When you go a whole season without winning a game, it's hard to fault people who don't want to watch you play anymore. So rather than grumble about losing season ticketholders, the Detroit Lions are doing something about it. The team sent e-mails to about 6,000 former season ticketholders a few weeks ago, inviting them to attend Wednesday's minicamp session. A few of them took the team up on it and attended workouts."I think it's important for them just to reconnect with the team," new coach Jim Schwartz said. "There have been a lot of changes since they had season tickets. I want them to see the direction that we're taking. I think if you watch practice, you can see sort of the philosophies that we're going to have and you see a lot of different faces and you need to get reacquainted with your team. There's so much turnover."
The Lions are certainly banking on turnover as the centerpiece of their 2009 marketing campaign, having selected former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and added veterans such as Larry Foote, Julian Peterson and Philip Buchanon to the defense. Returning star receiver Calvin Johnson was pictured on the e-mail that went out to the former season ticketholders earlier this month, but it's clear that the message the Lions are trying to send is one of change.
"The way the National Football League is now, there's free agency, there's big roster turnover," Schwartz said. "We've got some exciting young players and we've brought in some skilled veteran players that have a lot of skins on the wall. I think it's important for those guys to see the direction that we're taking."
Gotta hand it to them for trying, that's for sure.
