Detroit Lions: Commitment To Winning Starts at the Top

Take a good look at the photograph of Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr.

He is the main reason why the Lions haven't won a championship since 1957.

So here are the Lions in familiar territory once again.  With a month left in the season and no hope of getting into the playoffs, Lions fans once again can only look to the draft and hope the management team William Clay Ford Sr. has in place will draft wisely and smartly.

There are so many areas the Lions need to address and have needed to address that it's almost laughable...almost.

I agree that the defense needs to be addressed...and I wouldn't want that area to be ignored.  However, I do feel strongly the offensive line, an area that has been weak for at least a decade, is the top priority.

However, I don't want to get into that discussion in this article.  There have already been several articles and some great debates among the great football minds in this forum as to what the Lions need to do. 

And I am fairly certain this year's draft will be the focus of many articles from now until April.

Nope, I want to talk about just how serious William Clay Ford Sr. is about actually putting a winning team together.  

Can anyone imagine him coming into the Lions locker room after a great win?  Can anyone see him breaking down like Tennessee's owner Bud Adams did after the Titans last-second win over the Arizona Cardinals?

There are many conspiracy theories out there that Ford never really did want the Lions to ever win.

That he is using the Lions as a tax haven and only as a way to line his pockets instead of being committed to the City of Detroit to build a winning team.  Heck, I'm pretty sure that I started some of those rumors myself!

There are also rumors floating out there the Lions will be sold and moved to Los Angeles.  I find this highly improbable, as William Clay Ford could have sold this team at any time over the last decade and he chose not to. 

As much as many Detroit Lions fans would love to see William Clay Ford out of the picture, I'm sure they wouldn't want it to be at the cost of losing an NFL franchise. 

There would be no guarantee the NFL would bring another team to Detroit anytime soon.  The NFL is already over-saturated with 32 teams. 

Detroit is the 11th-ranked television market and I don't think the NFL wants to have a three-team division for any period of time.

General Manager Martin Mayhew has shown some promise in so much as the number of draft picks the Lions gained last year.  Despite the current 2-10 record, many fans are relatively optimistic in regard to the future.

Matthew Stafford has proven that he is one tough hombre, has a very good arm as well as leadership skills.  Once he matures, cuts down on his interception rate and takes care of the football, he has the potential to be an elite quarterback in the NFL.

Brandon Pettigrew, the surprise pick in last year's draft, shows a lot of promise.  It appeared, before his season-ending injury, that he was really starting to understand the NFL game.  He can be as big a threat as Vernon Davis, Dallas Clark, or Chris Cooley.

Louis Delmas has brought an aura of toughness in the secondary that has been missing since the days of Bennie Blades.

The upcoming 2010 draft will be the most important of Mayhew's brief career.  Last year, there was no way to go but up. 

This year, they still have many needs to address.  How he and Jim Schwartz strategize will be key to a successful draft.

Schwartz has stuck with his plan.  I know he has to be frustrated with the team's results and he, along with the rest of us, are sick of "moral" victories and signs of improvement.

He's got the Lions playing tough and he's got the Lions playing hard.  But bonehead mistakes on the field have got to be driving him nuts.

The season is starting to wear on Schwartz.  His comment last night when questioned if he saw progress shows that.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz, on whether he saw progress: "No. We lost. Progress is winning games. It's not doing anything else. We need to win. We need to win on the road. It's been way too long since we've won the road. We need to find a way to get that done."

Some feel the only way the Lions will ever get to the Super Bowl is without William Clay Ford Sr. at the helm.  I tend to agree with that assessment.  However, since there is no way, other than by illegal means, to remove him from office, we are stuck with him.

We can only keep pounding away in the media, in forums and on sports talk radio to implore him to commit, really commit to bringing home a Vince Lombardi trophy.

It has been a long battle and the war isn't over yet.  I plan on sticking around as long as I can to see the Lions win a Super Bowl. 

How about you?