True fans are suckers

Few people know what it is really like to stick with a team, and I'm not just talking about athletes or coaches.

Today's win-now attitude is so prevalent in professional sports that even some fans are jumping ship as fast as players, coaches and GM's are being thrown overboard. Honestly, who really was a St. Louis Rams or Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan six years ago?

Maybe people have become disenchanted with the high salaries and low morale of today's athletes or simply like watching the best players play; but it seems more to do with loyalty.

There is none in sports.

Sports are purely business these days and similar to love and war, everything has become fair.

Players no longer want to finish their careers with one team and management doesn't want to pay players to finish their careers with one team. Some players hold out before finishing their contracts while others refuse to even sign a contract. The scenarios are endless.

Yet as a number of organizations offer little in regards to success in the near future, some fans still remain true to their team like family. They embrace their triumphs and are their greatest critics. This applies to my team, The Detroit Lions.

The question is: why?

First and foremost, my father made me like 'em. It's like politics. As sad as it may be, our fathers often times ensure we are destined to the same fate. My dad was from Michigan, forcing me to be a fan of every team from the state.

Imagine how humiliating it would have been wearing a Detroit Lions winter coat in Kansas City had Barry Sanders not been on the team. Actually it was tough anyway. My grandma must have been in on the joke though. She managed to dress me head to toe in Lions apparel throughout one of the more embarrassing eras in franchise history.

Second, I moved around as a kid. This may not seem like a good reason to remain a fan, but I was fortunate not to have every game televised. Many losses were gratuitous, and over time they would have been quite the turn off. Highlights were disturbing enough.

Most important though, it is spite that forces me to remain a fan. Not only out of contempt for those bums that made Detroit an easy target for late night television monologues (coaches Wayne Fontes, Bobby Ross and the strategically impaired Marty Mornhinweg) but more so for all those fans who said, "Better luck next year" or "Is Barry coming back?"

Being as bad as the Cincinnati Bungals is no picnic, so as things appear to be looking up (and they couldn't really have gotten any worse after last year), fans' hopes start to gain momentum. The Lions have a proven new coach (Steve Mariucci), a talented young quarterback (Joey Harrington), and the next great receiver (Charles Rogers) according to the suspect word of the day, potential.

For years Lions fans have seen that word define the high point among many of its players' careers. Luckily, management has decided to stop wasting their breath hyping mediocre players for the future (see QB's Scott Mitchell, Charlie Batch and Mike McMahon). Football more than almost any other sport requires superior talent to win games and GM Matt Millen has made it a priority to start acquiring reputable talent.

Maybe I'm just setting myself up for disappointment as usual, but like all devoted fans, I'm a sucker, so I'll believe the hype for now.