Recent Lions history lacks players worth liking

November 26, 11:46 AMDetroit Lions ExaminerChris Morgan

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One Lion worth remembering (AP photo)

I intended to make my last article before Thanksgiving an upbeat one. With how abysmal this season has been, there has not been much opportunity to write positive things about the Lions, quite simply because there has been nothing positive to discuss. So I was going to write about my favorite Lions players aside from Barry Sanders, because it is more or less a given that every Lions fan loves Sanders, one of the greatest and most exciting players in NFL history.

So I started thinking about who I wanted to include on my list, and I came to a startling and bleak revelation; I couldn't think of anybody. Seriously, I was drawing almost a total blank.

I thought of a few players who have been really good or great -- Herman Moore, Robert Porcher, Luther Ellis. But while those players are talented and were assets to the team, none of them really resonate with me as a player that I really liked, that I really enjoyed watching play.

When I think about the Tigers, Pistons, or especially the Red Wings I can think of plenty of players I love. Right now on the Wings alone there's Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Ozzie, Lidstrom, Cleary, and Franzen, who is probably my favorite of them all. That's six players playing on the team currently, let alone in all my years as a Wings fan.

Right now, there's not even six players on the Lions I like at all, really. Ernie Sims is pretty good.  I do like Calvin Johnson.  Kevin Smith has been impressive, Dan Orlovsky is OK, but not somebody who I'd want starting for this team if they ever want to have a winning record again.  I think Gerald Alexander is pretty good, but that's about it. Most of the team can jump in a lake for all I care.

Yet this is my favorite football team, and my favorite team in all of sports. How sad is it when you don't like the vast majority of players on your favorite team, when in all of the years you've spent rooting for the team, there are more players you dislike than like? That is my current plight as a Lions fan, and I presume it is not an uncommon problem amongst fans of this sorry organization.

What's the problem?

Well, for starters the Millen Era gave us plenty of players to hate and few to like. Charles Rogers and Mike Williams were both colossal busts and utterly reprehensible. Joey Harrington, while seemingly a nice enough guy, was just a downright bad player. I despise Jeff Backus more than almost any player currently on the Lions, and how he has continued to have a starting job in the NFL is beyond me. Shaun Rogers and Roy Williams both had their moments of brilliant play, but weren't players you really liked, particularly Rogers, who I was glad to see go, though Leigh Bodden has hardly set the world on fire.

Then, when you look into the past, what do you remember? I remember all the bad players, the overrated players, and the blown draft picks. I remember Scott Mitchell, Fernando Bryant, Bill Schroeder, and people of that ilk. I think of the Lions laundry list of running backs since Barry -- Greg Hill, Terry Allen, James Stewart.  Do you have any fond memories of any of these guys?

Additionally, have you looked at the Lions recent history of drafting running backs?

There was Sedrick Irvin, who totaled 42 carries in his career, all with the Lions before fading out of the league.

Then, the Lions drafted Reuben Droughns in the third round, and I still remember watching the preseason game where on his first carry as a Lion he hurt himself and went on injured reserve. He went on to have a couple of decent seasons, but of course those were after he left the Lions.

Luke Staley, fresh off winning the Doak Walker award for best running back in college football, never played a down in the NFL.

Kevin Jones was good when he played, but that was not often, and certainly he was not worth the first round pick we spent on him.

Then there's the third round pick they wasted on Brian Calhoun, who has been another mainstay of the injured reserve list.

Who are the faces of an NFL franchise? More often than not, the running backs and the quarterbacks. Since Sanders, there has not been a running back worth remembering, and almost every quarterback in Lions history fills you with horror to remember their tenure under center for Detroit.

So unfortunately my attempt to write an article about my favorite Lions players turned into the sad realization there are barely any players worth remembering, let alone consider a favorite. Hopefully Kevin Smith and Calvin Johnson can turn that around, and give us a couple players to remember fondly. Perhaps the new regime will draft a quarterback who sticks around for a long time.

Speaking of new regime and fond Lions memories, my favorite Lions moment in all honesty might be when I found out that Millen had been fired. That sums up this team's history in a nutshell, doesn't it?

However, I don't want this article to be an entirely dour experience for you, the reader. There is, after all, a comment section on these articles, and if you have any fond Lions memories you feel like sharing, please feel free to do so. Perhaps it will serve to buoy some holiday spirit before the Lions presumably get slaughtered by the Tennessee Titans.

As for now, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and I extend those wishes even to the homes of Matt Millen and Daunte Culpepper. Although, I can only assume Millen wasted his entire Thanksgiving food budget on a turkey that turned out to be a chicken and fell apart after cooking it and that Culpepper's attempts to pass the cranberry sauce will continually end up in the hands of the wrong person.