Millen is finally, finally gone.

Matt Millen is gone. It’s a phrase I had never thought I would end up uttering. Nearly eight years of torture. The Lions just made the best move of their existence as an organization. No more first-round wide receivers for five-year stretches? I would hope not. So I think the Lions faithful finally heaved a collective sigh. Finally, the age of Millen has been ushered out by the Ford family in one of the most popular moves by the Lions since bringing in Barry Sanders with the third pick in the 1989 NFL draft. I am, above all, a fair person. When they brought Millen on staff in 2001, I was optimistic. I was a wide-eyed 14-year old boy, listening to everyone talk about how Millen had won so many as a player that he was bound to have success in the front office. I remember sitting around with my grandpa and my uncle talking about it. “Finally, they might get their act together.” As the years drudged on, the team slipped lower and lower into the depths of football hell. While they always scratched out a victory here, a victory there, they never were able to perform with any real consistency. A winning percentage of only .277 (31-81) is enough to get any coach or executive fired without question; the only real question is why it took them so long. Fans called for his termination on several occasions, including the 2005 “orange-out” event during which the Lions faithful wore the opposing teams colors when the Cincinatti Bengals were in town, and the Millen Man March organized by a local radio station during which the crowd grew to more than 1,000 Lions fans as they traveled the five blocks toward Ford Field (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2264484). The question remains as to why they held on to him for so long. Maybe they hoped that he would make that stellar draft pick or that blockbuster trade, but it just never manifested. But the Ford family, the family who built the Ford Motor Company, never mustered the courage to pull the trigger. It took a 0-3 start to the 2008 campaign in which they have given up nearly twice as many points as they have scored. The defense is being consistently compared to a high school squad, giving up huge yards in important situations, and Millen is really the only one to blame for that. He had the time to build what he needed and couldn’t get it done. Finally, a reason to celebrate for Lions fans: Matt Millen is gone and from here we can pick up the pieces and move on.