Real Deal or Pipe Dream? HäMMëR Says, 'Look Out for Detroit Lions!'

I can’t recall a time as a Detroit Lions fan when I have seen so many of my fellow Lions fans tormented with the desire to express their true feelings of optimism for their beloved team. Many are apprehensive for fear of once again looking completely foolish for their “misplaced” faith and trust in a franchise that has failed to deliver a championship since 1957.

It is all to easy to take the trodden path and deflect and minimize the accomplishments of the Detroit Lions over the past couple of seasons, as the victories be few, while the losses and lack of competitiveness are abundant.

I believe that a fan’s willingness to “unhedge his Lions bets” are directly relative to the amount of research he has done to compare and contrast the 2010 Detroit Lions team against the two previous seasons.

Who are these men on this 2010 Detroit Lions roster who affected the outcome of the 2008 winless season?  Who are they and how many of them remain?

To what extent do we hold culpable those men who are today on the 53-man Detroit Lions roster who were not on the 2008 roster?  Regarding the same, to what extent should those men be likewise impuned who were not part of the 2009 campaign?

At what point should the fan be able to divide and discern between the two, holding the past harmless for future production and results?

Does not every investor when she reads the prospectus clearly heed the warning, “Past performance is not indicative of future results?”

My point, ladies and gentlemen, is that each team, every season, stands on its own merit based on that squad’s achievements upon the field of play.

If you were asked to use the congruency principles of geometry to justify your position regarding the 2010 Detroit Lions as compared to the 2008 or 2009 teams, tell me where it is that you find congruency? Tell me how that translates to prematurely dismissing a winning season for the team about to take the field in Chicago, Illinois?

If you’re looking for help with that, feel free to do your own research; you’ll get no help from the HäMMëR.

The fact of the matter is that there is very little that “connects the dots” from the present day to two seasons past.  Defensively, there is little to connect the 2010 defenders to those who last took the field during the 2009 campaign.  Offensively, there are numerous additions as well that should serve to ignite a firestorm of scoring from a once moribund offense.

It is time to lay the past to rest, my friends, as the new era in Detroit Lions football dawns on Sunday morning, September 12, 2010, near the shores of Lake Michigan.

A throng of Chicago Bears fans waits to rudely welcome the Pride to Soldier Field, boasting of their wins over the Detroit Lions and pointing to a litany of failure on the scoreboard.

Past performance is not indicative of future results.  They should know that in Chicago for sure.

For fans who closely follow the Detroit Lions in a year-around capacity, fandom is more than just a passing fancy.  For them, the Honolulu Blue and Silver is permanently woven into their personal tartan, meshed with a myriad of other colors, but clearly on display.  Passion, intensity, and enthusiasm are the order of the day for the fan who never rests and will never give up hope that the Detroit Lions will one day reign as Super Bowl champions.

Not long after Millen the Destroyer left town, I surmised that what it took him eight years to annihilate would take his replacement likely half as long just to get respectable.

Saint Martin the Kaizen Magician is bent on drastically reducing the timeline to recovery, as the Detroit Lions general manager has worked at break-neck speed to provide his field general with every possible tool to be successful right now during the 2010 season.

It is my reflection upon this early body of work that provides me with more than hope for a promising 2010 campaign for the 2010 Detroit Lions.

The assembling of legitimate NFL football talent is now evident in Allen Park, Michigan.

Although much has been said by a multitude of media to detract from the “meaningful” nature of the preseason, there must still exist a way to extrapolate positive findings that can serve as a cistern of hope going forward into Sunday’s contest against NFC Norris division rival Chicago.

How many people expected rookie running back Jahvid Best to have such an explosive body of work during training camp and the preseason contests?  How many folks were skeptical that the addition of Rob Sims at left guard would amount only to lip service in terms of helping to fix the offensive line?

How many expected the defensive line to become a position of depth, where a guy like Landon Cohen wouldn’t be able to make the Detroit Lions, but could immediately find purchase in Jacksonville?

Do concerns exist relative to personnel in the linebacker corps or the defensive backfield?  Martin Mayhew has publicly stated that the team will always be looking to upgrade, position immaterial.

When most were thinking, “Where’s our new cornerback?  Where’s our new linebacker?”  Mayhew added players as they became “available” in defensive end Lawrence Jackson and cornerback Alphonso Smith.  Rarely do things ever happen according to “our time;” rather they are visited upon us as they will.

The extent to which Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz has deflected any true preseason credit is a reflection of his knowing that the teams’ greatest tests lie ahead of them and the time to focus on the task at hand is immediate and should be viewed circumspectly.

So at what point does this devolve from “pipe dream” to the real deal?  It will happen on SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!  (Had to give a little “Winter Nationals”, you know?! – you guys are missing out on my great radio voices — Michael Buffer’s got nothing on me!)

To the extent that “you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time,” the Chicago Bears aging defenders will also not be able to cover all of Matthew Stafford’s intended receiving targets all of the time, which is going to eventually create a very tired Bears defense.  With the Detroit Lions newly-found ability to run the football, and much of that to the left side of the field behind perennial “whipping boy” and left tackle Jeff Backus, the Lions will find a way to move the chains, create first downs, spike Rod Marinelli’s defense, win the time-of-possession battle, and emerge from the great Midwestern city victorious.

Even Vicky Valencourt said that’s how its gonna be.  Lynn Swan called and said pay attention.  Lawrence Taylor doesn’t seem to mind his Porsche is missing.

I believe that offensive coordinator Scott Linehan will have spent sufficient time with blocking scheme and personnel management to be able to protect the Lions second-year gunslinger from the Bears defensive onslaught.  Neutralizing the play of Julius Peppers will be an all-day job, but I believe the Lions blockers will find a way to get it done away from the confines of Ford Field.

Defensively, I don’t think the Detroit Lions are as suspect as many might suggest.  This defense is geared toward the front four applying tremendous pressure, playing the run on their way to the quarterback, and I can’t think of four guys better suited to wreak havoc on Jay “Breaded Veal” Cutler.  (If you’re a lifelong customer of Big Boy, you’ll recognize the spin on the breaded veal cutlet.)

I choose to set aside my apprehensions and will place them in “file 13” along with the 2008 and 2009 Detroit Lions seasons.  Every other optimist can choose to do the same.  Each pessimist can continue on in his own way as well.

What I do know is how sweet it will be for those who believed before they had yet seen.

GO LIONS WIN!

HäMMëR

As an administrative note, I will be conducting an interview with Detroit Lions starting quarterback Matthew Stafford on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, courtesy of AXE Hair, and will make the article available to the Bleacher Report Detroit Lions community straightway thereafter.