Lions and Tigers and Losses (Oh My!)

As the Lions advance toward the worst season in the history of the National Football League, it gives us all a minute to ponder an age old question.



Should the Detroit Lions lose the annual Thanksgiving Day football game?

Detroit News scribe Mike O'hara suggests that "There is speculation on the national networks about the possibility of having two teams with perfect records meet in the traditional Thanksgiving Day game. That would be the Tennessee Titans, now 9-0 and going to 11-0, and the perfectly awful Lions losing two more to sink to 0-11."

The Lions deserve to lose the Thanksgiving Day game, even though they started it in 1934. The team they place on the field is a total joke. The management is inept. The coaching is terrible. Why we would want to showcase Detroit, Mich., in this light — when we already have a former mayor lighting the way — is beyond me. The Thanksgiving Day game is about tradition. The Lions have been so bad for so long that they deserve to lose the honor of hosting the game. While the Lions started the tradition of playing on Thanksgiving in 1934, and Dallas added a game in the 1960s (and the NFL recently added a third game), there should be no guarantee that if you destroy football in a city you automatically get to host something you made a tradition.

O'hara reminds us that there have been occasional suggestions that the games be rotated, but the threat of bumping the Lions off the game has never been serious.

He suggests that's about to change. Twice on ESPN's "Mike and Mike" show last week, hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic campaigned to have the game taken away from Detroit because the Lions have not been competitive for a decade.



I remember when the late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt suggested the Lions should lose the game — this was 10, 15 years ago — and I thought he was a total jerk. Now, I see that he must be a visionary ... The Lions should lose the game. No questions asked. Give it to a team (an owner) who cares! Plus, the NFL added the night game on Thanksgiving to honor Hunt — the first one was held at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Many would call Hunt a visionary. I would, today, agree.