“If” season at full tilt in Detroit

By Os Davis  |   Monday, April 03, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Detroit Lions
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What's the single most popularly used word in the English language over the course of the NFL offseason? It's not "team" or "depth" or even "T.O." Heck, it's not even "the", "to", or "of." The word is "if."

Yes, sports fans, this is "if" season in the NFL, when news is replaced by speculation while wonderful scores and stats are absent from sports pages still loaded with material, scores or not. Vacuous coach and jock speak becomes…well, vacuous coach and jock speak – but in a different grammatical form. "If" is heard throughout the land, but it is not the "if" that comes as a lamentation over beers when the hometowners go down again on a fluke fumble or pick. No, this is the "if" of sunny optimism: If X happens, we'll Y and thus win the Super Bowl. (Although we take these games one week at a time.) With X, there's no stopping us. (Although this is a team.) X may very well be the key to our season. (Although we take these games one week at a time…)

Thus, the biggest "news" coming out of Detroit Lions PR for the past week has involved a couple of conditionals regarding the quarterback shuffle going on there.

News item No. 1 may historically be remembered as the first instance cagey coach Rod Marinelli was coerced by media into crafting an "if" for us. And so "If we were out there today, [Jon Kitna] would take the first snap" became a statement reported and pored over everywhere, as though to fuel speculation on how much Kitna can improve on his performance (17 of 29 with two interceptions) of last year. Marinelli then backpedaled, saying that the pecking order could change before the season begins.

Now how would you like to be Josh McCown? You're on a new team, you can't wait for spring training to impress the new boss, and then one morning you wake up to find ESPN telling the world you'll be fighting Dan Orlovsky for the backup spot. Do you go back to bed?

Anyhow, on to the next news item.

News item no. 2 focused on the inevitable Joey Harrington move, which hasn't happened yet, but from blogs to mass media will, apparently "any day now." Miami, Cincinnati and Denver are perceived as the front-runners to bag one of Detroit's all-time great disappointments. Harrington meetings (or lack thereof, in the case of the Broncos) with the three AFC teams have been characterized as having some urgency. Marinelli has been quoted as saying he'd like the QB officially evicted "quickly." Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions front office has been portrayed as holding up a process that hasn't begun while demanding as much compensation as possible from the team who eventually takes Harrington.

The reality is that Harrington's name could very well not appear on a new contract until as late as June 15, a date which marks the deadline for the Lions to pay out $4 million in roster bonus to Harrington. And the big word "if" aside, Detroit will get little more than a late round draft pick for the former number three selection. If Miami can somehow maneuver such a draft pick (the team is currently without fourth- and fifth-rounders), the Dolphins can grab Harrington and begin their own squall of "if"-centered press releases regarding the mess created by the presence of Culpepper and young Joey.

Meanwhile, optimism continues to blossom in the Detroit spring surrounding the bold new blue and silver. Things could be great this year for the squad despite low expectations. If Kitna works out all right. If the draft goes well. And if…
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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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