Russell's Take
Who's the bigger loser: Detroit Lions or Matthew Stafford
By: Joseph Russell
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Sports
After watching the 2009 NFL Draft for most of the weekend, it's still hard to say who the bigger loser is - the Detroit Lions or their No. 1 overall pick, Matthew Stafford?
Though current reality shows make being a "loser" sound like a positive thing, I don't see much positivity coming out of Detroit in the coming year. Or years, for that matter.
I don't say that just because I'm a Green Bay Packers fan and cackle with delight anytime a division rival suffers, but because the Lions genuinely do not want to win.
They proved this by locking up Stafford to a reported 6-year, $78 million contract, which automatically guarantees him $41.7 million.
I'm not saying Stafford isn't a good quarterback - he put up astounding numbers at Georgia. During his junior year in 2008, he completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 3,459 yards and 25 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions.
I can't even do that in a video game.
But even though those are good numbers, are they worthy of a guaranteed $42 million? The kid hasn't played a single down of NFL football, and he is already one of the highest paid players in the NFL. In fact, the contract given to him by the Lions is the highest rookie wage in the history of the league, and his guaranteed salary is double that of Eli Manning's five years ago.
WHAT?
So just a year after the Lions cement themselves as the worst team in the history of the NFL by going 0-16, what do they do? Put millions of dollars and the fate of the franchise in the hands of a 21-year-old kid.
By putting so much faith into a single player, the Lions have essentially killed any chance of him succeeding. There's no way he'll last.
First off, Detroit fans didn't even want Stafford. They booed when he was on stage at the NFL Draft. For a team that didn't win a single game last season, their fans wanted defense. They wanted Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry. Instead, they got a quarterback.
After the Joey Harrington debacle, you'd think Detroit would have learned their lesson with drafting quarterbacks.
Though current reality shows make being a "loser" sound like a positive thing, I don't see much positivity coming out of Detroit in the coming year. Or years, for that matter.
I don't say that just because I'm a Green Bay Packers fan and cackle with delight anytime a division rival suffers, but because the Lions genuinely do not want to win.
They proved this by locking up Stafford to a reported 6-year, $78 million contract, which automatically guarantees him $41.7 million.
I'm not saying Stafford isn't a good quarterback - he put up astounding numbers at Georgia. During his junior year in 2008, he completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 3,459 yards and 25 touchdowns, with 10 interceptions.
I can't even do that in a video game.
But even though those are good numbers, are they worthy of a guaranteed $42 million? The kid hasn't played a single down of NFL football, and he is already one of the highest paid players in the NFL. In fact, the contract given to him by the Lions is the highest rookie wage in the history of the league, and his guaranteed salary is double that of Eli Manning's five years ago.
WHAT?
So just a year after the Lions cement themselves as the worst team in the history of the NFL by going 0-16, what do they do? Put millions of dollars and the fate of the franchise in the hands of a 21-year-old kid.
By putting so much faith into a single player, the Lions have essentially killed any chance of him succeeding. There's no way he'll last.
First off, Detroit fans didn't even want Stafford. They booed when he was on stage at the NFL Draft. For a team that didn't win a single game last season, their fans wanted defense. They wanted Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry. Instead, they got a quarterback.
After the Joey Harrington debacle, you'd think Detroit would have learned their lesson with drafting quarterbacks.