While there are a number of possible story lines from this year’s Superbowl, I was looking for a spin that would be of interest (as a Lions fan) to Detroit Lions fans. Thankfully, my new favorite Lions blog, Pride of Detroit, helped point me in the right direction. Apparently, the local NBC affiliate station ran some pretty damning bottom-third graphics during former Lions president and CEO Matt Millen’s appearance in the Superbowl pre-game. Here’s the video:

And for those who weren’t able to keep us, here’s the transcript:

MATT MILLEN WAS PRESIDENT OF THE LIONS FOR THE WORST 8 YEAR RUN IN THE HISTORY OF THE NFL ♦ KNOWING HIS HISTORY WITH THE TEAM, IS THERE A CREDIBILITY ISSUE AS HE NOW SERVES AS AN ANALYST FOR NBC SPORTS? ♦ WILL DETROIT FANS EVER FORGIVE HIM FOR TURNING THE LIONS INTO THE WORST TEAM IN FOOTBALL?

WDIV also promised additional fan commentary on their regular news coverage. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, but Detroit Lions fans are the most loyal of any sports fans in the world. You jerk them around, they will never forgive you. This was apparently bad news for Matt Millen. It was especially bad since the lambasting came at the hands of a large media corporation. Dare I say that the days of the Ford family’s ownership of the Lions might be in jeopardy? As a fan who believes that the ownership needs to change before success can be achieved, I certainly hope so.

H/T: Pride of Detroit

I’m frequently asked by people, especially during the fall and winter months, if I like football. I usually answer back with something like “Yeah, it’s alright.” What I would really like to say is “No, I don’t like football. I’m a Detroit Lions fan.” Unfortunately, I was born in Detroit — definitely the wrong place for my avatar to have incarnated. But since Lions fans are the most loyal fans in any sport anywhere in the world, my Lions pride has stuck with me, even when I moved to places with much better football teams — Indiana (home of the Indianapolis Colts) and later to North Carolina (home of the Carolina Panthers). I don’t know if it could accurately be called Lions Pride if you go 0-16 on the season and are the only current NFL franchise to never go to the Superbowl. Whatever it is, I have it.

Since I’m vastly more interested in politics and business than football, it’s entertaining to see the lambasting of the Lions cross-over into those genres. In the opening days of the President Obama administration, it was announced that Obama signed an executive order to disband the Lions. Another commentator used the Lions to describe how the Government Accountability Office describes “high risk” federal programs.

But being a Lions fan is a unique experience in the sports world. The start of every season, no matter how bad the previous season was, is filled with hope that we’ll make a big turnaround and get to the big game. And we have the joy of being really pissed off at our ownership team management, knowing there’s no chance that totally new people with new ideas will be brought in. The conspiracy-oriented side of me thinks that Ford declined to take bailout money in order to keep from getting rid of the Lions.

I’m not going to get into the specifics of draft picks or personnel beyond what I mentioned already. As I said, I don’t like football, but on the bright side, I’ll have something to watch Lions-wise next season since a single win (or even a tie) would be an improvement. I mean, they couldn’t go winless again next season too. Could they?

In the rush of putting together a blog post about my 2009 resolutions, I actually left out the most pressing set of changes that I’m needing to make during the new year — those associated with improving my physical health. Today was primarily spent on achieving that end since I received three month-long workout challenges through my local gym. Each challenge is head-to-head against Hope. The winner will be determined by the total number of gym visits and percentages of fat and weight loss. Needless to say, it’s on…

Today’s portion of our health quest started at 6:30 am at the Lifetime Family Fitness in Cary, North Carolina. We met with one of the trainers there. Hope learned new ways to flatten her abs, while I concentrated primarily on nutrition and getting better control of my metabolism. I walked away with a sample meal plan that went between 500 to 1,000 calories higher than what I typically consume in a day, so I’m a bit skeptical, but willing to give it a try. However, I did get some good insight into my regular diet’s lack of protein.

So I was a good boy diet-wise and exercise-wise today. I rounded it all out by downloading some new workout music. Now-a-days I’m spending a large part of my day listening to hardcore militant rap — the kind of stuff you can hear on my new favorite podcast, the Ghosts of the Republic anti-NWO weekly podcast. It’s definitely the perfect soundtrack to get ready for war and a year of solid, vigorous workouts.