Lions Need to Give Stafford a Strong Veteran Presence Behind Him

Not to bring up the dead during this holiday season, but when Joey Harrington was in Detroit, struggling to become an NFL quarterback, the Lions organization didn’t do a lick to help him.

By his second season, the Lions tried to plug Joey into Steve Mariucci’s pattycake, West Coast offense, with garish results. Square peg, meet round hole.

But the most egregious thing the Lions did during Harrington’s formative years was something they didn’t do.

They never provided him with an honest-to-goodness, veteran NFL QB to help him along.

It wasn’t about the competition. Joey was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2002 draft. There should have been no illusions about whether he was the quarterback of the future—back then.

But all the Lions gave Harrington was a kid from Rutgers, Mike McMahon, and called it a day. They brought in Ty Detmer for a time, but that’s not really what I’m talking about here. They brought in Jeff Garcia in 2005, but Garcia was a Mariucci guy and still fancied himself a starter in the NFL. Plus, by 2005 Harrington was in his fourth season and he himself was halfway out the door in Detroit.

It may not have made one bit of difference, but we’ll never know whether his progression as an NFL quarterback would have been helped by the presence of a veteran backup who could have functioned as a mentor and sounding board.

What the Lions did was draft a blind mouse and gave him Mr. Magoo to work with.

Well, the Lions have a rare second opportunity to right a wrong. They can give Matthew Stafford someone to help him—and not Daunte Culpepper.

Not a guy who’s trying to audition for another job elsewhere. Not someone who’s done like dinner.

The Lions need to bring in a veteran who understands that his role is that of caddy and adjunct coach—not someone who thinks he can steal the starter’s job from Stafford.

I look around the league and I see someone like Mark Brunell, with the Redskins. Now that’s more like it.

In 1994, the Lions made a ferocious run toward the playoffs—but only after starter Scott Mitchell went down with an injury and veteran Dave Krieg took over. Krieg had one of the best stretches of his long career, and the Lions charged to the postseason.

So far, the Lions have provided Stafford—who’s only the franchise—with a self-serving Culpepper and a kid, Drew Stanton, whose confidence has been shot full of holes since being drafted by his hometown team.

Scott Linehan needs help, too. The offensive coordinator would be better served if he had a veteran guy who could take Stafford aside after practice and fill in any gaps created by the coaches.

There’s also the matter of just being in the NFL, period. Not only how to read defenses, but how to read life as a pro football player. How to carry yourself. How to handle not only the bull rush of a blitzing linebacker, but that of the media. Stuff like that.

Stafford’s the No. 1 guy in Detroit. There’s no debate about that. If things go according to plan, he’ll be a Lion for 10 years, at least. But those early years in the NFL are so key. It’s when habits—good and bad—are learned. It’s when confidence is built or destroyed forever.

Just ask Joey Harrington, if you can find him.

Last Night on “The Knee Jerks”: NHL Central Musings, Another Lions Waxing

Hockey took center ice, so to speak, last night on “The Knee Jerks,“ the weekly gabfest I co-host on Blog Talk Radio with Big Al Beaton, who’s rapidly beginning his own Internet writing empire.

We held our much anticipated NHL Central Roundtable, in which we hosted Bleacher Report writers from Chicago, Columbus, and Nashville. Our St. Louis guy had a conflict and couldn’t participate.

Joining us were Tab Bamford (Blackhawks), Ed Cmar (Blue Jackets), and Mark Willoughby (Predators). Each one of those guys were extremely knowledgeable and provided excellent analysis of their respective teams. We went a good 50 minutes and could easily have taken up the entire show time with that discussion.

But what would an episode of “The Knee Jerks” be without Al and me ripping on the Lions?

QB Daunte Culpepper was our target, with both of us agreeing that he should never take another snap in a Lions uniform. Al ranted about “moral victories” and I countered with one about fans who want the Lions to lose for “draft positioning.”

With the holiday approaching and it being a relatively quiet week around Detroit sports—and having discussed the Red Wings in the roundtable—we wrapped up a bit earlier than our usual two-hour allotment. Not before choosing our Jerks of the Week, of course!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, for updates on scheduled guests, time changes, etc.

Upcoming guests/topics:

Dec. 28: Tabletop sports game creator and business owner Keith Avallone

Jan. 4: Big Ten basketball preview

You can listen to the episode by clicking HERE.

