For ages, way down deep in the darkest recesses of my psyche, I've carried around a mental image of Sterling Sharpe streaking down the right sideline of the Pontiac Silverdome, and settling under a Brett Favre bomb, and sending the Green Bay Packers on an ascendent path culminating in a Super Bowl win, and sending the Lions on to a decade of boom or bust futility that, in retrospect, compared to this decade's utter futility, almost seems like a golden age.

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I don't even remember when Chris Miller played, (in the late 80s, maybe) but I distinctly seem to recall that he made his debut against the Lions, and where I was at the time, and the fact that he lit up the Lions in very short order.

Couldn't really tell you who won the game, but it was a running joke amongst me and some of my friends who were watching that day, talking about Miller, and how he fooled everyone by looking so good in his debut, because people forgot that it came against the Lions.

What I can't find with a few minutes of googling, though, is whether Miller threw a TD pass on his first attempt, or on his first drive at the helm of the Falcons.

Thought I'd throw it out to you guys, see if anyone remembers the start of the Chris Miller era...

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/espys2008/?addata=2008_espti_xxx_xxx_xxx_xxx

The above is a link to the ESPY ballot at espn.com, also reachable via a link on the front page of that site. I ended up voting for some of your guys, or your team on three separate occasions, just letting you know in case you needed to give your guys a boost.

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Just perusing the schedule to date, and noting a couple of things, about where this Tigers team roller coaster has taken the squad and its fans this season so far. There have been a couple of definite valleys, along with a moment or two where a glimmer of hope has shone through the gloom, thought I'd point those out before the next turn of the wheel takes the kitties up further towards the promised land of .500 baseball (hey, when all else fails, set the bar low and go from there, right?), or deeper into the depths of baseball purgatory.

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AP story posted on espn's site, I'm quoting it in full because it's pretty short....But basically, this is the highest rated Stanley Cup Finals in the last 6 years....since the Red Wings were last in the SC Finals.

There were concerns, including in my head, about the fact that the Red Wings and the Pistons were pitted head to head....but at least for Game 3, the first game where the series was carried on NBC, the Wings beat the Pistons for ratings.

That brings a smile to my face, for sure...love the 'stones, definitely, but the Red Wings are #1 to me....

AP story after the jump

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The SB Nation Wings blog is deader than the team was pre-Yzerman, and I've been hanging out at previous opponents' blogs for earlier series, so I thought I'd do the same for the Cup.

I figure I can live up to the agreement I just checked, to keep it clean, whatnot. Haven't seen too many of your predictions yet, they're probably buried under all the "new look!" notices.

Me, the whole postseason I've been pessimistic about the Red Wings' chances, partly due to years of expecting them to win only to see them fall short. This year, I figured they'd lose to San Jose and maybe Anaheim again, only to those teams knocked out in preceding rounds. I figured they'd win against Dallas, since Turco hasn't been any good in the state Michigan since he graduated from the University of Michigan after carrying us (I'm a UM grad from that time frame) to two NCAA championships.

But then, in the Stanley Cup finals, the Wings are matched up against the only Eastern Conference team I feared, your militant Pengweeners (cookie for any who knows the reference). So once again, I'm pessimistic, thinking your kids will run circles around our veterans, and you'll steal a single game in Detroit to take the cup in six.

Here's hoping I'm wrong again!

Looking forward to interacting over the next couple of weeks....

Clicking over to let's go tribe and seeing dozens of comments on all the front page items, if only because the Tigers blog I read (Bless You Boys, also on the SB Nation network) is far less trafficked.

This is really just a test of the SBN upgrade's newly enabled ability to easily join in on other sites' conversations, as opposed to the previous scheme where you had to join each blog discretely in order to post.

That said, I look forward to the '08 season, with the Tigers and Indians battling it out for AL Central Supremacy, and look forward to interacting with you guys as the season progresses.

Bumped from the diaries... I couldn't have said it better myself. The Lions were literally 18 seconds away from having a shot at making the playoffs.

Look at the standing, and you'll see a 9-7 team getting into the playoffs, with the NY Giants holding the top wild card spot at 10-5 currently, likely to finish at 10-6 after the Patiorts complete thie historic season. And then there are the Lions, currently at 7-8 on the heels of their devastating collapse after the "almost-had-us-believing" 6-2 start.

For the first time in forever, specifically since Paul Edinger's 50+ yard field goal paved the way for the Matt Millen error...I mean, era, Lions fans can actually indulge in a game of what might have been without completely deluding themselves.

The Lions will finish a game, or at worst, two out of the playoffs, and there are certainly two games on thisyear's schedule that could or should have gone a different way. Obviously, other teams can whine about Lions victories that they might have and probably should have taken (Tampa Bay comes to mind), but I'm looking at the Lions close calls here.

The two I'm thinking about are the games against the Giants and the Cowboys. In the first, it was an ugly game all around, but the Lions, down 16-10 late in the second half, had the ball twice, two chances to take it down the field and to finish the Giants. It was one of the games that could have had a domino effect, sending the Giants tumbling to another collapse, and Tom Coughlin to the unemployment line, but it wasn't to be. Twice in the final minutes, Jon Kitna turned to the 5'10" Shaun McDonald in lieu of Roy Williams or the 6'5" Calvin Johnson. The first time, the qb threw a jump ball to McDonald, who happened to be defended by a guy 6 inches taller than he. Short story maddening, the taller guy won the jump. That's usually how those things go.

The second, and last gasp attempt to McDonald occurred in Giants territory. A few more yards, and you haev a conceivable attempt at a hail mary. But instead, the ball goes through McDonald's hands, and the Giants escaped Ford Field with a victory they sorely needed, and used it to catapult themselves into the playoffs. I figure their stay there with be short, but they're in, and the Lions, well....

The second maddening game came against the team that will end the season with the best record in the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys. Say all you want about jason Witten, but if you stuff Terrell Owens and hold Crayton down and keep Barber in check, and have Jason Hanson lining up a 35 yarder that would essentially put the game out of reach, and have Witten fumble at the goal line when the Cowboys were on the verge of taking a lead with a few short minutes to go and then have Romo fumble in their last gasp attempt and have that fumble go straight to Paris Lenon....you'd think the Lions could win that game.

But no. Sadly, no. Maddeningly, all too familiarly, not so much. It's the Lions. And as is their wont, they found a way to lose to the Cowboys, and Jason Witten. And Jessica Simpson's boy toy.

Maybe a word could be said about the Arizona Cardinals game, but negative rushing yards rerally doesn't cut it in the National. Football. League. But those two games above, they definitely fit into the category of woulda coulda shoulda, had to have it when you already did most of the work types of games that in previous years could be overlooked because the Lions were nowhere close to the playoffs. But this year, they hurt all the more, just because the Lions were right there in the playoff chase, because they were 6-2 at one point, and now face the very good possibility of finishing, yet again, under .500. And because, dammit, at 6-2, they almost had us believing.....not quite, but almost....and that, for a Lions fan, is more than we could say for a long time.

But after all, these being the same old Lions, we're left with the refrain, hey maybe next year thye might be able to sneak into the playoffs.

Found this on ABC.com, a nice little story about an athlete with a plan and a real career after he left the game. Posting about it here because there's a line in there about how Leland Melvin was originally a Detroit Lions draftee out of Richmond University back in 1986.

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