Well, it finally happened. A jubilant coach Jim Schwartz was carried off the field on the shoulders of his equally jubilant players at Ford Field. After a rousing late comeback, his place kicker would boom a 58 yard field goal through the uprights to break a 14-14 tie and seal a win with only 4 seconds remaining in the game.
Just one problem. Schwartz doesn't work for the Lions anymore. After getting rightfully booted out of Motown, he caught on as the defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills. As the Lions (and their fans) hung their heads following a stinging loss to the BBs, they had salt rubbed into their collective wounds by having to watch their former head coach hoisted into the air, grinning broadly and arms raised in triumph. It was like he had just won the Super Bowl, or perhaps suddenly morphed into Madonna, Miley, or even an Elvis impersonator at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. We're talking seriously royal treatment.
Worse yet is when the Lions fired Schwartz following the 2013 season, they still owed him $12 million for two more years on his contract, which had been extended the year before by the oxymoronic "Lions' brain trust". So when he signed on with the Bills, were the Fords let off the hook for the $12 mil? Hard to say. Coaches/coordinators salaries are well-guarded secrets in the NFL. But yours truly wouldn't be a bit surprised if on top on whatever the Bills are paying him, he's still collecting $6 mil a year from the Lions this year -- and next. After all, nobody in their right mind would shun $6 mil a year for doing nothing -- only to take another job that pays in the measly hundreds of thousands.
So like it or not Lions' fans, for one day Jim Schwartz indeed got his revenge. For Jimbo, it was no doubt glorious. For the long suffering Honolulu blue and silver faithful, it was just another slap in the face.
And let's face it. Over the last half century or so, Lions' fans have been slapped in the face more than Larry, Moe and Curly were in their entire slapstick careers. Hmmm. Could the Lions' fans be the origin of the recently coined word "slappy", aka suckuh? Beats me, but it fits.
But for Schwartz to be carted off Ford Field as some sort of conquering hero is relegating the Lions and their fans to collective Rodney Dangerfields. No respect indeed.
What was comical is after the game, Ndamukong Suh said the loss merely meant the Lions weren't going to go 15-1 this season. Well. No kidding.
If Ndummy ever really thought that was a possibility, then perhaps somebody somewhere needs to slap some serious sense into the boy named Suh....
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