Hey folks, just wanted to stop in and drop a quick word. I'm also a Lions fan, from the same board that Red Ramage is from. I've certainly never cheered for the Packers... except for that frustrating love I have for the way your franchise is structured and conducts itself. I adore the fact that your team is owned by the community, and that what may be the smallest market in all of North American professional sports can produce a world champion. The Packers, in that respect, represent everything that's right with the NFL, and I wish there were more franchises like them.
That being said, boy howdy do I want you to lose on Thursday.
Your arguments about the Lions being cheap are well-formed and do resonate, Rizzo. I'm not here to defend my team on that front, but I will give my perspective. This Lions team, at this point, comes across to me as a team in its adolescence. They kinda flail around a little, especially with physicality, and it's still to be determined exactly what their character will be. I think that, coming so recently off of 0-16, there's a certain amount of tough-talk and intimidation tactics that might be necessary for the team to develop real belief in itself. I hope that once that belief is firmly established, we can do a better job of being professionals at all times. But I think it may be hard for other fans, particularly fans of such established franchises as the Packers, to understand all that's going in to trying to change the culture and perception of the Detroit Lions. I heard Warren Sapp, in an interview, say that Suh is a young player who's still trying to decide what his personality on the field will be. I think that's a fair assessment of the entire team. But if you'd sat through what we Lions fans have endured for the last 10 years, you might understand how encouraged we are just to watch our team at least hitting back, even if we do throw a few sucker punches. At least we don't just roll over anymore.
The Packers are clearly the class of the field this year, and I agree with Ramage -- I think that you might be able to take four out of five against us. But this is the NFL, and we don't keep score that way. I think you roll us hard the last week of the season at Lambeau, but I also think that there's a chance that you guys are walking into a buzzsaw this week. You may be better, but right now, I'm not sure we care about that. Someone on this forum pointed out that Thanksgiving is our SuperBowl. This year, it's also our chance to make the playoffs. We're all in on this game, and I think we're gonna gut it out.
Thanks for putting up with us visiting. Nice forum you've got here.