Marinelli Should Be Run Out Of Town If Kitna Plays Against Bills

The Lions have one more exhibition game — against the Bills in Buffalo tomorrow night. If starting quarterback Jon Kitna plays one down, then head coach Rod Marinelli ought to be fired.

Actually, firing him would be too good for him. The coach should be tortured — forced to watch a Facts of Life marathon, or some other heinous thing. Then we should consider some concrete shoes and a dunk in the Detroit River.

The Lions might not be all that in 2008, but they will finish somewhere south of the equator if Kitna goes down for any length of time. He’s no Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas, but he’s the best the Lions have, easily, behind center. And his three cameos in the pre-season, against other teams’ starters, suggest that he’s more than ready to go when the curtain rises for real, September 7 in Atlanta.

So why tempt fate and play Kitna against the Bills? What good can come from such an appearance? But plenty can go wrong.

Let me take you back to 1979. The Lions were coming off a 1978 season where they finished strong, winning six of their last nine games. Leading the charge was former World Football League QB Gary Danielson, from Dearborn Divine Child and Purdue University. Danielson peaked against the Vikings on the final Saturday of the season, throwing and running the Lions to a 45-14 win. Some so-called experts predicted some big things for the Lions in ’79.

Then came the final exhibition game, in Baltimore.

Danielson, needlessly appearing in the game, scrambled out of trouble. Only, he didn’t quite make it. He went down in a heap after being caught, and mangled his knee. Out for the season — done, after a meaningless play in a meaningless game. Then, suddenly, the Lions’ regular season turned meaningless.

Veteran Joe Reed was elevated to no. 1, but Reed was about as mobile as a telephone pole, and before long he was gone, too, to injury. That left the Lions’ offense in the rookie hands of Jeff Komlo. The team finished 2-14, with Danielson on crutches and Reed recuperating. Danielson returned in 1980, and the Lions finished 9-7. It was no coincidence.

Now let me take you to 2003. Final pre-season game. Running back James Stewart, playing for God knows what reason, goes down with a career ending (ultimately) shoulder injury.

The Lions, as usual, have no capable backup quarterback — no veteran who can step in and run the show. The roster shows Dan Orlovsky, an injured Drew Stanton, and recently signed Drew Henson. The thought of Kitna going down ought to make your skin crawl.

So why there’s even any question whether Kitna should suit up and enter the game in Buffalo tomorrow night, is anyone’s guess. I don’t even want him to trot on the field, only to be called back to the sideline. He may suffer a season-ending toe stub, with the Lions’ luck. Certainly bring Kitna along for the plane ride, and let him help out on the sideline, baseball cap and earphone adorning his bald head. But don’t let him anywhere near a huddle, unless it’s the post-game prayer.

According to the papers, Marinelli hasn’t confirmed yet whether Kitna will play tomorrow, nor how much, if he does. Again, there hasn’t been a no-brainer this obvious since Moses pondered whether to part the Red Sea.

Yes, it’s true that (God forbid) Kitna could go down in the regular season opener. But losing a QB, or any front line player, in a game that counts in the standings is a lot easier to swallow than to lose one in any game played before Labor Day. And yes, Kitna has proven to be durable; he has started all 32 games since he’s been a Lion. He’s barely missed any playing time due to injury (last year’s concussion against the Vikings notwithstanding). Still, only bad things can happen when you play your starting quarterback in the fourth and final pre-season game — the Mother of All Meaningless Games. The only players who the fourth pre-season game means anything to are those fighting for roster spots. With the trio of quarterbacks below him on the depth chart, Jon Kitna hardly has to wage THAT battle. So don’t play him. Not for one down. Don’t even let him put his helmet on.

The head coach is no dumb-dumb. He should get that, shouldn’t he?

Kitna, For All His Warts, Gives Lions Some Stability

The words reverberated all over the country, not just in Detroit. It was tough talk, if not foolish, and so naturally the words were mocked and derided.

Jon Kitna, the Lions quarterback, was asked to complete a sentence. It was spring of 2007.

“If there’s one thing you could say to Lions fans about the 2007 season,” he was asked, “what would it be?”

“That I would be disappointed if we didn’t win at least ten games,” Kitna replied.

The questioner was me. And the words, repeated again a short while later to the rest of the media, grew legs, as they say in the business.

They barely made a ripple when Kitna spoke them to me, over the phone for one of those quickie Q & A pieces, when I was working for a now-defunct Detroit sports magazine. But when he repeated them soon after, for a radio station’s consumption, then you had something.

