appreciate where he is coming from. Even if he is incredulous, he truly wants us to see the intrinsic organizational value (as dubious as it may seem) of the Tom Lewand and Martin Mayhew, despite their deep involvement with the team’s failings. I was a little surprised that he would discuss Millen at all, and frankly am glad to hear that he thinks Millen was a failure, just like everyone else. There was a time when it was still unclear if he believed Millen was doing a good job, despite the team’s record.

Socrates next asks Glaucon to consider the condition of this man. Wouldn’t he remember his first home, what passed for wisdom there, and his fellow prisoners, and consider himself happy and them pitiable? And wouldn’t he disdain whatever honors, praises, and prizes were awarded there to the ones who guessed best which shadows followed which? Moreover, were he to return there, wouldn’t he be rather bad at their game, no longer being accustomed to the darkness? “Wouldn’t it be said of him that he went up and came back with his eyes corrupted, and that it’s not even worth trying to go up?

I often question whether, unbound from chains, and if the Lions ever were a “good” football team again, whether I could truly understand and appreciate the significance of that event, given how accustomed I have grown to the team’s failings. Would I want to face the magnitude of that change, would I avert my eyes?

Socrates asks if it is not reasonable that the prisoners would take the shadows to be real things and the echoes to be real sounds, not just reflections of reality, since they are all they had ever seen. Wouldn’t they praise as clever whoever could best guess which shadow would come next, as someone who understood the nature of the world? And wouldn’t the whole of their society depend on the shadows on the wall?

That’s what is truly confusing. Do we choose to be Lions fans, or are we chained to them by geography, like the cave-dwellers? As fans of the franchise, do we understand what has lead to their prolonged ineptitude, can we predict their future, or is our judgment clouded in some way?

Q:What was last year like for you?

A: It wasn’t fun for me. I feel so sorry for the fans in Detroit. I mean, I give them full marks for showing up. We didn’t perform the way we should’ve performed or the way we could’ve. I felt worse for them than I did for myself. I thought it was horrible every time we’d lose. But the guys who stuck through it, I can’t tell you how great that makes you feel. And for the ones that walked away, I couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t much fun to watch. It was pretty boring because you could about guess the outcome.

Q: Anything bother you in particular about the way they lost?

A: I don’t know. I guess almost every game had its moments where you think if something happened different, we might’ve won, but we never did. But I can’t pinpoint even a couple an event or even a couple of events that led to it. It was flat-out disappointing.

Q: Did the empty seats last year and the blackouts send a message?

A: Yes, people were getting fed up. And I don’t blame them a bit. We didn’t put up much of a show for them. And God knows what’s gonna happen this year, more than anyone else does. But I think we’ll give an honest day’s effort and I think that’s all they want. Of course they want us to win, and so do I, more than anything, but I think if they realize we’re going down with our guns blazing, I think that’ll be a very positive thing to have happen. And it did not happen last year.

On some level, Ford reveals that he may understand how devoted Lions fans have been, depite the team’s many failings. The general perception has been that Lions ownership is completely oblivious to the thoughts and feelings of Lions fans, they just wanted to count the gate receipts and sell merchandise. This is the first time I am aware of, that Ford has shown any empathy for the plight of Lions fans.

Socrates remarks that this allegory can be taken with what was said before, viz. the metaphor of the Sun, and the divided line. In particular, he likens

“the region revealed through sight” — the ordinary objects we see around us — “to the prison home, and the light of the fire in it to the power of the Sun. And in applying the going up and the seeing of what’s above to the soul’s journey to the intelligible place, you not mistake my expectation, since you desire to hear it. A god doubtless knows if it happens to be true. At all events, this is the way the phenomena look to me: in the region of the knowable the last thing to be seen, and that with considerable effort, is the idea of good; but once seen, it must be concluded that this is indeed the cause for all things of all that is right and beautiful — in the visible realm it give birth to light and its sovereign; in the intelligible realm, itself sovereign, it provided truth and intelligence — and that the man who is going to act prudently in private or in public must see it” (517b-c).

In the end being a fan, in concert with the Ford’s owning the franchise, provides me a great deal of joy. In the process of writing this blog, despite my technological and writing inadequacies, I have grown as a person and benefited greatly from that process. So whether the team wins or loses, as it often has, which will always pain me, this is the best way I know of to attempt to attempt to understand “…the idea of good, but once seen, it must be concluded that this is indeed the cause for all things of that is right and beautiful”. Thanks, Mr. Ford.

As Training Camp Begins, So Does The Cliched “Swagger” Discussion Or, Haven’t We Heard This All Before?

