There’s a Facebook group encouraging William Clay Ford (above) to sell the Detroit Lions. There’s a petition, too. Heck, there’s even a Bleacher Report editorial from 2008 encouraging the City Of Detroit to purchase the club (presumably the suggestion fell on deaf ears). Being an actual resident of Planet Earth, Ty of The Lions In Winter is far from impressed with such efforts.
First, they™ll have to find an owner to sell it to”and if that owner™s last name is not Illitch or DeVos (or maybe Karmanos or Penske), be prepared for the team to leave town for good. Presuming, though, there™s a Motor City-friendly ownership group ready to buy, then what? They™ll have deeper pockets, or a freer hand in signing checks? Ford is already tops in that department. They™ll bring in a GM who™ll do more to fix the roster than Martin Mayhew has, faster? No way; what GM could? They™ll give total operational control”and a Brinks truck full of money”to a big-name out-of-work coach? As I type this, the Redskins are proving that™s far from a surefire play. They™ll rebuild the roster again, in some other leadership staff™s image? Impossible, given the contracts involved. If you think the owner is currently what™s wrong with the franchise, let me ask you: what would a different owner do differently, and how would that fix what went wrong on Sunday? If you™re honest, you™ll say that you don™t know, and you don™t care”you just want heads to roll.
Look, I know you™re furious. I know you™re crushed. I know how bitterly it stings that after all this, the results are are still more theoretical than tangible. But going postal because the Lions mailed it in against an 0-8 team and got stamped œinsufficient postage? It™d be illogical, irrational, and”reality check”ineffective. Shouting from the rooftops that you are œsick of losing, even though you aren™t even playing in the games? Save your breath. Taking it to the streets to show the world that you are going to œDO something about it? Unless you have some run-blocking talents you can take to the field, you won™t be DOing any good. Call me a coward, call me a traitor, call me a scab, call me part of the problem . . . but I™m sipping cider by the little blue fire with my friends, while you™re carpet-bombing the Internet trying to convince your fellow fans to turn their backs on the team.
The problem is that WCF is not being utilized properly. When you have access to to someone who manages to make the wrong decision EVERY FUCKING TIME, you need to harness the power of his incompetence by doing the exact opposite of everything his instincts tell him to.