The Lions Off Season Seems Endless
By: Eric Thomas
This Lions' off season has been a nightmare. It's been going since November, seems so much longer than that, so you aren't alone if you've grown sick about it. Your blogger at one point in January wrote about 1000 words on why Manti Te'o should be the number five pick in the draft. It feels like a decade ago.
Now we've watched the combine, or at least someone did. Some people seem to stay awake through watching 22 year old college students sprinting and catching and pushing cones over. It's actual entertainment for some. Your blogger can't walk into a room where the Scouting Combine is playing for fear that he might fall to the ground in a narcoleptic coma until someone turns the television off.
Either way, there are now people who rightfully talk about the draft but some patience is necessary. We are currently ensconced in the longest off season in recent memory. Lions blogs and columns as of late have had the requisite number of annual jokes ("THE ONLY HOPEFUL PART OF THE LIONS SEASON...IS THE OFFSEASON! HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAWK SPIT.") But we still have almost two months until the draft.
In the 0-16 year, we were interested until the end. The story line endured all the way to number 16. The next year, Matt Stafford's rookie year, our expectations were low. The next year, Suuuuuh, then they had ten wins. The Lions in previous years have a had something to watch, some reason to care even if it was bad. It's amazing how long ago that feels.
The Lions were a kick to the gut last year. The last few weeks they could only play spoiler and they weren't good at that either. The Lion's off season this year feels slower than tectonic plate shifting. It's a glacial pace, and the only thing left to do is stare out the window and watch the snow accumulate. As much as this particular football season was awful, at least it was something to watch. The Red Wings and Pistons aren't helping this year.
If anything, let's just ride this out. The draft isn't until April 25, and that seems like forever. Will there still be snow? Who knows what is going to happen between now and then?
You just never know. Someone could get arrested, give a bad interview, maybe say something on Twitter, or need to visit Dr. Phil for some reason. Remember: We all wanted Te'o.
Don't worry. The Tigers will return soon and so we can take a break from trying to handicap the draft. Take a break screaming about the Lions, so you can scream about the Tigers. Lineup talk sounds fun right about now, how about a nice, "call up Castellanos" screaming match? That sounds like fun, freaking out about the Tigers. If anything, that's the true sounds of spring in the D.