“JON KITNA SAYS THE LIONS WILL WIN TEN GAMES!”

It was all over the radio dial, and the newspapers, and the Internet.

But nowhere was it reported that had I not posed the question to him, Kitna may never have uttered the bold statement. Oh well.

The Lions won all of three games in 2006, and the last of those three came on the season’s final Sunday. So to predict – rather, expect – a 233% increase in wins from a franchise that has had as much success on the football field in the last 50 years as Charlie Brown has in kicking the football out of Lucy’s hold, well …

I reminded Kitna that his words would appear in print, after he made the proclamation into his cell phone.

“Doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said.

Obviously not, because he clearly enjoyed saying them, over and over. When challenged, Kitna refused to back down. And really, when you think about it, what would you have your quarterback say?

“Gosh, I guess I would tell the fans to get ready for another bad season, folks.”

Is that preferable?

The Lions didn’t win ten games in 2007, though they enjoyed a jackrabbit 6-2 start. Kitna looked extremely clairvoyant. Then a 1-7 finish made him a liar, or at the very least, misguided.

Kitna’s gumption was fueled by the quality of the opponents on the Lions schedule last season. When he repeated his assertion to other media outlets, he did add one rider: that when he looked at the team’s schedule, he figured on a winning bonanza, based on the foibles of the teams on the opposite sideline. Never mind that those teams no doubt said pretty much the same thing about the Lions, fresh off their 3-13 year.

But this isn’t about Jon Kitna’s rose-colored glasses (he again predicted something similar to ten wins for 2008). It’s about how he has suddenly become a rarity when it comes to Lions football.

Next week, when the Lions open training camp, Kitna will show up as the unadulterated #1 quarterback. It will be the third straight summer that he will do so, and if he survives it, 2008 will be the third straight year that no one but Kitna has started a game as Lions quarterback.

That may not seem like great shakes, but in a city where the metaphor for quarterback stability is a carousel, or a revolving door, it kinda is. Kitna provides some consistency at QB, and whether you like him or not, or consider him mediocre or not, there you have it. The Lions may not have Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, or even Eli Manning, but nor do they have to truly worry about who will line up under center when the curtain goes up in September – barring injury, that age-old disclaimer.

No “quarterback controversy” in Detroit, not now. Other than the 35-year-old Kitna (he’ll be 36 in September), the Lions possess Drew Stanton and Dan Orlovsky on their roster. That’s it. Stanton missed all of his rookie season last year due to injury, and Orlovsky is, well, Orlovsky: a backup with no real credentials other than he shows up, works hard, and might have some potential. Kind of like most second or third-string quarterbacks in the NFL.

So don’t tell me, with a straight face, that either Stanton or Orlovsky pose any genuine threat to the veteran Kitna when it comes to who will be the Lions starting quarterback in 2008.

The Lions haven’t enjoyed such stability at QB in recent years. And when I say recent years, I’m going back about four decades or so.

Do not talk to me about Scott Mitchell or Joey Harrington – three-year starters who were as soft as Charmin tissue and about as accurate a representation of blue collar Detroit as Chardonnay wine and Gouda cheese. Do not come at me with Erik Kramer, who brokered one magnificent playoff game against Dallas into folk hero status here. The truth was, Kramer was an average quarterback, at best, who won over Lions fans hearts in a jiffy before fleeing to the Bears as a free agent. He didn’t do much in Chicago, really.

Talk not of Gary Danielson or Eric Hipple or Greg Landry or Bill Munson or Karl Sweetan or Milt Plum. They all had their moments, but they all were forever, it seemed, in a life-or-death struggle with another who wanted his job, and who was just about the same in quality. Hence the carousel. And the revolving door.

Jon Kitna is as good as it gets in Detroit right now, and at least he’s got some blue collar in him. He’s a tough customer whose sleeve-worn Christianity should not be misconstrued for weakness. He’s as close a thing we’ve had to beer-and-shot Detroit, at quarterback, since maybe Bobby Layne. Though Kitna is no Bobby Layne, of course. He’s Jon Kitna, and that’s just going to have to do. Bold, misguided words and all.

For One Week Anyway, Kitna Took Us Down Memory Layne

When Jennifer Hammond reported it from the sidelines last Sunday, I couldn’t help but form my lips into a curved grin.

