StooltimeCounseling's Blog

Jimmy Johnson, of Fox NFL Sunday, is so optimistic, one must question his credentials as a broadcaster. Aren't sportscasters supposed to be "critical" so that they can be viewed as "objective"? 

Given Jimmy's "hopeful" comment about the Lions during the 3rd game of the season, when the Lions lost to the 49'ers, 31-13, coupled with my pattern of finding something positive to say about the Lions each week, I felt compelled to bring in some reinforcements. This week, it's Jimmy Johnson.

Why would Jimmy Johnson make an attempt to be empathic with Lions fans, who keep waiting for the 2008 season to do a 180 degree turn rather than just be "good-time Charlie" fans?

All I know, when Jimmy Johnson said the Detroit Lions are "playing possum", it had Terry Bradshaw rolling his eyes during their half-time show on Sunday. Of course, we already know what Terry Bradshaw thinks about Detroit.

"Playing possum"  (taken from Wikipedia) :

"Playing possum" is a phrase which literally means "to pretend to be dead".

It comes from a characteristic of the Virginia opossum, which is famous for pretending to be dead when threatened. This instinct doesn't always pay off in the modern world; for example, opossums scavenging roadkill may use it in response to the threat posed by oncoming traffic, and subsequently end up as roadkill themselves.

"Playing possum" can also mean simply pretending to be injured, unconscious, or otherwise vulnerable, often to lure an opponent into a vulnerable position himself.

There are two weeks (next week is a bye-week) for Mr. Ford to do something different with the Lions organization if he doesn't want the possum to end up as road kill this year. Show Lions fans that the team is not really dead, and that it's just pretending.

It's your move Mr. Ford. Don't be the driver who runs over your own scavenging possum that's pretending to be dead, when it's really alive.

In addition to the team's win-loss record, one of the measures I'm going to use to decide if the team is becoming successful, is when I hear the team asking more questions than they are answering.