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It makes no sense for the NFL to want to reject Detroit.   Look at the success that the Red Wings have had in the last 20 + years.   Four Stanley Cup Championships and six total NHL championships.   Not to mention the longest current streak of consecutive playoff appearances in all of pro sports in North America.   Even in an outdated arena,   the Red Wings are considered a top of the line NHL franchise.   

 

  The Tigers made it to the World Series twice in the last 8 seasons and to the playoffs a number of other times in this time span.   The Tigers have one of the largest payrolls in all of MLB.    The fans have responded to the product and the Tigers have benefited the bottom line of MLB as a result.

 

What do Detroit teams in other sports really have to do with the NFL though? The other sports run their business different than the NFL model. Those other sports don't shun Detroit like the NFL does. The Red Wings and Tigers (and even Pistons) all have tradition and large fan bases nationally (at least more so than the Lions) , too. In the NFL Detroit is in a division with teams that are historically and nationally popular than itself. Those franchises bring the NFL more money than Detroit does. 


 

 

  The truth of the matter with the Lions is bad decisions have been the primary reason the team only has one playoff win since the 1957 Championship victory.    Despite this,  the Lions never threatened to leave the Detroit area.    On the other hand,  prior to 2008,   the Cardinals had only one playoff win in the same time span.   They moved out of market twice in that time span!    This speaks volumes about the Lions fan base.    It's much larger and passionate than many people realize.   How many franchises in pro sports could have survived without moving with the Lions track record the last 56 seasons???   My guess is VERY few.

 

I don't have any issue with the Detroit Lion fans. They support their team well, and deserve better. (Just like the Jacksonville Jaguar fan) 


 

 

  If the NFL wanted to hold Detroit down,  they would have taken away the annual Thanksgiving Day game a long time ago.    The NFL embraces the Lions tradition,  that goes back to 1934.

 

Theres actually been "whispers" of that, but again, Detroit on Thanksgiving is "tradition" so they won't be quick to remove the Lions from it. Desite the Lions not being popular overall on a national scale, people have grown accustomed to watching both Detroit and Dallas on Thanksgiving. 


 

 

 I'm not happy about it but the league selected the Lions as a team to play in London next season.    The reason being,  the league looks at this team as an attractive football product.    You know as well as anyone that the league has made it a top priority to market the NFL product in London.

 

Part of it also is few good teams really want to go there. Its nothing but a huge annoyance/ distraction. 


 

 

 How do you know that the Lions didn't contact Bill O'Brien?   

 

C'mon D6, in todays world of social media, you hear rumors like that almost as soon as theres smoke. The first several names associated with the Detroit coaching search were Bowles, TOM CABLE?!??!?!? and a few others Coordinator types, oh, and Lovie Smith. No mention at all of O Brien. O Brien would have been a fantastic choice for Detroit, and yet incomprehensibly, he wasn't apparently someone they had high priority in contacting. 


 

 Regarding Todd Bowles,  the report was incorrect.   It's possible the Lions will eventually interview Bowles,  as Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand interviewed him in 2009.   But the person who reported the information earlier this week admitted he had the team mixed up that was expressing interest in Bowles.   Regardless,  why not interview a coach that could provide insight that could benefit the Lions moving forward!  

 

 Many of the candidates that look like potentially good options such as Ken Whisenhunt,  Jay Gruden,  Mike Zimmer,  and Greg Roman can't even be interviewed this week.

 

 If the Lions end up hiring a Head Coach that doesn't meet the standards of the consensus media and fans and ends up failing on top of that,   it won't be the fault of the NFL.   It will be the fault of the Lions organization.    There are legit conspiracy theories that shouldn't even considered conspiracy theories if people were being honest.   But the one you expressed today isn't one of them.

 

You're a good man, D6, I'm more cynical than that than you. The NFL has grown into a multi billion dollar entity, and its now at the point where its trying to do everything it can to maintain/ even grow that popularity (which is unsustainable, of course but greedy minds of the higher ups in NFL won't see that). They know that all they have to keep doing is helping the teams in large markets and/ or large historical / traditional fanbases stay good, or at least not stay down long. The NFL has zero interest, IMO, of having the Jaguars maintain consistent success while in Jacksonville. It simply doesn't help the NFL enough dollarwise to do so. The NFL behind the scenes is trying to starve the Jaguars fan base as it is now and keep the team without success so it eventually gets tired of the losing and will eventually stop going to games, and then force the move to LA or London that they want. Then when that does happen, watch how "coincidentally" the Jaguars will quickly rise as an NFL power, you watch.