Until then, all we had seen of Lions quarterback Jon Kitna for much of the second quarter and throughout the third, and into the fourth, was him standing on the sidelines, hands tucked against his shoulder pads, watching. Just like me, in my living room. Why, he didn’t need shoulder pads to do that.

Kitna assumed that pose, which seemed to never change whenever the Fox Sports folks chose to show him to us, thanks to being knocked woozy by a pack of nasty Minnesota Vikings. And he watched, helpless, as we all did, while backup J.T. O’Sullivan, bless his inexperienced heart, gamely tried to keep the Lions in the game.

But then, midway through the fourth quarter, the Fox cameras again captured Kitna. And this time he wasn’t merely watching. He was throwing, warming up, though still with a slight hint of “Wha?” on his face.

That’s when The Hammer, the ever-resourceful Hammond, gave her report.

Seems as though Kitna, who was obviously warming up to return to the ballgame, which by now was tied, 17-17, had a message for his offensive line.

“Just give me some time,” Kitna told his blockers, according to Jennifer.

That’s when the grin spread my lips.

Bobby Layne, old #22, stepped into a Lions huddle back in 1953. At stake was only the championship of the entire football world. The Lions were backed up, the old “H”-style goalposts in their own end zone crowding them for space, with just a few minutes left. And the Lions trailed the Browns, 16-10, at Briggs Stadium. No pressure.

Layne, according to legend (and supported by eyewitnesses), looked into the huddle. But mainly he looked at his linemen – the men charged with protecting the irascible QB. It was a job that could be hazardous to your health – if you were a lineman. Layne had been known to kick the shins of blockers who failed to block successfully.

“Alraht…y’all block and ole Bobby’ll pass ya raht to the championship.”

Just give him some time, in other words. In Jon Kitna’s words, last Sunday.

Kitna was battling the after effects of a possible mild concussion. Layne, on that December Sunday, might have been battling the after effects of too much Cutty Sark the night before.

The line blocked for Layne, Bobby zipped in some passes, and the Lions marched toward glory. They won, on a Layne TD pass in the closing seconds. It was the Lions’ second straight championship.

Layne would kick the shins of blockers who blew an assignment

So here was Kitna last Sunday, after simply asking for some time to find his myriad of receivers in the Mike Martz offense. The line blocked – most of the time. And when it did, Kitna completed passes. And when it didn’t, Kitna ran, hurling his body toward first down markers, completely without regard to his own health. Or maybe completely out of his mind. Concussion and all, you know.

Kitna showed no regard for his own health against the Vikes

In the fourth quarter, Roy Williams caught a pass inside the Vikings’ 20-yard line and made a move toward the end zone. But he fumbled. The Vikings recovered. End of that drive. Layne might have placed another kick into that receiver’s shins. But Kitna is too nice for all that. Plus – concussion and all.

In overtime, Kitna was at it again, running if necessary, throwing when he had the time. Then, a handoff to Brian Calhoun gained 17 yards, well within field goal range. Moments later, Jason Hanson booted the game-winner, after missing a longer such kick late in regulation.

The Lions had won this crazy, turnover and mistake-filled game. A game they would have lost in years past – and had, quite often.

Kitna later talked about the “miracle” of his return to health on the sidelines as the Lions soldiered on without him. Deeply religious, it was the best explanation he could come up with – for how he could be concussed one moment, and un-concussed the next. At least, un-concussed enough to run around recklessly when the blockers needed their shins kicked.

“Alraht…y’all block and ole Bobby’ll pass ya raht to the championship.”

“Just give me some time.”

Fifty-four years, just about, separated those two lines from Lions quarterbacks. Maybe something similar was uttered in between by one of the unfortunates trying to lead the team to victory. Somehow I doubt it.

“That was special,” Lions coach Rod Marinelli told the enthralled press after the game about Kitna’s heroics. “He’s tough. This is a tough city, and it has a tough quarterback representing it.”

“It was a miracle,” Kitna kept saying.

His teammates raved about Kitna afterward. Just as Layne’s did, routinely, in the glory years of the 1950s.

In Week 1, the Lions gave away a big lead, fell behind in the fourth quarter, and appeared ready to roll over, as in years past. But Kitna, this time un-concussed, led a game-winning drive.

He did it again in Week 2. In overtime.

