Lions season-ticket holder Todd Taylor , who commutes from Chicago to attend Lions home games, and his buddy Jim Allen from Royal Oak were stoked when Taylor won a replica Kevin Smith jersey during the Lions’ draft party at Ford Field.
But something was strange about the No. 34 jersey.
The Smith name on the back looked bulky. So they cut it off and were shocked to see the name Jones underneath.
It appears the Lions repurposed some old Kevin Jones jerseys, turning them into Smith jerseys and gave them away to season-ticket holders.
“It was kind of a punch in the stomach,” Allen said.
“Coupled with the frustration of the draft, here is yet another piece of fire thrown in.”
I guess the Lions had to cutback any way they could after paying Matthew Stafford $41.5 million in guarantees.
What I want to know is, who had the bright idea to try and get away with something like this? What, did the Lions think that their fans wouldn’t realize that there were two names printed on the back of the jersey? What a joke!
At least as a head coach, Swartz is unproven, untested and his ability to lead a team (especially one coming off an 0-16 season) is unresolved. Can he do it? Can he take the Lions from the pits of hell to at the very least, mediocrity? Maybe. Or maybe he follows in the footsteps of Rod Marinelli, Steve Mariucci and Marty Mornhinweg and gets ushered out the door as quickly as he was rushed in.
Lion fans had to have felt a little better when they woke up this morning. Matt Millen isn’t the general manager anymore, change is in the air and another offseason of free agent signings and high draft picks is upon them. But the cold, hard reality of the situation is that Martin Mayhew (Millen’s understudy) is the general manager, Swartz (again, unproven) is the change and what’s the point of getting excited about another offseason when failure is quickly to follow it?
If you ask me, William Clay Ford Sr. got it wrong again. He should have hired somebody from a winning organization (somebody who has won somewhere, sometime) to be the general manager instead of Mayhew. Why would you want the guy that was under Millen? Why would you want the guy that was three people under Millen for that matter? If they wanted real change, then they should have air raided the entire front office and started from scratch. (Although to be fair, Mayhew’s first move was trading Roy Williams to Dallas for draft picks, which looks like it was a solid move.)
It’s hard not to give a first-year head coach like Swartz a chance because of the success rookie head coaches John Harbaugh (Baltimore), Tony Sparano (Miami) and Mike Smith (Atlanta) had this year. But Swartz won’t be able to do his job effectively unless Mayhew does his.
The Lions have a long ways to go to get the taste of 0-16 out of their mouths. Change is what they needed, but is Mayhew and Swartz the right change? Time will tell.
Some view the Detroit Lions’ 0-16 season as imperfection at its finest. But not Bang! Cartoons. In their latest ‘toon, Bang! Cartoons take a look at the perfection that was the Detroit Lions’ 2008 Season.
If you liked the cartoon, make sure you check out Bang! Cartoon’s Radio Hour this week, where they tackle topics such as Stephen A. Smith, the dry humbling dance of Rey Mauluga on Erin Andrews and much more.
- Danica Patrick was caught speeding…away from the race track. (SPORTSbyBROOKS.com)
- Here’s a story of a Raider fan who was unfairly thrown out of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, just for cheering on his team! Well, maybe that’s not the whole story… (Deadspin)
- Apparently the Red Sox offered Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz to the Marlins for Hanley Ramirez, but one of the clubs bulked. (Sox Addict.org)
- There’s nothing that says 0-16 better than a photo gallery. (The World of Isaac)
- The Dallas Cowboys reportedly were laughing and “acting like it was the last day of school” on the trip back from Philadelphia on Sunday. And the Dallas papers claim the Cowboys have no heart… (Dallas Sports Fans)
Detroit Lions’ owner William Clay Ford Sr. fired head coach Rod Marinelli on Monday and then promoted Martin Mayhew to general manager and Tom Lewand to team president.
Lewand was chief operating officer. Mayhew has served as general manager since Matt Millen was fired as president three games into the season. He was assistant general manager before Millen’s firing.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry, assistant offensive line coach Mike Barry and secondary coach Jimmy Lake also were fired, and defensive line coach Joe Cullen’s contract will not be renewed.
Offensive coordinator Jim Colletto was reassigned to offensive line coach.
Assistant director of pro personnel Dave Boller will not be retained.
The Lions went 10-38 under Marinelli. They started 6-2 last season and seemed on the verge of turning things around, but went 1-23 since.
The finale came Sunday, when the Lions lost at Green Bay, 31-21.
“Overall, the record speaks for itself,” Marinelli said after the game. “We know what that is. My feelings about it will be kept to myself, but the record speaks for itself.
You have to hand it to Marinelli – he always handled himself well. There’s no question he had to be fired, but he’ll find a job as a defensive coach (maybe not as a coordinator) soon.
I don’t know much about Mayhew; maybe he is the right guy for the general manager job. But when you hire a guy that had a hand in building a perennial loser over the years, what message are you trying to send to your fan base? Why not go out and get someone from a winning organization to try and get you back to respectability? Why not hire someone who understands how to build a winner? Not a guy that was already on board when the team was losing.
This was a bad decision by Ford Sr. and one that probably has set the Lions back even further. (If that’s even possible after finishing 0-16.)
Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
If that’s the case, that William Clay Ford Sr., proud owner of the Detroit Lions, is in fact, insane.
I don’t mean to sound disrespectful by calling Ford insane, but what would you call it? What would you call a man who sits up in his owner’s box year after year and continues to march a bona fide loser onto the field only to rinse, wash and repeat once the season is over with?
The Lions are 0-15 and on their way to 0-16. It would be the first time in NFL history that a team finished 0-16, but its owner is convinced that standing pat is the way to fix things.
Following the Lions’ most recent loss (a 42-7 defeat to the Saints), Ford said that he would like to leave interim general manager Martin Mayhew and chief operating officer Tom Lewand in place for next season. That’s right, the same clowns that helped former GM Matt Millen build this hapless roster on their way back for another tour of duty.
Ford’s problem isn’t blindness – he can see that his team is a garbage heap. No, his problem is loyalty. He believes that when he or his organization hires a man, you stick with him until he finishes the job (no matter how inept he may be at doing said job). It’s a novel idea when you think about, but unfortunately he’s created a situation with no hope.
Lion fans deserve better. They’ve suffered long enough. They deserve change and a new direction. They deserve an owner who isn’t going to stand for losing anymore and who is willing to come in and blow the whole thing up. I don’t know who that man is, but it’s not William Clay Ford Sr.
The Detroit Lions will go 0-16 this season. And unless they level the entire franchise in the offseason, they might become the first team in NFL history to go 0-32.
Lions season-ticket holder Todd Taylor , who commutes from Chicago to attend Lions home games, and his buddy Jim Allen from Royal Oak were stoked when Taylor won a replica Kevin Smith jersey during the Lions’ draft party at Ford Field.
