Detroit Lions sign Owen S. Ixteen to Lifetime Deal

It finally happened! The Lions have set the mark for lowest of the low. And they did it with no style whatsoever; just the same old plodding and coming up short that we've seen all season in the reasonably close games.

I figured I would capture the moment to look back on with links to the various stories on the team's newest records (0-16, plus firs team to allow both two 100 yd receiving and 2 100 yd rushing players in the same game. How appropriate a record to tack on at the end there...)

Mlive has your Killer version, which is similarly stated by the AP. Killer also has a short piece on how embarrassed everyone is. Micheal Rosenberg gave his thoughts in the Freep. NFL.com has a great picture with their piece that really captures what the essence of the moment must be for the players. SI.com just has their game blog up now.

There are many more stories out there, I'm sure. And many more will be written.

So on this grim day, are there any positives to take away? I have 3 solid ones:

1. Calvin Johnson -- 102 yards, 2 TD's As long as the Lions have someone to get him the ball, this guy is going to keep lighting up opposing defenses for many years.

2. Kevin Smith -- one dumb penalty, 92 yards and a TD (and 24 yards and a real coach who should have played him earlier away from a 1,000 yard rushing season, with a roughly 4 YPC average) He has spirit and talent, and solidifies the lead-back role.

3. John Standeford -- has this kid finally found an NFL roster?? He proved he was good enough of a #2 against the Packers' all pro corners to get 83 yards and force them back into covering someone other than CJ. he made good plays, and smart catches. Once Furrey is back healthy in the slot, that is 3 solid wideouts for the Lions under contract heading into the ifseason.

I'm sure there will be a lot more news and events happening soon. We'll get to see tomorrow (at 11am or Noon, or 2pm depending on which rumor guy you've been reading!) what happens -- if anything -- to the Lions front office and coaching staff.

Then, once the decisions are made and we know where the Lions are weaving to next, we can begin again talk of the draft, and free agency -- and most of all, hope.

Why? Hey, as a hard-core fan, after this -- it can't possibly be any worse!

I also want to send out a HUGE thank you to the Philadelphia Eagles who knocked Dallas clear out of the playoffs on Sunday afternoon! Here's to a mid-first rounder, a mid-third rounder and and way more thanks than Roy Williams had receiving yards in Detroit and Dallas combined heading your way Jerry Jones for that gift of hope come draft time... (roy had 2 receptions for 4 yards in the last-game loss that puts Dallas right where Detroit will be for the playoffs -- home.)

I'm sure there will be lots of news this week as teams fire/hire so stay tuned!

Plus, now I get to have fun with all that speculative ifseason stuff. After this season, we need a few months of forward looking "Iffing" to recover.