In both games, Kitna threw interceptions in the other team’s end zone, both times in the first quarter. It was said that Layne, a master at quarterbacking, wouldn’t put much stock into the first half. He used it as a big experiment. He would try passes and plays, sometimes just to see if they would work. He threw interceptions. But Layne only cared to keep the Lions close, so they could pull it out at the end. Mostly, they did. And Kitna, thru two weeks of the 2007 season, has committed costly first half turnovers, only to make up for them in the end.

Two images strike me as I bang out these words. One is of Scott Mitchell, lying prone on the ground as if he’d been shot, during a playoff game at Tampa Bay. Mitchell, all 6-foot-6 of him, appeared ready for his last rites. Then the TV replays showed us what happened, and the play that put Mitchell six feet above where he acted as if he belonged, was nothing more than a routine NFL hit, it seemed. Yet Mitchell lay motionless, for several minutes, before getting up and walking off the field. It was hardly an inspiring moment for his teammates. They used a lot of words to describe Scott Mitchell in Detroit. “Tough” wasn’t one of them.

The other image is Kitna, last Sunday, scrambling for a first down. He ran without direction, but with definite purpose. He didn’t use the safe move of the NFL quarterback – sliding to the turf to avoid injury. He ran like the old time quarterback – 100% of his body available for hitting. And when he got hit – which he did, hard – he bounced right back up, like a super ball. The anti-Mitchell.

For now, anyway, the Lions appear to finally have a QB who has the moxie and sense of drama as Bobby Layne. So I must agree with Jon Kitna.

It’s a miracle.

Eagles Didn’t Always Soar In The NFL

The emotional football coach, never one to be shy to squeeze a few wet ones from his eyes, stood in the locker room to give his pre-game speech. And his voice quaked as he spoke in halting fashion.

“Twelve years,” the coach said, pacing the room, looking at his players. “Twelve years have gone by since the Eagles have come out winners. Well, we’re gonna come out winners today.

“We’ve lost a few we should have won, but guess what? We’ve won a few we should have lost. We’re right where we deserve to be — playing for the first winning record in Philadelphia since 1966.”

Dick Vermeil was perhaps 30 pounds lighter as he delivered that speech in 1978, in full view of the NFL Films cameras. He wore a garish white belt around his checkered polyester trousers, the fashion statement for football coaches back in the day. It was the year of the Miracle in the Meadowlands, when Herman Edwards scooped up a Joe Pisarcik fumble and took it to the house to beat the Giants in the waning moments, when a simple kneel-down would have sealed the deal for New York. That’s probably one of the games Vermeil was referrring to. Likely.

The Eagles won that day, the final game of the ’78 season, and had themselves a 9-7 record. And Vermeil was right. It was the first winning football record in Philadelphia since the days of Joe Kuharich as coach and Norm Snead at quarterback.

Jaworski wasn’t the most talented QB, but his toughness led the Eagles to Super Bowl XV

The Lions haven’t gone 12 years since their last above-.500 record. It only seems that way. In fact, a quick trip to the data files shows that in the previous 11 seasons before this one, the Lions have actually managed to have two such winning campaigns — 1997 and 2000. So the Eagles of 1967-77 were worse in that regard.

It might be hard to imagine now, with a Super Bowl appearance and annual trips to the playoffs in recent years, but the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t always soar. Far from it.

The Lions haven’t won an NFL championship since 1957. But the Eagles aren’t much better. Their last title came in 1960. In fact, the Lions from 1960-75 were a far superior team than the Eagles in that same time frame. But then Philly hired Vermeil from UCLA, and all that changed. The Eagles made Super Bowl XV in 1981. In the quarter century since, the Eagles have fielded competitive teams far more often than they haven’t.

The Eagles ended their misery through the coaching sleight of hand of Vermeil and the tough-as-nails quarterbacking of Ron Jaworski. And with a swarming defense.

Lions QB Jon Kitna earned points last Sunday for his body-sacrificing in the OT win over Minnesota. He returned from a mild concussion to lead the team to victory. It had old curmudgeons like me recalling the days of Bobby Layne, mainly because I would defy you to come up with a similar example from a Lions quarterback between 1958, Layne’s last year in Detroit, and last Sunday. Coach Rod Marinelli loves the word “tough”, and he used it often in describing Kitna’s performance.

“That was special,” the coach said after the game. “That’s toughness right there. He’s tough. This is a tough city and it deserves a tough quarterback. And that’s what this city has — a tough quarterback representing it.”

Those might have been the words of Dick Vermeil in describing Ron Jaworski, circa 1978.

