The Matt Millen era is complete. He singlehandedly took a respected franchise and drove it into the ground while collecting his $5 million yearly salary. And William Clay Ford let him do it! Hired someone with absolutely NO experience running any organization. "We've been pretty much stuck on dead center for quite a few years," WCF said when he hired MM after a 9-7 season in which the team missed the playoffs on a late field goal in Chicago in the season finale. " Matt offers us an opportunity to move ahead." In that time the Lions won 31 and lost an incredible 97 games. Dead center is 8-8 and the Lions have come close to that only in 2007 when they went 7-9 (after a 6-2 start). They are averaging fewer than 4 wins per Millen season and they would need to double that to be "dead center." My guess is five years before they get above 8-8 again.
When he arrived Millen took verbal shots at Lions fans saying they did not understand the game of football. Dare I say it? Let's take three of his draft picks (there are others). Joey Harrington--seems like a great person, but not an NFL starting quarterback. Charles Rogers--reports of his physical fragility held no sway and he was injured and drug-prone. Mike Williams--sat out a season fighting NFL draft rules(he could have continued playing for USC) and never got himself in football shape.
Too bad the NFL does not have two leagues so that those who are at the bottom of the top league are relegated to the lower league and the best of the lower get promoted to the top league as they do in English soccer. Let the Lions work their way back to the top league if they can. That might mean a smaller share of TV revenue, less national exposure, etc. A real penalty for poor performance.
This year the Lions home games were blacked out for the last five games. Maybe next year viewers can vote to have road games blacked out also.
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