ESPN Seems to be Detroit's Greatest Hater

The Detroit Lions have not been a very good team in recent years. That is understood. But do they deserve the hate ESPN seems to show them?

A year ago I read an article from an ESPN writer, where he ranked the fans of NFL teams. Out of 32 teams, the Detroit Lions fans were ranked 31st. ... Obviously that is as far wrong as you can get. That is like saying we celebrate Christmas to remember Bin Laden's birthday! You simply just don't get further from the truth.

The Lions have been horrible for how long? And the Lions still sold out the majority of their games? When they were a mediocre team the Lions sold out every game at the Silverdome. That is 80,000 seats people! Many teams wouldn't sell out 50,000 if they were only average. The Lions sold out games during and even after their 0-16 season! And the fans are the second worst in the NFL? Crazy talk!

Recently I heard about ESPN ranking the Lions 18th in the NFL. I guess if you look at their 6-10 record last year and think they will win 2 more games only, then I guess it is understandable that you will rank them 18th in the NFL. Even though some experts say it would not surprise them to see the Lions in the Superbowl. Even though the Lions were minutely close to being 9-7 last year, they lost several close games to play-off teams and beat the Superbowl Champions once. Even though the Lions did as well as they did and were as competitive as they were without their starting QB and with their starting running back hampered most of the season. To say the Lions essentially will be only very marginally better than they were last year is not showing them any love.

Then the Lions pasted the Patriots behinds to the turf on Saturday night. Sunday morning I was driving to work and was listening to ESPN radio. The commentator was talking about the Lions - Patriots game. His opinion? The Lions had something to prove and therefore, was playing hard like it was a play-off game. The Patriots on the other hand, have won Superbowls, are a great team and had nothing to prove. He said that New England was not playing hard and was only trying to get through the game without injuries.

Really?

Think about it for a moment here. Lets do something real special here and try adding some real logic to this. The Lions D-line (who I like to refer to as the Wrecking Crew), has already shown they are coming hard and hit Tom Brady hard a couple of times. Does anyone really believe that the Patriots offensive line would let that happen to their star quarterback and continue to play soft? I really doubt that!

No! I guarantee you, the Pat's O-line was trying their hardest to keep their star quarterback safe and simply could not stop the Detroit pass rush. Not playing hard? Give me a break. I hear Brady is still at Ford Field looking for the rest of his hide with the rest of his O-line as they are wondering if maybe they should have tried harder. Yeah, that makes sense.

As for the Patriots defense? Do you really believe that the Lions D-line was going to continuously paint the turf with Brady's spit and the Patriot's defensive line wasn't going to turn the tables? I can see that now. Brady just finished scraping himself off the turf and the New England defense ran out on the field thinking.... "They have only hit our QB hard several times. No reason to want to turn this into a real match. Let us just play safe and get through this without an injury."

Yes it was only a preseason game. Yes I know you are not supposed to take too much out of that. But it still showed me that the offensive line of one of the NFL's best teams could not slow down the Lions pass rush. It showed me that Stafford can be amazingly accurate when he is on. It showed me the Detroit Lions are not only marginally better than a 6-10 team, but a lot better.

The Detroit Lions will be a very good team in 2011. I wonder how many games they will have to win to get any real respect from ESPN.