So if you look at the Eagles, this week’s Lions opponent, and think that they’ve been good forever, hold on. It only seems that way.

Kitna Leaves No Question That He’s "The Man"

There will always be some people who aren’t going to care for Jon Kitna. No matter what. That’s fine. Some folks’ dog house is like a roach motel — once you check in, you never check out.

I was on the fence about Kitna myself. Too many costly turnovers to my liking, and always in the fourth quarter it seemed. I had a nagging feeling that he was in that bursting-at-the-seams category of the Mediocre Quarterback, in which so many NFL signal callers seem to reside. Good at times, but not at a level needed to win anything of any importance.

I’m not on the fence any longer.

I don’t know whether Kitna is good enough to lead the Lions any further than a game or two into the playoffs, but I do know this: the Lions can ill-afford to lose him for any length of time. And when was the last time you could say that about any Lions starting QB and keep a straight face?

Kitna was fabulous in yesterday’s thrilling, “I don’t want it, you can have it” 20-17 OT victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

He finally put an end to the nonsensical turnover contest the two teams were engaging in by taking matters into his own hands — literally. Re-entering the game midway thru the fourth quarter after sitting out most of it with a case of wooziness, Kitna made a Bobby Layne-like return. Sideline reporter Jennifer Hammond said Kitna told his offensive line, “Just give me time,” a la Layne in the waning moments of the 1953 NFL championship game, when Bobby told his line, “Y’all block and ole Bobby’ll pass ya raght to the champee-enship.” Kitna, in OT, caught his own pass and ran. He scrambled and ran. Sometimes he just ran, for the hell of it. And, of course, he completed the requisite passes in between. He turned the Ford Field crowd on, rallied his teammates behind him, and took control of the starting job and his place as team leader with about as firm a grip as any QB this town has this side of Mr. Layne.

Really, is there any doubt now that Kitna is the QB for this team? Chant for his removal all you want, you anti-Kitna-ers, but if you’re looking for J.T. O’Sullivan, bless his heart, or Dan Orlovsky to be “the man,” then you’re simply delusional.

Ahh, but a mild scolding here for the Lions — not to rain on anyone’s parade. Why there isn’t a capable veteran on the sidelines, wearing a baseball cap and carrying a clipboard, an earphone stuck into his side hole, is beyond my comprehension. Yes, Kitna played every offensive snap in 2006. But how often does that happen once, let alone two years in a row? It would be nice if, heaven forbid Kitna goes down again, the Lions could hand the reins over to a guy who’s played a little bit in this league. Someone who won’t throw lazy passes into double coverage, as O’Sullivan did, looking for Roy Williams. Someone who’s not, essentially, a rookie, as O’Sullivan and Orlovsky are. Essentially.

I’m not trying to cause trouble here, or start a QB controversy. The job is Kitna’s — no doubt about that. But don’t forget what veteran Dave Krieg did for the Lions in 1994 when Scott Mitchell got hurt. It never hurts to have a guy on the sidelines with whiskers instead of peach fuzz.

But back to the Lions. They, for the second week in a row, won a game that they would have lost in the past. It’s nice to talk about the football for a change, instead of overweight receivers and overcooked team presidents. Were there mistakes? Absolutely. And Kitna himself has made some — but now at least he’s throwing his interceptions into the end zone in the first quarter instead of the fourth. You take improvement any way you can in this league.

But the Lions triumphed. They played thru their mistakes. And they took advantage of the other guy’s. When backup QB Brooks Bollinger entered the game in OT, there was no Chris Weinke-type magic (remember Carolina beating the Lions a couple years ago that way?) to beat them. When Jason Hanson missed a 48-yard FG try late in regulation, the Vikes didn’t make him pay. Their own 52-yarder hit the upright. And Kitna caught that pass to himself. Bollinger bobbled a snap in OT, and the Lions turned it into the winning kick. Aren’t those the kinds of plays the Vikings have used to terrorize the Lions since, oh, 1968??

No, you don’t have to like Jon Kitna as your quarterback. You can say that he’s not anywhere near Peyton Manning’s area code. You can whine all you want that he’s no. 1 in Detroit. But there’s absolutely no one on the roster who can hold a candle to him right now. And I’ll take him. I’ll take him just fine. He gave his body to the team in the name of victory. That’ll win me over every time.