Another Moral Victory, As Lions Don’t Embarrass Themselves Against Playoff-Bound Cards

If you look real hard at the NFL standings in this morning’s newspaper—squint, go cross-eyed, maybe dip the newsprint in lemon juice and hold it up to a black light—you’ll see a fourth column, nestled among W, L, and T.

It’s MV. And the Detroit Lions are among the league leaders in that secret society category.

MV—the Moral Victory. The Lions do pretty well against that spread; have for years, as a matter of fact.

The NFL’s Moral Victory is something that’s declared, not proven on any stat sheet; it doesn’t necessarily even jump out at you on the JumboTron scoreboard in the end zone.

The MV, loosely translated, means getting just due for something that should be routine.

The Lions lost yesterday—a distinct “L” in the commonly-accepted league standings that are visible to the naked, untrained eye. The scoreboard says so. It read Cardinals 31, Lions 24 when the sands of time ran out.

But hold on—a Moral Victory was declared! The first salvo was fired on that social media jobbie-do called Twitter.

“Lions lose, 31-24. But at least they didn’t quit after falling behind by 17,” was how one Twitterer described it, moments after the final gun.

Yeah, there’s that.

So I guess the Lions did quit the week before, in Baltimore, when the Ravens gave them a swirly and a Melvin and took their lunch money to the tune of 48-3.

No MV when you lose by 45, eh?

The Moral Victory means that you hang in there and don’t give up and, basically, come close but lose to a superior opponent. The NFL is filled with teams superior to the Lions, so the latter has more opportunities for the MV than most of their brethren, granted.

The 2-12 Lions fell behind yesterday to the 9-5 Cardinals, 17-0, and with the Lions you don’t know which way that can go. A 17-0 deficit is just as likely to turn into 34-3, or it could result in an MV.

The bereft-of-big plays Lions pulled a couple out of their…posterior, and just like that a football game broke out.

Safety Louis Delmas, a rookie who has the temerity to play as if he knows what he’s doing in this league, started the mini-onslaught with a 101-yard interception return. Considering it often takes the Lions’ offense several possessions to traverse such a distance, Delmas’s doing it in under 30 seconds was all the more impressive. 17-7 Cardinals.

Not long after, running back Maurice Morris, filling in for the ACL-torn Kevin Smith, boogied into the end zone to the tune of 64 yards—on ONE carry! Very un-Lions-like. 17-14 Cardinals.

Then beleaguered Jason Hanson even made a field goal, and the game was tied, 17-17.

At least the Lions weren’t quitting. A Moral Victory was in the air.

The Cardinals went ahead again, 24-17, and the Lions tied it—again. The sweet smell of MV filled Ford Field like Christmas cookies baking in the oven.

Of course, no one in their right mind truly thinks the Lions will win such a contest, so the Moral Victory beckons the faithful. They get high off of it.

The Lions aren’t quitting! They’re in the game in the closing minutes! Take a deep breath and inhale that!

Then, of course, there’s the inevitable collapse into defeat, another one goes under the “L” column, but at least there wasn’t embarrassment attached to this latest loss.

Another hallmark of the Moral Victory: escaping humiliation and abject failure.

Speaking of abject failure, a message for Lions QB Daunte Culpepper: Magglio Ordonez called—he wants his throwing arm back.

Culpepper was again ineffective on Sunday, underthrowing receivers—until a Hail Mary just before halftime that sailed thru the uprights—and generally looking like a guy whose NFL career is swirling down the drain. Which it pretty much is.

Watching Culpepper now, trying to portray an NFL quarterback, is like listening to William Hung sing; it’s impossible to do without making a face and turning away in dread.

Culpepper is done. Finished. History. Somewhere, a television studio and an Armani suit beckons him. Might as well get the graphic ready: DAUNTE CULPEPPER, NFL ANALYST.

If the Lions had any compassion, they’d pull the plug on Daunte today. Cut him and put him out of everyone’s misery. He made a gallant effort in the offseason, losing weight and displaying leadership vocally and having a terrific attitude. But the guy just can’t play anymore. Even Johnny Unitas soiled his legacy, stumbling around in a San Diego Chargers uniform at the end. So it’s not unique to Culpepper, this carrying on past your time thing.

The Moral Victory, though, is preferable to the ugly loss, I will grant you that. Less jokes and snide remarks, number one. The players can show their faces in public. The coach doesn’t have to rush to the film projector so that he may prepare his indictments and identify the perpetrators.

The MV column is in there, somewhere in the NFL standings. You just have to look for it.

If you can’t find it, just let us know. We in Detroit can locate it pretty easily.