The Detroit Lions are at a turning point, no? They just shed their old regime run by Matt Millen, they drafted their franchise quarterback and, even in the darkest of times for Detroit, there appears to be some hope. Until you start reading Terry Foster's recent Lions round-up in his Detroit News column.You see, Foster finds -- in two separate items -- the real reason why the Lions fail: as their fans are, sadly, busy caring too much about the team, the Lions are busy caring too little about their fans. How do I know this? Because Foster mentions a fan who gets a Lions tattoo on his butt, and then in the next item discusses the fact that the team is repurposing jerseys. That's right, "Kevin Jones" is suddenly becoming "Kevin Smith."
You see, Todd Taylor and Jim Allen, Lions season ticket holders, went to the team's draft party last Saturday. And they won Kevin Smith jerseys while there. Good times! Until they noticed the bulky stitching of the name, cut apart the jersey and found out that the team had been taking the Smith jerseys, doing some shoddy sewing, and then giving them away to season-ticket holders.
"It was kind of a punch in the stomach," Allen said.Now, it's one thing to announce -- humorously, of course -- that you intend to use your old merchandise in a manner that will cut costs. It's an entirely different ballgame to trick fans into thinking that they've won something cool and new when it's something shoddy and old.
"Coupled with the frustration of the draft, here is yet another piece of fire thrown in."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, we have Gary Kapp. Gary loves his Lions. So much so that when some friends bet him $50 he wouldn't get a tattoo of the old Lions logo on his rear end, he did it. Seriously. He got the logo of an NFL tattooed on his butt. That's not a temporary little prank. Why did he do it?
"You know, the bottom line is we all want the Lions to win," he said.See what I'm getting at here? The team has loyal, diehard fans willing to inject permanent ink in their skin for their love of the team. And the fans have a cheap, shoddy team willing to reuse old jerseys from bad players with the same first name as someone currently on the roster just to save a few bucks.
"This is my team, and I love them."
That's what we call a "disconnect" and "poor public relations" and "Detroit Lions football." And it's why, even with this new hope floating around the franchise, we're probably a few years away from seeing this team win.
