Back off the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving tradition

Danny Vohden, over at the Bleacher Report, argues that we need to buck tradition in favor of some better match-ups on Thanksgiving:

I understand it’s tradition for the Lions to play at home, but they are, and have been, terrible for quite some time now.

They are not entertaining to watch, and I really don’t enjoy watching an NFL game when I know one team has basically no chance of winning.

Enough is enough, lets [sic] bump the Lions out of this spot. Would Lions fans even really care? They know their team’s awful, and we know there [sic] team is awful. Must we both be forced to watch them at least once every year.[sic]

via Thanksgiving Football Becoming a Joke | Bleacher Report.

Great Americans haven’t dodged the draft so we could be free, just so ingrates like you could turn around and throw tradition to the dogs, pal. What’s next, are you going to try to take away my deep-fried turkey?

Actually, I shouldn’t pick on Vohden: he’s hardly the only one out there suggesting we dump the Lions on Thanksgiving. But methinks we need a little perspective here:True, the Lions have been bad for a long time. But yesterday’s marked the 70th time the Lions have played on Thanksgiving since the first time, in 1934 (go here for the whole history). Placed in a broader context, the Lions actually have a roughly .500 record on Thanksgiving: 33-35, with two ties.

So stop complaining, everyone. Doesn’t Detroit, as a city, suffer enough abuse? This is the place that used to have a really strong tradition of giving the world a lot of things like this:

Image by Bull-Doser, via Wikimedia commons

And now has a newer tradition of offering the world a hell of a lot of this:

Abandoned Packard plant -- by Angelique DuLong, via Wikimedia Commons

Detroit used to be the fourth biggest city in the United States. Now dear, dirty Detroit is eleventh, right in front of our hometown of Indianapolis. It’s name has long been a metonym for the American auto industry; today, it’s as much a metonym for urban decay and social collapse.

Now you want to take away one of the few great traditions the city has left?

Michael Rosenberg, at SI, sums it up nicely:

On behalf of the city of Detroit, let me just say:

We know you don’t like it.

We don’t expect you to like it.

And we don’t care.

You think it’s tough watching the Lions once a year? Try watching them every week. It is hard to fully appreciate the ineptitude of this franchise unless you see it on a weekly basis. It is the difference between using an outhouse at a music festival and using an outhouse as your everyday bathroom. Forget winning. Most of the time, the Lions don’t even have a chance to win.

via City of Detroit needs Lions to continue to play on Thanksgiving – Michael Rosenberg – SI.com.

33-35-2 across 70 years. Never forget the countless Lions and Lions fans who have suffered for your Thanksgiving.

Note, I and a few friends have started an offensively irreverent football blog called HipsterDouchebagFootballBlog. Stories like this that I think have a cross-over appeal with American Crossroads may begin to pop up here from time to time. Meantime, check out my new site at hdfootballblog.com which is, admittedly, still in the earliest stages of development.