DOOM

Sunday's game against the Vikings was the final death blow to any absurd notions of hope that I might have had that this team might actually win one godforsaken game before the end of the year. It was the last gasp, the final shaking loose of any residual love I had for this years edition of the Lions, one last attempt at rummaging around for any internal spare change that I could find to keep my faith in this team from becoming completely and utterly bankrupt. But here we are, at 0-13, and if that no man's land of a record wasn't a clear enough statement of its own, the past week has hammered home the ugly truth, that not only are the Lions a horrible, horrible team on the verge of doing something that nobody else has ever done, but they are a franchise that has come apart completely, more broken than at any time in its long, ugly past. And that is really saying something.

First off, what happened against the Vikings itself is almost unimportant. The Lions lost, just like they lose every week. Big fucking deal. We've been here before. Almost exactly here as a matter of fact since Sunday's game played out almost exactly the same as the Lions earlier loss to the Vikings. The Lions surprisingly looked like the better team for much of the game. Their offense was competent if not spectacular, and their defense managed to corral Adrian Peterson just like they did in the first game. Had Rod Marinelli kicked two field goals instead of going for it on 4th and 1 and failing twice in the first half there is a very good chance that the Lions would have won that game. But he didn't, they lost by four fucking points and here we are again.

I could say over and over and over again that Rod Marinelli is a shitty coach, but he is the coach of an 0-13 team and so I really don't have to. The results speak for themselves, and yet, somehow, someway, there is the sneaking suspicion that at this time next year old Rod will be patrolling the sidelines yet again, somehow having been given a clean slate to work his hard nosed magic on the Lions. After all, clearly the issue is that he hasn't been given enough time. 0-13. Jesus. They should march Marinelli out of Ford Field clad in only his diaper and force him to run a gauntlet of angry out of work autoworkers in the middle of December in Detroit. It is cold, it is ugly and it is brutal and it is everything that this season has been.

But despite all of the pain and all of the madness, there was still an odd, lingering sense of hope that was shared between the Lions' fans and its players. There was this idea that we were all in this together. Well, that appears to have changed. After the loss on Sunday the fans decided to tell the players to go fuck themselves and Dominic Raiola responded by going wild and flipping off every fan he could see. It's to the point where the fans and players basically just want to tell each other to fuck off, and neither side is willing to apologize for this. In fact, Raiola, while saying that he doesn't want to apologize, came right out and said that he wishes he could give the fans his home address so they could come and settle it there. It would be bad enough that a player is saying that he wants to brawl with his own fans, but what's worse is that Raiola says that he's too afraid that people would come and shoot him. I mean, for fuck's sake, that's how bad things have gotten here. Lions players are now afraid that they will be gunned down like dogs by their own fans. HOW THE FUCK DID WE GET TO THIS POINT?

We are in a place where we have never been before and we have no recent history of success to draw upon to comfort us and no hope that the future will be significantly better. All we have are the numbers 0 and 13 staring at us and behind them, looming even larger on the horizon are the numbers 0 and 16. None of us have wanted to admit that those numbers could be real but there they are, and we have to face them now. They're going to happen, the Lions are going to go down as far and away the worst team ever and when people think of this team they won't think of them as loveable losers who tried hard but as Dominic Raiola flipping off fans. Oh well, at least we are on our fifth different quarterback of the year now that Daunte Culpepper is hurt. At least we are finding people work in this troubled economy. Jesus. The end is near and it looks really, really fucking ugly. There are only three games to go and the cackling and howling from all those motherfuckers in the pregame shows is going to get worse and this is all we are going to hear about. The players and fans will hate each other and by the time this season ends, we'll all feel like a bunch of traumatized vets with post traumatic stress disorder. Goddamn, we have known pain as Lions fans before, but this. . .