It's all in the timing, Mr Ford

The Fords thought they were doing the right thing in the long long long long long long long overdue canning of the porn 'stached goon, Matt Millen. For the long-term future of the franchise, the firing was the right thing to do. But for the remainder of this season? Well, there's a reason NFL GM's aren't normally shown the door a whole 3 games into a season.

What is that reason?

It leads to coaches making cockamamie decisions like benching a promising rookie running back for an on the down side veteran on a one year deal who won't be on the team in 2009.

That's the reason.

If Rod Marinelli thinks sitting Kevin Smith for Rudi Johnson is going to give him a couple of extra wins, and thus, save his job, he's sadly mistaken. And totally delusional. With Smith's benching, Jordon Dizon's inability to get on the field, the other defensive rookies deactivated every Sunday, could this past draft look any worse? But I digress...

Despite Marinelli playing coy (or being amazingly sheltered and football possessed to the point of pop culture retardation) by claiming he didn't know what being a "lame duck" meant, his recent lineup moves tells us he knows exactly what it means, he's a "dead man coach walking." Why else would Johnson be in the lineup? Sure, he played decently against the Niners. But he's not the future.

Lame duck? Is that some sort of Chinese dish?

Same reasoning goes for Marinelli's complete refusal to even consider replacing Jon Shitna Pickna Kitna. The Lions may win a couple of more games with Kitna under center than with Drew Stanton. But what's the difference between 5-11 and 3-13, other than a draft slot? Kitna won't be the QB when this team turns the corner. (It could happen!) Hell, even the so-called intangibles Kitna supposedly brings to the team are quickly going out the window, with his quite visible petulance over the direction of the Detroit offense.

Starting Johnson and not starting Stanton are the moves of a quickly running out of time coach desperately trying to keep his job. Which is a bit of a conundrum, as Marinelli is out of a job when a new GM is hired. The idea that any GM Ford hires will have to keep Marinelli is ludicrous. Any GM worth hiring will want his own man on the sidelines, not the porn 'stached goon's retread. Actually, any GM willing to keep Marinelli as head coach as a condition of employment is a GM I don't want running the team.

Want another reason?

It leads to short-term thinking, shorter than Gary Coleman's pecker. This forward-short thinking leaves the coaches and front office personnel who survived the purge little choice but to do anything and everything possible to keep their jobs, even it means the team will be worse off in the long run.

An example of this is the Lions saying they will not even entertain trading Roy Williams, even though the odds of his signing a new contract with the team is 99.9995% against. That's taking the franchise tag out of the equation, as it would be idiotic to tag Williams. Which probably means the Lions are seriously considering doing so. But I digress...again.

I'm soooo out of here... Franchise tag me at your peril!

The Lions could quite possibly get a first day pick (or multiple picks over the 2 days) for Williams. With a roster full of more holes than the plot of a Micheal Bay movie, adding draft picks would be a much better idea than letting Williams play out his deal, then getting nothing when he walks. But if keeping Williams means the Lions win an extra game in a season that is already lost, though the franchise is stinking of desperation seeping from it's every pore, they won't trade him. Makes sense...if you're fucking insane!

Yes, firing Matt Millen was a good thing. But the timing couldn't have been worse. It's led to the Lions making me first, team last, the future is now sort of decisions that will only serve to make the job of the next GM that much harder.

In managing to get his incompetent ass fired when he did, Millen screwed over the fans one last time.

Thanks for nothing, you ass.