Yaaaay! It must be great to break the record for being the very best at being the very worst.

OMG Go Detroit !

Lions should give Bill Cowher the keys to the franchise and leave him alone. In today's NFL, you can turn things around pretty quickly if you put together a solid coaching staff, draft wisely, sign some quality free agents and get a favourable schedule. Look at the Dolphins, Jets and Falcons - all had winning records.

and I though the Bangels would've had that title a few years back... but hey, they made history alright!
[Edited 12/29/08 10:15am]

That sign "0-16: So easy the Lions could do it" with the Geico Caveman was killing me!

In all seriousness, Rod Marinelli handled it with nothing but class. He didn't make any excuses, he just accepted responsibility. I gained a lot of respect for him in the last few weeks. I'm sure he'll land on his feet.

AlexdeParis said:

Hopefully back in Tampa as the D-line coach.

AlexdeParis said:

Indeed. Sadly, he will likely never get another shot unless he knocks it out as D-Coordinator somewhere else. As poorly constructed as it was, the Lions team fought hard and were competitive in many if not most of the games it was in. That's a tribute to Marinelli. He made his own mistakes, but he was better than 0-Season.

AlexdeParis said:

I put half the blame on Matt Millen. As GM, he f***ed the Lions organization up!

The other half of the blame goes to the team owner William Ford. The old man is so out of touch with today's football fans that he's better off selling the team.

But who would buy the Lions?

namepeace said:

Yeah, they did fight hard and, like he said, they never gave up. I'm not even sure they're the worst team this season (well, OK, they probably are, but it's not as clear as it seems). It's a little like last year -- even though Miami went 1-15, I still think Atlanta was in worse shape at the end of the year.

Speaking of which, I hope the Miami and Atlanta coaches share the Coach of the Year award. They may be the two best candidates in the last decade (at least). Of course, Harbaugh in Baltimore deserves a lot of consideration as well. I know the NFL schedule gives last-place teams a shot the following year, but they all did a hell of a job. I normally hate when they allow ties (I'm still over Brett Favre sharing that MVP when they know damn well Barry Sanders deserved it outright), but I'd make an exception this year.

AlexdeParis said:

Tampa Bay and Cincinnati had worse teams in the 80's and 90's, I think. Miami 2007 reminds me of Detroit 2008. The Falcons were simply devastated 12 months ago.



I'd give it to Mike Smith over Sparano, if only because Parcells looms large over the latter. Smith had to unite a team already divided over the Vick saga (not to mention the city itself) behind a rookie quarterback. But I'd also put good words in for these coaches:

Tom Coughlin -- for proving the Super Bowl was no fluke and keeping the champs on top of a tough division despite losing an elite pass rusher (Osi U.) and the MASSIVE distractions posed by Plaxico Burress.

Jeff Fisher -- for keeping a team that could have fallen apart after the VY debacle focused, behind an aging, previously shell-shocked/turnover-prone vet at QB, an outstanding defense, also in a tough division.

John Harbaugh -- I'm still trying to figure out how he did it, with so many aging defensive leaders/prima donnas (depending on the moment), no true offensive gamebreakers and a rookie QB from a small school. I thought this team might top out at 9 wins.

Bill Belichick -- Yes, indeed. They were thought to be too old and slow on defense, and toast when 12 went down. He took a QB who hadn't led a regular-season huddle since high school and won 11 games, and with a few offseason moves, could be right back into the thick of the hunt in 2009.

Mike Smith gets my vote cuz he had less to work with. But I'm loving the Ravens right now and I hope they go deep into the playoffs.

My team is just as bad as Detroit and they "won" 9 games.

namepeace said:

I hear you, but it's pretty hard to gloss over 1-15 to 11-5. He had them ready to play this year and amazingly expecting to win from the jump. The Pats are still smarting from the way they ran over them early in the season with Ronnie Brown and the Wildcat! Parcells didn't do that. Coaches get so much of the blame when their teams lose; it's only fair they reap the rewards when they win. I mean, could you imagine the outrage if the next coach in Detroit winds up 10-6 and division champs but doesn't win coach of the year?! That would be some shit!

If nothing else, it should quiet all of my fellow Saints fans FOR LIFE...because as sad and pathetic as the team has been at points throughout their history, they've NEVER gone 0-16...at 0-14, they mustered up enough cojones to beat the Jets at Shea in '80 by ONE POINT!!!

Personally, I respect the fact that none of the Lions came out with a Dallas type of attitude....they manned up, shut their mouths, and played hard 'til the end...I switched back and forth between the Saints game and the Lions game and what killed the Lions was that they only had two weapons on offense...every play went to either of the two...at one point, the rest of the team only had 19 yards of total offense...granted, the D sucks, but I think that if another receiver had stepped up to take some of the focus off of CJ, the Lions could've easily won a shoot out with the Pack...

reneGade20 said:

Yeah, but they had to trade that other receiver away after Jerry Jones offered up all those draft picks. They would've been fools not to pounce on that! That was getting close to Hershel Walker territory...

This record is misleading. Tampa lost 24 straight back in the day.

AlexdeParis said:

Yo ass just HAD to go thurr.
[Edited 12/30/08 11:37am]

AlexdeParis said:

I can kinda understand that, but at the time of the trade, the same regime that blew all those other high draft picks during the Millen era was still in place...and it appears that everyone except Millen and Marinelli will still be in their positions come draft time...so rather than it being Hershel Walker territory (meaning Dallas completely rebuilt and dominated in rather short fashion), with the Lions it looks more like its going to be Ricky Williams territory (meaning the Redskins did absolutely nothing with all the picks they got from the Saints to swap draft positions when they picked ol' Ricky Rick)...

reneGade20 said:

That's exactly why they need all those picks! It took a few receiver busts, but they finally got Calvin Johnson. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes...

Graycap23 said:

:geek:it was actually 26 in a row....to me, TB's record will always be tops because they were consistently bad (only 5 games were even close in that whole strea), whereas there were a few games that the Lions could've actually won (both games against the Pack were lost late)...

...of course, I'm gonna HAVTA figure out if I can play these Lions against the '76 Bucs on Madden2010....

AlexdeParis said:

Dude....the Lions front office is like a FOREST full of blind squirrels....

reneGade20 said:

That Tampa era was worth it if only for producing one of the greatest quotes in the history of sports. I'm dying to know how many times some wiseass reporter asked Marinelli about his team's execution!

AlexdeParis said:

Despite their losses, the Lions were competitive this season.

Graycap23 said:

Oh, definitely. I already said as much. It's just unfortunate for them they didn't have the Rams on their schedule (or the Bucs and Cowboys in December )...

AlexdeParis said:

You go too far, sir!

The Lions biggest problem is that they lack TALENT.

Now if they could only somehow go on to win the Superbowl they would be like the Bizarro Patriots!

SCNDLS said:

What can I say? I think the dearly departed Eartha Kitt said it best:

2the9s said: