Detroit Lions: Is It Time For The Ford Family To Sell The Team?

Is there an NFL team as unlucky as the Detroit Lions? The team has been historically bad for years. Despite their close proximity to the playoffs from time to time, they go right back to being a bad team year in and year out. You can claim there are teams struggling just as much, but has it been for as long?

Before getting into it, this is not a personal attack on their character. They could be complete saints, but when it comes to organizational operations, they haven’t done enough for the Detroit Lions to succeed. When was the last time you looked at a team’s schedule and thought “we’ve got the Lions this week. It’s going to be a tough game” with a straight face?

This isn’t an attack on the players, the coaches, or personnel but an attack on the product they’ve put out for years. The Lions organization has never invested in the team. Remember when Barry Sanders wanted Detroit to fork over a little bit of money so he’d stopped being put through the wringer? The Lions said no and he wanted a trade, to which again said no so he retired.

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Remember when the same thing happened to Calvin Johnson? Two of the best players in the game had so much passion for the team, but they just wanted help to get to the next level and the Lions said no. It’s almost as if the team knew that those two were enough to get fans back in the stands and sell jerseys and that’s all they cared about in the end. You had a top running back of all-time and a top wide receiver of all-time and neither wanted to put their body on the line knowing they’d never reach the big dance. Maybe there was more to it than that, but in the end, players want to win.

The Detroit Lions are where careers go to die, usually at an early age. It’s not fair to the players, the coaches, or the fans for ownership to do the bare minimum needed to own a team. This year’s Lions team has been in so many close games that are lost by one score or a last-second field goal. Dan Campbell has this team going in the right direction if they can get the right pieces but will they get help this offseason?

Of course not. They’ll have the cap space to make moves, but players don’t want to go there knowing the team is going nowhere fast. The Ford’s have owned the Lions for so long, but treat the organization like a novelty and not the proud franchise it should be. Detroit and the Lions have so much history that it should be an honor to play for them, but without proper leadership and investment, they may never get there. Maybe it’s time for the team to have new ownership then maybe they’ll finally turn it around.