Forget What Lions Did; It’s What They DIDN’T Do That Was Lovely

I’m sure some of it wafted over to you, like something foul-smelling from the kitchen garbage, in the first quarter. The Lions capped off a 99-yard drive by … throwing an interception into the end zone. Maybe you didn’t get it that badly until Roy Williams made like Mike Williams and let an easy catch spurt out of his hands, into those of a timely Raiders DB — late in the third quarter, leading to a gap-narrowing TD. Certainly it must have been there in full force, midway thru the fourth quarter, when the Raiders took their first lead after spotting the Lions 17 points.

You know what I’m talking about. The “here we go again” feeling that I believe has been copyrighted and trademarked by Lions fans. I can’t imagine any fans of any other NFL city being able to get such a feeling without the expressed written consent of those in metro Detroit, and the surrounding areas.

BUT — and this is where we should officially declare that there may be, kinda sorta, possibly, I’m hoping, some change in paradigm here — the Lions didn’t flinch. They didn’t implode. They didn’t engage in monkeyshines in the fourth quarter. They didn’t curl up into the fetal position while turnovers and penalties and a Swiss cheese defense exposed itself.

Yes, it’s what they DIDN’T do, I think, that was most impressive about the Lions and their 36-21, Opening Day victory over the Raiders, in the Black & Silver Nation’s backyard.

We’ve seen plenty what the Lions CAN do, when the spirit moves them. Yes, they can move the ball. Yes, they can put up some points on occasion. Yes, they can take first half leads. Yes, they can silence another team’s home crowd for periods of time. Yes, they can set themselves up for victory. This we know. So it was quite refreshing to see them NOT do some of those other, uglier things.

The Raiders are not an elite NFL football team. This, we know also. They will, by all rights, be lucky to win more than three games all season. But, as we all know, the quality of the Lions’ opponent has rarely mattered in the past. They’ve lost to bad teams before. Plenty of them. Another come-from-ahead loss, to a brutal Oakland team, would have made 2007 a long season, in the shadows of Labor Day no less.

Didn’t happen. See? Today is all about what DIDN’T occur.

But back to Raider Nation for a moment — specifically that stupid “Black Hole Cam” that Fox Sports employed, ad nauseum, throughout the game. How many times, Mr. Director, are you going to show us the same damn camera shot of idiots dressed up like Kiss meets Darth Vader? Didn’t they have any consideration for the viewing audience in Detroit? Sheesh. Shame on Fox, for stooping to such minor league, local cable-type shenanigans.

OK. Back to the Lions. If they can get any assemblance of a running game going — say, maybe 120 yards per game — then they’ll be awfully hard to defend. Kitna threw the ball to everyone. I think the only Lions receiver who didn’t get a touch was Herman Moore — kind of like how Herman was used during the Bobby Ross days. Tatum Bell hit for 87 yards on just 15 carries. Pretty efficient. But rather than Bell getting chunks of yards — the majority of those 87 were on but a few carries — to pad his stats, I’d like to see him grind them out more. It may sound crazy, but I think I’d prefer 25 carries for 100 yards than 15 for 87. More rushes means the offense is more balanced. It also probably means the Lions aren’t down by two touchdowns at halftime, as has been their wont.

The Lions blew a big lead, but didn’t fold. They lost momentum, but didn’t panic. They regained the lead, then didn’t let the Raiders back into the game.

And I didn’t have heartburn at the end, after watching these guys play. Yes, it was a “didn’t” type of day, indeed.

Easy To Mock Kitna’s Prediction, But Why?

The easiest thing to do is laugh. To mock. To roll your eyes. To go searching for Kool-Aid mustaches on their lips.

In recent fits of boosterism and bravado, undaunted by the pearls of history’s wisdom, Lions quarterback Jon Kitna and receiver Mike Furrey have put quantitative labels on their expectations for their football team this autumn.

“I think we can win 10 games, at least,” Kitna has said on more than one occasion about the 2007 season. One of the first people he told that to was me. I was interviewing him wayyy back in March for my former employer, when he laid it on me. The question was, “If you could say one thing to Lions fans about 2007, what would it be?”

That’s when Kitna, fearlessly, made the 10-win prediction. I reminded him that his words would be printed. “That doesn’t scare me one bit,” he told me.

Not long after, Kitna repeated the assertion at Lions HQ in Allen Park, during one of those mini-camps. Then it started to get legs. And soon afterward, of course, it got derided.