Perennially, or at the very least, with each coaching and flavor-of-the-month schematic change that occurs internally, upon the onset of the Lions Allen Park training camp, there is always a lot of discussion of a “new attitude” or swagger. Without further ado, enter Ernie Sims :

“It’s out of my head,” Sims said. “Last year is over with and we’re focusing on the new year with a totally new team. We’re switching our swagger around.”

Now, I REALLY like Ernie Sims. In lean times, despite his battles with inconsistency, he is one of the few Lions that you can feel strongly that he gives his full effort on nearly each and every play. But in this particular case, Ernie, I believe that “O-16″ seasons are never really over, or at least until you can throw some “W” ’s up on the board.

I like all of this talk of a new swagger, I really want to be a “true believer”, too. Still, after the last 10 years or so, it is very hard to subscribe to this kind of talk without a exceedingly healthy dose of skepticism to go along with it. Some of the current young Lions are ready too quickly to provide the media with these type of bold statements, and if I was Jim Schwartz, I would put a lid upon all such ridiculous talk moving forward. All these statements ultimately accomplish, in my opinion, is provide the media with additional story fodder as each Lions season churns limply forward.

Speaking of ridiculous, bold statements, Roy Williams has apparently “re-dedicated” himself in Dallas, at least according to comments by convenient mouthpiece, Peter King:

For the first time in his life, or so one of Williams’ unnamed buddies told SI.com’s Peter King.

“I’m serious,” King quoted the guy. “Roy never lifted before. Now that he has, and now that he’s serious about making himself a great football player, especially with T.O. gone, I think he’s really going to have a good year.”

Think about that. Williams played at Texas and for the Lions, and neither required him to do any weight training?

King writes: “I think the most worrisome thing about that previous note is what it says about what in tarnation the Detroit Lions have been doing for the past decade. No weight program that receivers had to live by during the season, and out of season? That is downright ridiculous.”

Williams is a superlatively gifted athlete, who is in fine athletic condition. But I refuse to buy this hokum, which was likely finely-crafted by an in cahoots pairing of his agent and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, as Williams enters a new season after failing miserably as a Cowboy last season. Image is everything in the McLuhan-esque world where the Cowboys and the media are in a virtually endless interface. MLive.com’s Tom “Killer” Kowalski provides a nice rebuttle to King’s statements:

Since the media isn’t allowed access to the weight room, I asked several people in the Lions organization on Tuesday about Williams and the story and the answers came back fairly uniform. First, Williams wasn’t the hardest working guy in the locker room (this is hardly shocking news), but he did take part in the lifting program. Did the trainers have to get on his butt to do it sometimes? Yes, but he did it.

So, the story has merit because if Williams is hitting the weight room voluntarily and with vigor, then he HAS made some adjustments that are worth noting. Williams, though, thinks it’s all much ado about nothing.

In response to a text I sent him last night, Williams said: “I lifted in Detroit sometimes during the season, mostly in the off-season. I’m just doing the same here in Dallas — just more free weights instead of the machines I’ve been used to. My body has always been the way it’s been and I give props to MadDog at the University of Texas. Now I know I have to get a little stronger. I’m doing what I need to do to prepare for a great season being the go-to guy in Dallas.”

All of this should give us brief cause to bear in mind, in order to keep interest up amid a near endless 24-hour sports new cycle, invariably space needs to be filled with these kind of sound bites. Be it senseless and unfounded talk of swagger, or the convenient puffery of a promising but incredibly underachieving wide receiver, all that this amounts to is primer for the pump. As a football fan, I am as guilty as anyone for consuming this type of sports “empty caloric intake”, if you will. Just remember to add a grain of salt along the way when considering information delivered at this nascent stage of the NFL season.

Will the Lions Ever Be Spared From the Duel Embarrassments of Matt Millen and Charles Rogers, Matthew Stafford on the Lions QB Job

Between Matt Millen and Charles Rogers, I often wonder, which one is more likely to grab a fiery, red hot poker and jab it directly into your eye, or even more likely, their own eye? Neither is what I would describe as being very intelligent nor seem to have any innate or learned ability to deftly navigate any oncoming media pratfalls that may obstruct each of their paths along the way.

Little time passes, as a Michigander, without either of them emerging from the depths of seemingly comfortable (and desirable) anonymity to remind us of their ineptitude, much like a sadistic pet owner who rubs a puppy’s nose in it’s own “mess” in order to “train” it, so to speak.

