Matt Millen’s sweet nothings, 2008 edition

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, July 24, 2008  |  Comments( 11 )

Detroit Lions
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It has become a tradition in Detroit Lions Land, an annual occurrence with the imminent onset of the newest season: Team president Matt Millen’s newest round of promises to Motor City fans that this is the year the team will produce a quality product on the field. Call it the ceremonial first (sales) pitch.

Under a headline labeled “Matt Millen: Lions fans will ‘like what they see’,” Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the Detroit Free Press dutifully threw together his annual column of Millen’s promises based on little in reality. And in the tradition of political debate – almost as much of a showman’s fairy tale as statements from woeful sports team’s GMs – RealFootball365.com presents the sane person’s rebuttal.

Millen: “Do you believe in now?”
Rebuttal: This quintet of bon mots is technically not a Millen utterance and actually from the team’s advertising campaign, but this is so oversimplified and generic that you can’t help but see the man’s fingerprints all over the design. The question in Michigan is not “Do you believe in now?” (Of course they do: They’ve got bona fide contender in the Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers.) The question is, “Do you believe in a now with the Lions in it?” With the amount of young and frankly inexperienced players on this roster, though, it appears Detroit’s future is actually, um, in the future.

Millen: "I don’t blame [the fans]. It’s never how you start. It’s how you finish. Ask New England."
Rebuttal: Now, wait a minute ... Millen’s comparing his Detroit Lions with one of the most successful franchises – in terms of marketing and performance – in all of professional sports? Truth is, the current-day Patriots are a historical force and the last memorable Lions team to the outside world was, you know, that one with Barry Sanders where they won a playoff game. If owners were more wont to be in the Hall of Fame, pundits would be dropping the name Robert Kraft habitually, whereas the only immortality the Ford family is looking to get is akin to the dinosaurs once the internal combustion engine is environmentally reformed. And which Detroit fan wouldn’t have traded any Lions performance of the Millen era for a Super Bowl loss?

Millen: "I think that our fan base is a pretty knowledgeable fan base, so I think they’ll believe their eyes.”
Rebuttal: Well, that’s been the problem for the Millen administration, hasn’t it?

Millen: "And I think this is a great football town. I’ve said that a million times. So I think the more they can see and the more they get a feel for this group, I think they’re going to like what they see. That’s my opinion. So they’ll make their own decisions."
Rebuttal: It would be easy to point out here that previous Millen opinions have held that Joey Harrington was the quarterback of the future, that Steve Mariucci was the premier coach available, that this is the year, this is the year, this is the year ... but this statement actually does contain quite a bit of truth. Unfortunately for Millen, there’s this thing called the economy that may actually force Detroit Lions Football Inc. to produce on the field in 2008 (and maybe well into the Obama administration).

Millen: "We’ll see where [head coach Rod Marinelli’s roster machinations] takes us. I think what it does is, we’re not working against ourselves. We’re not slowing down for the last guy to get on board. What does that mean? I think it speaks to attitude. I think that attitude’s a huge part of it. I always did.
Rebuttal: Also a huge part of it is performance.

Millen: “Even when we were winning, we still were not playing our best football.”
Rebuttal: Yeah? When the talking heads were hyping up the 6-2 Lions as "for real," who noticed?

Millen: "We still weren’t there because there was no consistency. We were still up and down in spots, but we won more than we lost. We were playing well enough, but we weren’t consistent."
Rebuttal: In actuality, the greatest inconsistencies were taking place in the play-calling and roster shifting. (Who’s our starting halfback? Are we playing a West Coast offense or what?) Meanwhile, those who performed most consistently throughout – guys like Shaun Rogers and Roy Williams – are being shipped out or disrespected by the club in finest Sanders-stuffing mode.

Millen: "I think what happens is, sometimes when things start to go south a little bit, a lot of the mental part is, here-we-go-again-type of attitude. That’s something you can control.
Rebuttal: At least the previous quote makes more sense now. Consistency can be had by applying a Svengali-like hold on players used to less. Sounds like a consistent loser to me...

Millen: “Rod has said a few times – and I think this is a great way to put it – he wants to lead the league in effort. If you do that, you’ve got a great shot."
Rebuttal: And there’s historical proof of this contention, right?

Millen: “All I can judge by is this offseason how they trained. Their approach when they walked in the weight room, when they walked onto the field to run, when we had our OTAs, all those type of things, that was real consistent all the way through."
Rebuttal: So if the league switches from using footballs to barbells, the Lions are all set!

Millen: "Consistency from the start to the finish. I think that’s the same thing Rod wants to see. You want to see the same effort."
Rebuttal: Well, if there’s one thing the Millen era Lions have been, it’s consistent.

Happy training camp, Detroit Lions!

Training Camp: An entirely new kind of fantasy game!
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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