are the lions any longer entitled to a t-day game?

The Sunday thing is a same day change. You're talking about a dramatically shorter week, plus the travel/lodging implications. No way that gets done that soon.

Safer bet, IMHO, would be to rotate the game using existing divisional/traditional rivalries: Cowboys/Redskins & Lions/rest of NFC North, for example. Maybe something like a Steelers/Ravens or Colts/Pats on that day. Hell, even Raiders/Broncos (I know the Raiders are as much a mess as Detroit..maybe...but the rivalry is always interesting).

 

That might be better, Gooch, but it still won't guarantee watchable games. Colts/Pats would have been unbearable for more than a decade when those teams sucked. Just because a team is good one year doesn't mean it'll be worth a crap the next. MNF scheduling proves that. In fact, Monday's game is Jacksonville/Houston. At the beginning of the season, that was a matchup featuring a legit playoff team against what many considered to be an up-and-coming team, and it was a division "rivalry." As it is, I can't imagine too many people will be planning their Monday night around the 4-7 Jaguars and 4-7 Texans.

 

True, indeed...but as long as Manning, Belichick and Brady are involved those teams will likely be competitive. Even with Brady hurt this year was an intriguing matchup. Not perfect but at least we'd have half a chance at a decent game.

Texans/Jags ain't sexy, but it's better than the Detroit Lions amateur hour(s).

 

The Lions invented the Thanksgiving Day game. They should keep it as long as they want. Now, since they suck such major ass, perhaps they could schedule two games for 12:30 and put the other one on TV and let the Lions go untelevised (is that a word?) to the rest of the country outside of the markets of the teams involved. But as long as the Lions want to host a Thanksgiving Day game, it's should be theirs to do so. It's not like the other games are always great ones.

 

Put the Lions on the NFL Network Thanksgiving night game.. since 2/3 of the country doesn't get the the NFL Network anyway

 

I actually thought this as well. I see what Jay was saying as well--if you pull the Lions from the Fords, it could start a slippery slope--but at least Al Davis and Jerry Jones, while batshit insane and delusional, have been successful. The Lions have NEVER been successful. One fucking playoff win in the last 902 years (mild exaggeration).

Drastic times, drastic measures, etc. The franchise is the worst one in sports. It's time to find someone who can do something with it.

 

There's a short-term solution. Given the NFL's cyclical nature, who's to say the Lions won't be somewhat watchable in a year or two? (Cue Starman and some Lions punchline here, eh?)

Just make sure one of the other matchups involves at least one AFC team to ensure CBS fulfills its part of the NFL deal. After that, it's not all that difficult.

The NFL should be a little embarrassed about marching the Lions out there in front of a national audience. It's kinda like publicly feeding the Lions to the ... er ... lions.

 

I like that idea. And Sam, if they're good in a year or two they can be put back on CBS or FOX.

 

Realistically, the Lions are the poster children for the "perfect" world of the NFL ... driven by revenue sharing, salary cap-induced mediocrity.

The soon to be 0-16 Lions will turn a profit this season because the NFL is built to make the owners win while their product fails.

 

Well ... yeah. Any team not turning a profit given the players' salary cap, ticket prices, revenue system and monstrous TV contract is being run by imbeciles.

 

And the Lions are being run by imbeciles...yet still turning a profit.
There is no incentive for them to win, as long as they make money.

And that, according to so many here, is what makes he NFL great.