But watching the Detroit Lions get clobbered yet again on Thanksgiving Day, I couldn't help but wonder if I wasn't watching the best case against bailing out the Big Three.
Until this year, the Lions have escaped notice as one of the worst franchises in professional sports. They've won just one playoff game in the last 50 years. And they've done it under the stewardship of William Clay Ford, Sr., who also helped run the Ford Motor Company during that same period.
The Lions haven't been victims of a curse or horribly bad luck. They've been run into the ground by bad management. You have to wonder just how epically awful they might've been had they not found Barry Sanders in the draft. Just take a look at the most glaring example - Lions CEO Matt Millen's Ford-enabled ineptitude:
In 2001, Millen left broadcasting to assume the job of the Detroit Lions' CEO and de facto general manager. At that time, Millen had no prior player development or front office experience.This CEO with no prior experience completely flopped in his first four years with a 16-48 record. So did the Ford family fire him? No. In fact, they rewarded him with a lucrative extension.Since Millen's arrival in 2001, the Lions were 31-84, 26 games below .500, and had lost nine or more games each season. During the early part of Millen's tenure (2001-2003), the Lions failed to win a road game for three years (0-24) before opening the season with a win at the Chicago Bears in 2004. Overall, the Lions are 8-50 on the road since 2001. [...]
Despite the team's record on the field, Matt Millen was the second highest paid general manager in the NFL. With a draft record that included a number of high first-round draft picks who were considered poor choices (Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington, and Mike Williams among them), and widespread disappointment among fans, the media, and even some players, Millen received a five-year contract extension from owner William Clay Ford, Sr. at the start of the 2005 season. Following the team's 3-13 performance in 2006, Ford announced that Millen would be retained as General Manager for at least another season, because according to inside sources to the Ford family, they still believed that Millen is the best GM that the Lions ever had.
Sound familiar? GM, which is now saying it may run out of cash by January, just gave its CEO a 64 percent raise.
As Jim Manzi has written, we've seen this movie before. "This story - look, we now see how foolish we've been, and finally have our act together; with just a little more time we'll be world-beaters again - has been sold by Detroit to journalists many times over the past 20 years," says Manzi.
Unfortunately, calling the Big Three on their bluff and forcing them into bankruptcy, as Republicans on Capitol Hill want to do, would only punish workers and retirees for the incompetence of management. It would be like stripping Barry Sanders of his retirement benefits just because Matt Millen can't run a team.