Furrey, perhaps intoxicated by the success of his first ever golf outing that was a fundraiser for his foundation, last week told the Free Press that he concurred with his quarterback.

“If you look at us on paper, we should absolutely win at least 10 games,” he said. “All of us (teammates), if you ask us, feel we can win at least 10 games.”

The grandiose numbers didn’t stop there, at least not with Kitna.

How many touchdown passes, Jon, will you throw in 2007?

Everyone knows that the QB campaigned for the selection of WR Calvin Johnson from Georgia Tech with the #2 overall draft pick. He said as much to me, back in March.

“Boy, if he’s available, I don’t know how you pass him up,” Kitna said over the telephone from Washington state. “He’s the best receiver prospect to come along in 10 years.”

So with Johnson nestled as a Lion, Kitna talked about TD passes recently to some media.

“In the huddles during mini-camp we were kind of tossing around the number 50,” he said.

Excuse me?

“Fifty touchdown passes.”

The NFL record is 49, set by Peyton Manning in 2005.

OK, laugh if you must. That’s fine. Squawk that Jon Kitna lives in a dreamland, some sort of football Shangri-La. Maybe even order a drug test immediately.

So Kitna and Furrey believe in their team. You got a problem with that?

But here’s the deal: I don’t recall any other Lions quarterback, or receiver, or anyone else for that matter, who attached hard numbers to their formulaic words of optimism.

Greg Landry didn’t say such things. Nor did Gary Danielson, or Eric Hipple. Or Erik Kramer or Rodney Peete. Certainly not Scott Mitchell, and definitely not even Joey “Blue Skies” Harrington.

No Lions quarterback has had the footballs to lay a win total or a TD pass figure out there, to be consumed and regurgitated by the media and the blood-sniffing bloggers. No one has dared to talk so boldly.

So what if it all seems like a delusional fantasy?

At least the quarterback believes in the team, and so do, apparently, many others.

“Coach Marinelli has the people around here now who believe in him and what we’re doing here,” Furrey said. The inference was that that wasn’t the case last season, which is probably very accurate.

I’ll take Jon Kitna and Mike Furrey’s brave predictions, with big numbers attached, than the usual, generic (read: boring) words that come out of the offseason. So what if it causes eye rolling and snickering? So what if it’s very likely that those predictions won’t come to fruition — and maybe not even close?

They laid it out there: 10 wins. 50 touchdown passes.

Do I believe them? Doesn’t matter. It only matters if they believe in themselves. They clearly do, so who are we to scoff at that?

Rod Marinelli: A Coach Who Can’t Contain Himself

With the Pistons moving on and the Red Wings in a 2-2 standoff with the Anaheim Ducks, I thought this might be a good time to interrupt your regularly scheduled playoff posts and present to you, as a form of light entertainment fare, those wacky Detroit Lions.

Well, maybe not so wacky, if you listen to coach Rod Marinelli.

“I just have great expectations,” the Rock Pounder mused yesterday to reporters as the team wrapped up their three-day minicamp. The superlatives rolled off his tongue like an opponent pass rusher off a Lions offensive lineman.

“I just believe in this team — a lot… This is going to be a very good team…It’s what I see. I’m out here, I look, I see it, and I believe it….I’ve got great expectations for this team. I like the way they’re working. You’re seeing what I’m seeing. It’s fast and explosive.”

So when do playoff tickets go on sale?

Now, the fruit salad that Marinelli is excreting doesn’t annoy me so much because I get the feeling that if things weren’t going so well, we’d hear about that, too. The coach has never struck me as much of a snake oil salesman, like so many of his predecessors. So it’s nice, I suppose, to hear about the love-in going on in Allen Park. Heck, there was even a photo the other day of defensive tackle Shaun Rogers SMILING — laughing, actually — with Marinelli. And Rogers spoke a bit, too — quite positively, I might add.

A couple months ago I spoke to QB Jon Kitna over the telephone for a brief Q&A for my former gig, and I asked him to complete this sentence: In 2007, I promise the Detroit Lions fans _______.

He didn’t hesitate for long before he filled in the blank.

“In 2007, I promise the Detroit Lions fans that we’ll win at least 10 games,” Kitna said. I reminded him that this was one of those Q&A’s that actually finds its way into print, in front of real, live eyeballs attached to real, live Lions fans.

“That doesn’t scare me one bit,” Kitna said.

Kitna was one of those who Marinelli praised this week. Must be for his positive outlook, if nothing else.