Matt Millen can barely stay out of his own way, let alone avoid oozing stupidity from his every pore:

(Listen to this comment Millen made to Don Banks of si.com): “I don’t go backwards. I just don’t think like that. There’s nothing I can do about (Detroit). All I can do is from here on out.

“I understand. In Detroit, they need a bad guy. I was a bad guy. I was to blame for the fall of the auto industry and the housing market. Somehow, I had something to do with Kwame Kilpatrick, although I’m not sure what.

“But that’s what happens when you lose in this game. You give everyone a cheap and easy story to jump on.”

Millen’s patent denial and clear stupidity, as the worst executive in the history of professional sports, is nearly without peer. It is difficult to find a ready-made, naturally occurring equivalent outside of some sort of “controlled’ environment, but wait….

Playing Tweedle Dee to Millen’s ridiculous Tweedle Dum, Charles Rogers never fails to deliver maxims of pie-in-the-sky, “I coulda been a contender”-type comments, without ever fully acknowledging that he is so “yesterday’s news”, kind of like “MySpace” or a world without “Twitter”, and has already received a number of chances along the way to revive his failed career.

“Charles Rogers claims Charles Rogers finally gets it, finally is ready to make the commitment needed to fulfill Charles Rogers’ promise as an NFL player.

According to Rogers, the change in attitude came two months ago, about the same time he finished a month in jail for testing positive for alcohol and for falsifying Alcoholics Anonymous records.

‘I know my next shot might be my last shot,” Rogers said. “I know I have to work harder than I ever worked before. I’m willing to do that.’

Neither seems to be able to see that they have exhausted any sympathy anyone might reserve for their individual respective causes. Both have always pulled up short of taking full accountability for their failings, either. Hopefully, they each will serve as a near unforgettable reminder, rather than an omen of things to come.

Speaking of things to come, Matthew Stafford was particularly verbose on his future with the Lions and his perspective on the Lions Qb competition, which he is about to embark upon, on ESPN radio:

Coach Jim Schwartz has said the arms race between Stafford and veteran Daunte Culpepper will begin during next week’s minicamp and go into training camp.

Stafford said Wednesday he had not talked to the coaches about when he will play, but he sounded eager to compete for the starting job.

“I would love to start Game 1,” Stafford said when asked for his ideal scenario on ESPN Radio’s Galloway and Co. in his hometown of Dallas. “I think every player that plays in the NFL would love to play every game, and that’s just how I am, and that’s how I attack this season.

“I know there’s going to be a learning curve, and if I don’t start Game 1, I’m not going to get down on myself. I’m going to go out there and try to win a job at some point. I’m in here to win it, though.”

Stafford said the biggest transition from college to the NFL was learning the offense, but it hasn’t been as tough as he thought it would be.

“As far as the mental side of the game goes, I’m keeping up with the other guys and doing a pretty good job of giving myself a chance to compete,” Stafford said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. “The first day I got on the field, I was struggling to call plays, and then now I feel I know exactly how to call them and what we’re looking to do against the defense.”

Stafford said his goal this season is to learn as much as he can. “Hopefully that’s playing and learning through playing, rather than sitting. I’m a competitive guy, and I want to be playing the game rather than watching, as anybody does. I want to get a grasp of what this league is like and hopefully get out there and help this team win some games.”

As a fatalistic Lions fan, who hopes that your day in the sun will soon come, Matthew, I still have to issue a warning: Be Careful What You Wish For!

The more I hear, the more I like about Stafford and his future with the team. The issue I take is, how quickly can the organization build a complimentary and competent coterie of players around him, so that he can blossom and thrive. It is clearly a situation that won’t be fixed by game 1 of the 2009 season, that’s for certain.

Zach Follett Garners Rave Reviews From Fox.com,

The perennial search for the “next Chris Spielman” likely has to be an eminent organizational priority, among the near endless laundry list of Lions personnel undertakings that need to be addressed as they attempt to build a strong, marketable franchise year-in and year-out. Lions fans still warmly embrace Spielman’s tenacity and work ethic to this day. In some ways, Spielman’s legend has only grown with time, in proportion to the team’s many failings.

The team has enlisted a number of surrogates (see Lehman, Teddy, Boyd, Stephen, Dizon, Jordan) who have never been quite able to fill the bill in the same manner. Fox Sports.com’s Ed Thompson adds Lions 7th-rounder Zach Follett to that list:

If you’ve seen him play, Follett is a fiery, old-school style linebacker, who loves to put the biggest hit he possibly can on the poor sap running with the football. And the energy level you see on the field isn’t that far off from what you’d experience if you talked to him face-to-face off the field.

