Detroit Lions: It's Time for the NFL To Intervene

Roger Goodell needs to lay the smackdown on Detroit. It almost looks like he's ready to in that photo, you just have to imagine Lions owner William Clay Ford about to get the slap in the face. Followed by a couple, "What in the hell is wrong with you?" and "We're relieving you of command of this franchise."

For a minute there, you would think I was joking. Unfortunately, I'm serious.

I was thinking for a while yesterday, as I watched the Miami Dolphins improve to 7-5, that the Detroit Lions could have and should have had Bill Parcells turning their franchise around as he's doing now for Miami.

Those Dolphins had one win last year. If Detroit had done the sensible thing and fired Millen during the offseason instead of three games in, the Lions could have courted Bill Parcells and had a competent and smart GM. This is the kind of boneheadedness that defines the Lions and frankly its embarrassing.

I'm not just talking embarrassing to Lions fans either, I'm talking embarrassing to the entire NFL. Although the Detroit Lions are owned by William Clay Ford, they remain a product of the NFL and are ultimately controlled by the NFL to an extent.

When you start off 0-12 for the second time in the last seven years, that's embarrassing to the NFL. When seven wins is the apex of your team's last decade, that's embarrassing. When you consistently get blown out in games televised nationwide, that's embarrassing. When only four of your last eight NFL draft picks are still on the team, that's embarrassing.

If I kept going on, this would be a very long article and it could lead to violence. I don't want that on my hands.

Does anyone out there really have any confidence at all that William Clay Ford, the man with one playoff win since 1958, will get it right this time and pick a competent GM to make hiring decisions? I mean, the 18th time has got to be the charm, right?

I don't think the NFL should even give Ford the chance this time. I think the NFL needs to step in and take temporary control of this franchise and hire the GM for the Lions.

Why would the NFL do this? Because league parity is their motto and it has been for at least the last decade. The Lions are the only team in the NFL to not hit at least eight wins since the Millen regime began. That's pathetic.

William Clay Ford got lucky once or twice and found a needle in a haystack with Barry Sanders. Such a pick gave Detroit their only semblance of success since the glory days of the '50s. The NFL shouldn't sit around and wait for that to happen again. There might not be any Lions fans left by then.

So this is an open letter to Roger Goodell: PLEASE intervene here. Don't let the Lions keep putting out whatever it is they're putting out on the field, because it sure isn't an NFL team. Put an end to this madness, take control, and put a competent GM in place. Don't let Ford continue bumbling around in childish ignorance.