In Detroit, the GM Gig Is Lifetime Appointment

For all I know, the Detroit Free Press' Michael Rosenberg has a Mad Libs version of this column, and just updates it the first January of every football season, filling in the names of just-fired coaches, and soon-to-be-released former first-round picks. The only name that doesn't change: general manager and president, Matt Millen.

Rosenberg asks -- and at this point it just seems rhetorical -- how Millen can keep his job?

If Ford put the names of the personnel directors from the other 31 NFL teams on a dart board, and hired the first name he hit with a dart, he would do better than Matt Millen.

That's not even a joke. It's reality. The other personnel directors are professionals, trained to run teams. Some are more competent than others, but at least this is what they do. Millen is a former player and a broadcaster who has no clue how to build a team.

Millen has done what nobody thought was possible: He has damaged the reputation of the worst owner in the NFL.

And Rosenberg's last sentence says it all. The Lions, winners of 31 games under a Millen regime that now spans seven seasons, have actually gotten worse. That's a scary thought. Almost as scary as the fact that the owner knows less about running a football team than Millen does.

And with Millen firmly entrenched, the Lions will continue to be the worst-run franchise in the league for the foreseeable future. Happy New Year, Detroit fans.