The Lions are bad and TV is not far behind

It's early Monday morning and I am in one of my moods where things just annoy me. Instead of allowing that frustration to go with me to work, I decided to focus my venom on the Detroit Lions and on the Emmy awards last night. Both of which are unwatchable messes.

First the Lions. How bad is Joey Harrington? I checked his QB rating and here are some other players who are rated above him. Tim Rattay, Anthony Wright, JP Losman, Mark Brunell, Kyle Orton and Gus Ferrotte. Not exactly a hall of fame list. It's sad but the Lions would actually be a better team with any of the above mentioned QBs. If I recall correctly Ferrotte used to play for the Lions but they dumped to begin the Harrington era. Not a great choice in retrospect. This was supposed to be the year Harrington put everything into place. Well he put everything into the place of the opponents hands by throwing five interceptions. It makes me long for the days of Ty Detmer's seven interception debacle of a couple years ago. At least we knew he was not the future.

Aside from Harrington, I really question the coaching staff. Mariucci has been a bust since he got here. The offense looks terrible which is surprising because they have drafted star players the last 4 seasons. With all that talent you would think they could outscore the Bears. But no, the Bears defense and special teams scored more than the Lions offense. Heck they couldn't even kick the extra point. For all the hoopla about the west coast offense think it's time to scrap it and start over. We could try something that works like maybe throwing the ball down the field more than five yards at a time. The sad fact is that the Lions could have hired Marvin Lewis a few years back but instead got Marty Morningweg as a placeholder for Mariucci. The Bengals should send us a thank you note.

One last thing I don't understand is how Matt Millen still has a job. The team has the worst record over the past four years and yet he still got a contract extension this past summer. Why do the Lions always reward mediocrity? Forget I said that, I would be happy with mediocrity compared to the nonsense they showed yesterday.

Now TV. Is it just me or does TV suck? I didn't watch the emmys last night but I was interested in seeing who won. I was surprised that Everybody Loves Raymond was the best comedy. Not that it's a bad show but how sad is it that a show that's not even on the air anymore won the award. I used to watch Raymond, and still do on reruns, but the show wasn't that great this year and had long since jumped the shark.

I was also surprised just how many of the winners I hadn't even watched or heard of. Who decides these winners, the promotions department at the networks? Best actor was James Spader from Boston Legal. Give me a break. Nobody watches that show so how good an actor could he be? I did hear Lost deserved to win although I've never seen an episode of it. However, I do know most of the plot from listening to friends and family members talk about it. I might have to start watching it this year.

Looking ahead to next year's shows, I am not that excited about the fall schedule that debuts this week. When I was in Las Vegas I got preview the new Chris Rock show which was okay but really nothing more than the Wonder Years with a black family. All the new dramas are either about aliens or police dramas. I wonder why no one in Holiday can come up with any new ideas. Fox at least tries even if half their shows are sleaze. They are basically the only creative network out there.

I miss the good old days of TV. Even the reruns of yesteryear are better than the new crap they are giving awards to today. I think I'll watch MASH after I get done writing this.