Usually when the Detroit Lions' season ends, I’m thoroughly disgusted and emotionally drained.
So much so, that for the past several years, I’ve become detached from our gridiron gladiators, which I can best sum up as being Lions Free.
It wasn’t something I necessarily wanted to do, but decades of ineptitude forced me to make a choice — my own mental health or a trip to the funny farm.
I’m not ashamed to admit that out of all of Detroit’s professional sports teams, the Lions have always had a special hold over me. With each defeat, it felt that my identity as a functioning human being was slowly disintegrating.
If I continued to allow my obsession with the Lions to consume every waking hour of every single day, I was headed for disaster.
This is not an exaggeration.
On many occasions, I’ve been accused of not paying attention and muttering to myself. It was so noticeable that some within my inner circle believed that I had a multiple-personality disorder.
In reality I was just asking, "Why? Why can’t the Lions win?"
It was as if I were on a quest for the Holy Grail or, in this case, the Lombardi Trophy.
Day after day, my Lions odyssey left me empty and unfulfilled. Nobody seemed to really care that much about why the Lions were perennial losers.
“Get over it, they’re the Lions!” was the most common response whenever I brought up the men who don the Honolulu blue and silver.
After awhile, I knew that my abnormal behavior must have had a trigger point, a moment that is so deeply embedded in my psyche that it was time for me to do a self-awareness check and forget about the Lions.
Like any real red-blooded American, I blamed my parents — specifically, my father.
While growing up, every Sunday afternoon during the football season played out the same way, with me having a massive Lions meltdown and my dad laughing.
“Arthur, why do you get so worked up over the Lions?” he would ask me. “They haven’t been a real football team since the days of Bobby Layne.”
And there, my friend, is the trigger. Bobby Layne.
Is it possible to really hate somebody that you’ve never met or know nothing about?
Because that’s how I feel about Bobby Layne or, at least, what Bobby Layne represents — championship Lions football.
When you’ve been denied something you’ve yearned for your entire life, it manifests itself into something tangible.
In the case of the Lions' complete incompetence, it comes down to the quarterback position.
Every season the most glaring questions about whether the Lions could finally emerge as serious contenders hinged on the play of their quarterback.
And every so often a Detroit QB would tantalize us with a solid season or two, only to implode when the moment of destiny arrived.
It appeared inevitable that Detroit’s football fans would never see a Lions QB with that rare ability to consistently make big plays when the game was on the line, thus, erasing the decades of Lions nightmares.
Wake up, Detroit. Your quarterback worries are in the rear-view mirror. Matthew Stafford is the answer, the truth and the man.
Take a back seat Bobby Layne!
Stafford’s regular-season performance coupled with his play against the Saints in the playoffs is all you need to know that quarterback will not be an issue with the Lions for the next dozen years.
With the most important position in pro sports being occupied by an elite talent, the Lions have the missing ingredient to their championship recipe.
Look, this isn’t me patting the Lions on back and saying, “Golly gee, guys, too bad about the playoff loss but thanks for a great season!”
Being blown out in New Orleans was typical Lions in so many ways, but their quarterback play wasn’t typical. Stafford was the only saving grace in Saturday’s fiasco.
We can justly heap all the praise we want on the gifted Calvin Johnson, but remember that his success begins with the right arm of Matthew Stafford.
Without Stafford, Megatron becomes another disgruntled Detroit player desperately seeking a quick exit out of town.
It might take the Lions' brass a few more seasons to completely rebuild, but with an elite-level quarterback in the fold, their job has been made a lot easier.
Detroit’s Lions might have lost yet another meaningful football game Saturday, but they gained something that has eluded this franchise since Bobby Layne — legitimacy.
