MADISON HEIGHTS, MI -- The Detroit Lions unveiled a new logo and uniform today. They wanted you to come see! Get excited! Most important, buy the all-new gear!
Zzzzzzz.
The Lions, one of professional sports' most-deficient franchises when it comes to championships, winning percentage and creativity over the past 50 years, unveiled a new logo and uniform for the 2009 season at a Dunham's Sporting Goods store, a local Michigan retailer who earned a three-day exclusive sales right out of the deal.
What the Lions really did is take the easy road out. They could have completely re-made the franchise and its' battered psyche starting with a thorough overall of the team's brand and style. Instead, the leaping lion logo, formerly known as Bubbles, is merely modified with a little more flair, a little more leap and a set of teeth showing, but it's not a dramatic departure from the past by any account. The team's uniform numbers are a more vertical, rounded replacement of the boxed-in traditional numerals, a bit similar to the Chicago Bears or Pittsburgh Steelers but with a bulkier, more muscular style.
Either way, it's much like Ford's long-outdated vehicle platforms. Yes, it's a new look, but not enough to make you forget the old logo and losing ways. And while you can get away with minor modification to a classic car like the Mustang, the annual edition of the Lions is often more like an Edsel. Not to be repeated or remembered with any reverence.
The Lions had a chance to re-make the franchise. New coach. New players. New executive officers. New uniforms. Cheerleaders. New game day traditions, right? Instead, team leaders are executives rescued from the Millen umbrella, another 'new' coach touting change, no cheerleaders and a logo and uniforms that look and feel like the old Lions more than anything new.
Before I'm called a Hater, I used to own Lion season tickets as part of a family tradition that dated back to the 1950s, but I finally had to say 'enough' four years ago when my desire to go to the game was driven into submission by the constant losing and the heavy-handed culture of Lions management. I root for the Lions. I consider myself a fan -- a truthful fan -- but a fan nonetheless.
I actually dreaded Sunday because I knew the Lions would lose and I knew I didn't want to sit through it. I'd heard too many stories of employees or hired hands who were quickly blackballed if they offered any dissent or honest critique of the less-than-championship product within earshot of management. The media often squabbles with Lion handlers who take exception to negative opinion offered by local media on behalf of the Ford family. And who can forget the footage of the fan being chased within Ford Field for a Fire Millen sign?
Notice I haven't even mentioned the 0-16 mark of '08, the handful of wins the team has earned in the past decade against hundreds of losses or the fact the losing culture drove the greatest player in football history, Barry Sanders, into premature retirement in 1999 less than a season's worth of yards away from the career all-time rushing record.
I'm sure many will hurry to get their 'new' Lion gear and I hope the Lions re-make themselves into a winner. Really, I do, but more than 50 years of losing tells me I should wait. If history serves me, I don't have to worry about seeing this jersey being used after December until the Lions prove me wrong, right?
~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due in August 2009 from Arcadia Publishing
(Photo courtesy of www.DetroitLions.com and photographer Gavin Smith)
Personally, I'm glad the change was subtle. I like it.
Posted by: statman24 | May 01, 2009 at 13:46