Thompson’s superlatives, bestowed upon a 7th-rounder, are both generous and likely ill-advised, but why let the fun stop?

NFL rookies are expected to contribute right away on special teams if they want to earn a roster spot. And Zack Follett is a player who will strike some fear into his opponents as he flies down the field with kamikaze-like abandon, ready to do whatever it takes to find the ball carrier and drop him in his tracks.

Detroit Lions fans are going to love watching this guy in training camp. He gets my vote as the seventh-round pick who is most likely to make his team’s 53-man roster this September.

Follett, who also makes “Fathead”-style word carvings of his teammates and himself, has discovered a cure for the “swine flu”, single-handedly fomented peace in the Middle East, and has also been engrossed in serious talks with the leaders in Pyongyang, can seemingly do no wrong in Thompson’s view. That being said, shouldn’t this assessment provide at least some cautious cause for excitement and anticipation, inevitable Spielman comparisons be damned?

Recently, another Pacific Ten player, DE Bill Swancutt, who also was selected by the Lions late in the draft, generated some advanced publicity for his unlimited work ethic and performance (actual production) over tools (athleticism) scouting evaluation. Swancutt’s Detroit career was brief and unremarkable. Let’s hope that Follett distinguishes himself, even if his contribution is a mere fraction of what Thompson intimates it could become.

In Tribute to Scotty G.–Position/Roster Battles Beginning to Shake Out for Lions

Whenever there is a proverbial changing of the guard in either the front office or coaching staff, along with the attendant change in schemes, personnel philosophy, etc., players who were once considered valuable and essential can quickly become less valuable or essential in a very short period of time.

Case in point, Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz are not beholden to players like Alex Lewis, someone who was once considered a valuable prospect during the Millen era, is one of those players who may soon be attempting to find work elsewhere.

Players like Drew Stanton, Landon Cohen, Gerald Alexander, Casey FitzSimmons, Ikaika Alama-Francis, Jon Bradley, Manny Ramirez, and Kalvin Pearson also immediately come to mind as potential cast-offs as a result of the new organizational philosophy or the need for younger players to become integrated into the personnel mix.

There is no process more cutthroat, or near fascist in it’s lack of sentimentality, than the annual gleaning of a particular team’s personnel. Add the pressures of injury, salary cap, and the aforementioned changes at the top in the Lions personnel and coaching staff, the process becomes even more cruel and heartless.

Not meaning to put things into a dire cast, the Lions will benefit, by hook or by crook, via this process. Personnel turnover is part of the nature of professional sports. The Lions, coming off of an 0-16 season, mired in an interminably long stretch of organizational failure, may need it more than any other team in the NFL.

However, Scotty G., who recently gave me some very kind comments of support, made me think about the “human side” of this whole “weaning out” process. None of us like to have our security yanked from us or to have our future “plans” change drastically or immediately. What must it feel like to be so near the top of your field, given how small a percentage of people actually become professional athletes, and immediately have that ripped from your clutches?

Scotty G recently lost his job. I was recently terminated from mine. It happens to the best of us. That being said, the nature of the “corporate atmosphere” is one of the more inhumane but placidly accepted facts of all our everyday lives. As a Lions fan, seeing this similar process play itself out, with players whom we have all grown attached to, is even more disconcerting when, for most of us, sports is a crucial and much-needed escape from that very same barbaric atmosphere that we face from day-to-day.

In the end, a comfortable, relaxed escape from this world, into another may be the only sensible means to rectify our current plight in this country. Just keep on, keepin on!

Lions Sign OT Jansen, Release OT George”False Start” Foster, and Sign Some Other Guys, too.

The Lions have been busy of late, even though I have not been. I have been experiencing some technical difficulties with my computer, which will likely result in me acquiring another computer. But, I digress.

At any rate, I really like the addition of OT Jon Jansen as a low-cost, low-risk alternative to Cherilus, should he falter. Jansen is clearly an immediate upgrade over the departed George “False Start” Foster. I like the fact that the Lions have plug-ins already in place on their roster should either Backus or Cherilus stumble, in the least. The enhanced competition for playing time can only be beneficial.

With the advance word that Matthew Stafford is dazzling the organization, the O-line had better be improved. The Lions will likely be compelled to get Stafford onto the field early, even if he doesn’t begin the season as a starter. The Lions coaching staff will play Ephraim Salaam and Jon Jansen, if that provides them with the most capable option to protect Stafford.

The Lions have also recently signed some cast-offs from Dallas and Kansas City, each of whom I will comment upon later.