Warning: there is no significance to this post other than my need to publicly vent:)
2008 will go down in the books as the worst year of my life as a football fan. I hope!
I really believe that Michigan's history-making losing season was an aberration due to a transitional season, so I won't spend much time there. The Lions on the other hand never fail to fail.
The sad truth is that yesterday was probably our best remaining chance to win a game this year. We were at home, playing a team we nearly beat earlier this season, who also happens to be the team we finally beat in 2001 (the last time we started a season 0-12). And though the football gods seemed intent on helping the Lions win, we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and cemented our worst start in franchise history.
I'm amazed at how many Detroit fans are hoping that the Lions finish 0-16. I don't want that to happen, for several reasons.
- For reasons I can't fully explain, they're the team I love. Who really wants their team to go down as the worst team ever?
- We will still pick first in the 2009 draft even if we win (so there goes that argument).
- Losing is contagious. Although one win wouldn't make the Lions a winning team, it would at least insure that our rookies had a taste of what an NFL win feels like.
- Rod Marinelli is a good guy. He doesn't deserve to go down in history this way.
- Some think going winless is the only way the Lions will ever make history. But I still plan on watching them win a Super Bowl before I die.
- Leah is really pulling for our child to be a Steeler's fan. If we go 0-16, I'm not sure that even I will believe my own arguments anymore.
The lowest moment of the season came for me on Thanksgiving. As we prepared to watch the annual Lion's Thanksgiving day debacle, my mom looked at me wide-eyed and expressed her utter confusion as to why I still liked the Lions. Then she encouraged me to switch to another team.
My mom. The one woman in the world who is supposed to support me no matter what (with the exception of my wife who still thinks the Lions will win every time they have a lead).
Yesterday I realized I was sick as I sat on the couch with the computer in my lap, hitting refresh on the box score (since the game was blacked out in Detroit), hoping that the Lions might find a way to move the ball 80 yards with a minute left to win the game.
This week we've got the Colts in Indy, then the Saints here in Detroit. Then we finish against the Packers, in Green Bay, where we haven't won a game in out last 17 tries.
Do you believe in miracles?