If a picture is worth a thousand words, those words would mostly be profanities from Lions fans. But that "DET-L" pretty much says it all, not only for this season but for the past 63 years of Detroit Lions football.

Any number of cliches come to mind after yesterday's 20-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers, but "rock bottom" seems to capture it best.

New Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp had said prior to the start of this season, "major improvement" was expected. This isn't it.

Former Lions quarterback and current rising ESPN star Dan Orlovsky tweeted:

Jim Caldwell was fired for having a 9-7 record. The team was 36-28 during his tenure.

Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski put it more succinctly.

Okay, realistically, they really can't fire everybody on a short week, though the way the team played Sunday, does it really matter? But on the day dubbed "Black Monday" (the day after the regular season ends, ominously named as the day many coaches get fired) there has to be a press release and then a press conference announcing a clean sweep. This isn't as bad as the Matt Millen era, but it's within sniffing distance. Doing a little checking, the Lions have the third worst record in the NFL for the years since the AFL-NFL merger (1970- present) Only the new Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Bucs are worse, and the Bucs have won a Super Bowl and may play in another one after this season. You have to figure someday, some way, they'll get it right.

The NFL, this year, is really pushing diversity in coaching and management selections. And reading national columnist Peter King's column on how the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Mike Tomlin, you can only hope a new owner might, just might think about somebody they hadn't really thought about before, and not bring in another re-tread or another Bill Belichick disciple. Eventually, you have to think the Lions just might get it right.

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