Detroit Lions Blackouts: Not the City of Detroit's Fault

Today the Detroit Lions lost again, this time to the Arizona Cardinals, rolling their 2009 season record down to 2-12. I understand that they mounted a tenacious comeback in the fourth quarter, but unfortunately I didn't see it because this game, like nearly all Lion's home games, was blacked out on local TV.

It's true that Detroit is hurting; the State of Michigan's 14.5 percent unemployment rate is the highest in the country, and this doesn't include those of us who have given up looking or moved away. But, to associate the Ford Field blackouts with our economy is reckless banter by people who have never been to the city.

A few days ago I heard a famous national commentator describe how our city "deserves" to be able to watch our team on television—apparently we are hurting so badly that the NFL ought to relax its rules so that those of us who can't afford to attend the games can still watch them. No one in the area is making this argument.

Since August 2001, the football team that I have cheered for since birth has lost 108 of the 142 regular season games they have trotted out for. Incidentally, I began high school in August 2001.  During the nearly decade that has passed since, I have attended all of high school (just outside of Detroit), and graduated.  I enrolled in, attended for four years, and graduated from college (Just up the road in East Lansing).  I have moved home, found one of the few jobs left in the state, and purchased a home (still, just outside of the City of Detroit).  During the same time, the Lions have had seven different head coaches.

In my lifetime, the Detroit Lions have won 1 playoff game—a classic NFC Divisional matchup against Troy Aikman's Cowboys, that I unfortunately cannot remember because I had just turned four years old.

Much has been said about the Lions' futility, both locally and nationally, over the last few years.  Their epic '08 campaign has gone down in history as the worst performance from any professional team, in any sport, in American History.  In a salary capped sport, the Lions have managed to be so much worse than their competition, for such a long time, that, as a fan, I only hope they don't embarrass themselves each weekend when they roll out of that tunnel wearing the most putrid colors in modern sport.

This brings me to my point.  I am tired of the national scene painting the Lions' problems onto the City of Detroit. It is true that Detroit is failing.  The city's economy, formerly based around cars, is now based around unemployed manufacture's bitching about how they don't know how to do anything.

But the City of Detroit has not completely died.  Nearly three million people live in the city's sprawling suburbs.  Many of us still have jobs.  I have never seen anyone get shot.  We are willing to pay for product.  The Tigers, last season, were fourth in American League attendance (behind New York, Boston, and LA).  Until last season (when they got bad), the Pistons had extended their NBA record for consecutive sellouts to 259.

We don't go to Lions games because the Lions are awful.  Our games are blacked out, not because we can't afford to go to the stadium, but because no human, no matter how wealthy, wants to cheer for an NFL team that would be a two touchdown underdog against the University of Alabama.

Don't insult the City of Detroit by saying that we "deserve" to be able to see our football on TV.  You're not doing us any favors.  The City of Detroit deserves a football team that can compete against other cities' football teams.  We deserve an owner who attends every game.  We deserve a reputation that doesn't base around evaporated jobs, white rap stars, and gunshot wound victims at Detroit Receiving.  

We may have brought these reputations on ourselves, but don't make as watch this heinous football team as punishment.