9602060106
DETROIT FREE PRESS
961125
Monday, November 25, 1996
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM Free Press Sports Writer
Copyright (c) 1996, Detroit Free Press
LIONS FLUSHED AGAIN, AND NOT WITH SUCCESS
CHICAGO -- Barry Sanders, maybe the best running back in the history of
the game, was stuck in the corner with camera lights blinding his eyes. He
looked down. He mumbled his answers. For every time he mentioned "pride," he
mentioned "disappointment." For every time he said "honor," he said
"frustration." He sniffed between questions and pulled on his neck, as if
coaxing the words up through his throat. He never smiled.
A few hours earlier, on a cold, rain-soaked Soldier Field, Sanders became
the first back in history to exceed 1,000 yards in eight straight seasons. He
also passed O. J. Simpson for eighth place on the all-time rushing list. This
should have been a big day. A celebration of Barry's remarkable talent.
Instead, what does he have to show for it? Nothing but numbers, numbers,
numbers -- and this, another Sunday when a Detroit football season washes down
the sewer.
Everyone off the train. The 1996 campaign has officially derailed, a wreck
of cars, smoke and mangled steel. Wayne Fontes' crew will have to walk home
now -- the porous defense, the cornerbacks who can't tackle or knock anything
down, the offensive coordinators who can't handle the same problems week after
week, all of them. No more phony hot-air balloons, filled with Fontes speeches
about "no quit in this football team."
It no longer matters if the Lions quit on the season. The season quit on
them.
Everybody off the train.
Think it's bad now? It could get worse
"We are in a deep, deep, deep, deep hole," Fontes said. Well, Wayne, it's
deep all right, but it's not a hole, if you get my drift. This season is
cooked and so, in all likelihood, are you. This was an embarrassing final note
to the playoff- hope symphony, as bad as dropping the cymbals instead of
crashing them. And while it is next to impossible for the Lions to win their
last four games, it is entirely possible they could lose all four.
Scary thought, huh? Well, no scarier than Sunday's frightful performance,
in which the Lions went down, 31-14, to the Bears, who had broken 20 points
only twice this season. Chicago tried to give this game back. They handed the
Lions nine penalties, a five-yard punt, two lost fumbles, and the NFL's
most-sacked quarterback in history, Dave Krieg. The joke goes that Krieg makes
Dom DeLuise look mobile.
The Lions failed to sack him once.
You name the mistake, the Lions made it. Terrible tackling. Bad
play-calling. Interceptions. Forgetting Sanders. And the secondary? Well.
What's left to say about Curly, Moe and Larry?
Here was a play that summed it all up: the end of the first half, the
Lions hoping for a field goal to tighten the 24-14 deficit. Scott Mitchell
throws to Brett Perriman near midfield. Perriman is grabbed by a defender, and
instead of going down and calling time out, he spins around and tosses a
lateral that looks like something out of the Harlem Globetrotters, where the
ball is filled with helium. It lands in the arms of a surprised, 310-pound
Ray Roberts, the offensive lineman, who rumbled at Winnebago speed for a few
yards, until he lateraled -- illegally -- to Johnnie Morton. Whistles blew.
The refs took the remaining time off the clock as a penalty. And the Lions
went off the field like a bunch of clowns. All that was missing were the red
noses and the honking horns.
"We stunk the place up," Perriman said.
Everybody off the train.
Wasting Barry is the greatest shame
This is the end of delusion. The Lions can tell themselves whatever they
want now, week after week, until nobody is watching anymore, until nobody is
even in the stadium. They can tell themselves they should have won this game
or that game, they just missed this pass or that tackle. It's all a big tarp
pulled over the real problem: a lack of heart from certain players and total
lack of direction from the coaching staff. Does anyone even notice that the
flat-out awful secondary has been coached the last five seasons by Wayne
Fontes' brother, John, who was working in the World League and Arena Football
before Wayne gave him the job?
Since then, the elder Fontes has fired two defensive coordinators, but his
brother has stayed on, and the secondary has gotten worse and worse. I'm very
sympathetic to having your family around, but you be the judge of the results.
"The Bears aren't better than us," said a frustrated Scott Mitchell.
No, they're not.
"We had goals and we didn't reach them," groaned Henry Thomas.
No, you didn't.
We can agree or we can argue, it won't change a thing. Missing the
playoffs with a team this talented is unforgivable, far worse than getting
blown out by Philadelphia in the first round last year. So the Lions are going
backwards. They're 5-7 and back to playing for -- ugh -- pride.
That is depressing and disgusting, and you could see it in the lowered
eyes of the biggest prize this franchise has ever known. Barry Sanders should
not become a national symbol of wasted talent. But he is in danger of that
right now.
Mr. Ford, if you're reading this, you and your organization have reason to
be ashamed.
Everybody off the train. The next game is on Thanksgiving, but it'll be
tough to figure how those two things go together.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
COLUMN; FOOTBALL; LIONS; GAME; BEARS