Search
"Pride of the Lions", nice as it is, smells of desperation
Written by Al Beaton   
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 22:33

At halftime of the November 22nd Cleveland Browns game, the Detroit Lions plan on introducing the "Pride of the Lions". It's essentially a Ford Field ring of honor, with the franchise inducting a charter class of 12 former players. All 12 are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Pride of the Lions

Here's the scoop, straight from the Lions' press release:

“The players who will be honored represent the very best of the best to ever play for the Lions,” said Lions President Tom Lewand. “It is an honor to induct them as our Pride of the Lions charter class. The names of other Lions’ greats will be added to the Pride in the future but we could select no better representatives for our first class than these 12 standouts.”

The Pride of the Lions will be a very visible feature on the old Hudson’s warehouse of Ford Field (south suite levels) that will include the players’ jersey number, name and years played with the Lions.

The charter class is a collection of the most outstanding Lions’ of all-time. All 12 players are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and they represent virtually every generation of Detroit Lions Football.

Who will be the 12 players? Here's my educated guess, in no particular order...

  1. Charlie Sanders
  2. Barry Sanders
  3. Lem Barney
  4. Lou Creekmur
  5. Doak Walker
  6. Yale Lary
  7. Joe Schmidt
  8. Jack Chirstansen
  9. Bobby Layne
  10. Dutch Clark
  11. Night Train Lane
  12. Alex Wojciechowicz

Who could be future additions? A handful of, again, educated guesses immediately come to mind...

  • Alex Karras
  • Wayne Walker
  • Dick Labeau
  • Mike Lucci
  • Gail Cogdill
  • Billy Sims
  • Herman Moore
  • Kevin Glover
  • Lomas Brown
  • Chris Spielman
  • Bob Hoernschemeyer
  • Nick Pietrosante
  • Darris McCord
  • Roger Brown
  • Doug English
  • Bubba Baker
  • Leonard Thompson
  • Bennie Blades
  • Jason Hanson
  • Eddie Murray
  • Cory Schlesinger

What I am wondering is why the Lions have waited so long to do such a thing. I could imagine it's something the Lions' marketing department dreamed up in desperation, trying to drum up sales for a game no one would dream of attending otherwise.

Why else would you want to see Lions vs. Browns? To see good football? Right...

What's worse, these players (or their living relatives) will be introduced at halftime in front of...nobody. Well, maybe a cadre of Browns fans who make the trip north will be there. But true Lions fans? Won't be a soul.

After a decade of suck, it doesn't matter who is honored at halftime. The honorees will be greeted by swaths of empty seats. Which is a damn shame for those players and their families.

Not for the Lions, of course. They've deservedly brought this apathy upon themselves. They have no one else to blame.



Reddit! Facebook! Technorati! StumbleUpon! BallHype: hype it up!
Comments (5)Add Comment
Missing Lion
written by Remembering_Greg_Landry, November 05, 2009
How about Joe Don Looney?

This is a great idea for a WINNING team. Might as well make a complete farce out of this and put Joe Don up there. Seriously, you want to inaugerate the "ring of pride" during a skid where you are 2-30, possibly soon to be 2-31 after losing to the 30th worst team in the league? If I had tickets, I wouldn't come just for the embarassment factor. I'd love to see some of the old Lions, but, geez, if you were one of the 12, would you like to be there? Only thing more embarassing would be if they walked out with their pants around their ankles.

Lions Pride Inductees
written by B-City , November 05, 2009
Who forgot to include the best o-lineman ever, jeff backus? LMAO
...
written by Big Al Beaton, November 05, 2009
Funny, guys.

As I was compiling names, it became obvious the one sort of player the Lions have lacked thru the years...a great QB. But that goes without saying, right?

As for the ceremony, it's going to be in thr same vein as the Tigers' lame Sparky Anderson tribute, donw when they were losing over a 100 games a season. Sparky had his day while Comerica was all but empty. It was shameful, really.

Just as the "Pride of the Lions" ceremony is bound to be...
...
written by Uncle Omar, November 05, 2009
Notice how only one of these guys played after 1990? And that most played before 1959? Coincidence?
...
written by Big Al Beaton, November 05, 2009
Sad to say, not at all, Omar. Not at all.

Even though most of the Lions' HoF members played in the glory days of the 50s, there were almost always a handful of good to great players on the team from the 60s to the 90s. It's as if the well ran bone dry of talent after 2000.

"I wonder why" Al asks rhetorically...

Write comment

busy
< Prev   Next >
 

About Bloguin

Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.

Advertisers

The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.

Bloggers Wanted

The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.

The Bloguin Login

The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!