Why Be a Detroit Lions Fan? The Matt Millen Era, of Course

Most Lions fans my age were probably spurred to follow the team by Barry Sanders.

It would be insane for me to say watching Barry throughout the 1990s was not a privilege, but anyone who tuned out the Lions after Matt Millen took over in 2001 simply because they were not good a football really missed out.

Not only was Millen the worst sports executive in the modern era, he was possibly the worst person to at any job in the history of employment.

Most terrible sports executives have one downfall. They may draft poorly or overpay free agents or make poor coaching hires...few do all of them equally poorly (even Isiah Thomas had some good drafts) or with the longevity of Millen.

Sports records people never thought would fall usually do, but with the advanced science and business savvy required of modern sports executives, along with technological innovations (I doubt Millen even owns a computer), it could be a very long time before we see another franchise as morbidly unproductive as the Matt Millen Era Lions.

Millen is not afraid to alienate the team's gay fans

Before Johnnie Morton was a highly successful mixed martial artist, he was a pretty productive wide receiver for the Detroit Lions.

In 2002, one of his first acts as team president was to release Morton, who was coming off a 77-catch, 1,100 yard season, rather than pay him a bonus.

But the move did allow the team to sign Bill Schroeder, so there's that, right?

Morton was obviously not happy, and lobbed some complaints at management after signing with Kansas City, and Matt Millen reacted exactly how you would want an executive in a multi-million dollar company to respond.

Matty Ice sure knows how to pick a coach

Matt Millen had four coaches as Lions team president. For two of those guys, Marty Morninwheg and Rod Marinelli, it is pretty safe to say neither will get a NFL head coaching gig again.

A third, Steve Mariucci, is on the fence. He had a good track record in San Francisco, but so far in the three years since his firing, there hasn't seemed to be a ton of interest. He couldn't even succeed this guy at Michigan State.

The fourth coach in the group, Dick Jauron, has actually done reasonably well with limited talent in Buffalo, so it would make sense that after he took over for Mariucci on an interim basis, he was never really considered for the permanent job. Matt Millen hates competent coaches as much as he loves wide receivers.

Local hero Charles Rogers excels after getting drafted by home state team

Yeah, that didn't happen. But a year after adding a quarterback known for throwing a great deep ball in college, Millen added Michigan State receiver Charles Rogers to be Joey Harrington's deep threat.

So what's the perfect offense for these two with very specific skillsets? Why, the West Coast Offense, requiring a quarterback to make multiple quick reads and accurate short passes and receivers who are precise route runners.

Sure, Roy Williams and Mike Williams both failed to turn into the franchise receivers their draft positions suggested they should be, but Rogers hurt the worst.

He was drafted while fans still had great hope for Harrington, they had some good preseason games together...things were going to be good.

In Detroit, overpaying free agents is what we do

As a speedy slot receiver on a Rams team that had Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt ahead of him and Kurt Warner throwing all three the ball, Az-Zahir Hakim was a dangerous weapon.

After signing for five years/$16 million to be Detroit's top wide receiver, Hakim was destined to fall short of expectations. It didn't help that a serious hip injury in his first season as a Lion severely limited his speed, which was his main asset.

Hakim was indicative of the kind of splashy free agent signing Millen liked: role player on a good team that masked some of the player's flaws (in this case, size and hands), recognizable name because of flashy style of play, asking for more money than most teams were willing to pay.

Dre Bly, Damien Woody, Wali Rainer, Fernando Bryant, Marcus Pollard and Kenoy Kennedy, to name a few more, had similar fates as Lions.

So ... who's the coward?

Typically, insulting your own players is not the best strategy for team executives to use. At least when Matt Millen called Johnnie Morton names, Morton was already out of town.

When he appeared on Mike Ditka's radio show, Millen said the Lions had a player who was a "devout coward."

Now, immediately speculation began as to who that player was, essentially breaking into two camps: some firmly believed it was linebacker Chris Claiborne.

Others, including MLive beat writer Tom Kowalski, said it was receiver Scotty Anderson.

We may never know the real answer.

Homophobia? Check. Chauvinism? Check. But where's the poor race relations?

When the 49ers parted ways with Steve Mariucci, Matt Millen had to have him, despite the fact he already had a highly successful coach with ties to the 49ers leading his team.

In fact, he had to have Mariucci so badly that he disregarded the Rooney Rule and did not interview a minority candidate, drawing a $200,000 fine from the league.

And, oh yeah, the Lions are the only franchise to violate the Rooney Rule since its inception.

How does it all end? Predictably, of course

So, how did the Millen Era end? Badly. But you knew that.

No one would have predicted just how badly, though. The Road to History, the pre-eminent countdown to 0-16 on the Internet, began openly calling the 0-16 season in week six.

Early on, most fans knew the Lions were bad, but the rational side led them to believe no modern NFL team could be bad enough to hit 0-16.

Each week, however, more and more turned into believers, and by about week 12, I would say very few people thought the Lions would win a game.

Every franchise goes through periods in which they disappoint the fanbase. No franchise, however, has so thoroughly crushed its fans as the Lions, to the point where an 0-16 season was the highlight of the last seven years.