Sports

Well I Forgot This Detroit Lions Fun Fact

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It just dawned on me..

The Detroit Lions haven't been to the playoffs since I was a freshman at Michigan State, but they have an opportunity to do so this year if they win one of their last two games against either San Diego or Green Bay.

The Starting QB for that team was the venerable Gus Frerotte....and Barry Sanders had just retired... egad

GO LIONS!

 

 

Dont Get Too Depressed, MSU Football Is Average

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Having been a Michigan State fan for quite some time it's failry easy to get upset at the consistent failures of the Football team.  Performing much better than expectations for the past two seasons had given many a Spartan fan hope that this year the tide was finally about to turn for football in the state of Michigan.  With the program down in Ann Arbor heading injto tailspin, this would be the year State would rise back to the prominence once held in the 50's and 60's and reclaim football glory.  Sadly this all came crashing down with a defeat to Central Michigan early in the season, ushering in with it the memories of the previous 19 seasons.

When looking back at the previous 19 season MSU has enjoyed only a fleeting success having sustained only two seasons in which the football team posted consecutive +.500 records, those took place in the previous two seasons.  More often than not MSU has been a six win football team.  In only 7 of the previous 19 seasons has MSU won more than 6 games, and those seasons usually tilted heavily towards upper classmen filled rosters.

 

<--- Click here to see 20 years of mediocrity

 

 Given the slight setback this year and a roster full of younger offensive players, the team should rebound and return to where they were in the 2007 and 2008 seasons as a 7 or 8 win team, given the relative weakness of the Big Ten Conference, should we as fans expect more than that? Probably not.  What is the big take away here then?  MSU Football is average so don't let them ruin your weekend like they have so many of mine for the past 12 years.

Qwest Field is amazing as for some of the fans not so much..

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CIMG0056, originally uploaded by spartysprung.

Had the opportunity to spend a lovely afternoon watching the Lions blow yet another winnable game in lovely Qwest Field out in Seattle a week ago. Far as football atmospheres go, this place had it all. It was loud. Not hey that music is kind of loud would you turn it down, it was hey pass the ear plugs and cotton balls or my ear drums will be permanently damaged kind of loud. Needless to say i was very impressed. With the Lions taking an early 17-0 the place got quiet in a hurry.

Being a Lions fans for my entire existence and having lived thru the past 8 years of ineptitude I was not expecting this to last. Sure enough by the end of the first half Seattle had taken the lead from Detroit and all was well in Seahawks land...and then came all of the colorful language. Having been to Chicago for several sporting events and endured my share of Michigan Wolverine fans over the years colorful language is something you come to expect at these types of events. I was not prepared however for every drunken yahoo sitting within a ten seat radius of me to unload every conceivable remark they could come up with.

I am sure this made the game much more entertaining from their standpoint as the Seahawks pulled away, it only caused to me to want to drink more and want to fight them.  As it is i am not how you say big or for that matter strong, so rather than ratchet up this war of words to fists and beer throwing, I simply reminded the oafish fellow sitting down in front of me that Seattle has never won much and been a city of consistent sports failures (Sonics, Pilots, anything else that isnt soccer) at that point he yelled another colorful jab and wasn't heard from for the rest of the game.

So whats the big takeaway here? None really. The Lions lost but i had a great time with some great co-workers from ZAAZ and enjoyed being heckeld and berated by the best Seattle had to offer.  Will I return?  Absolutely! The atmosphere was fantastic and Qwest is a great place to catch a game.  Will I wear the opposing teams jersey the next time out?  Probably not, you can only be called d***head so many times before it makes the watching of the game unenjoyable.