In the history of the Detroit Lions not a single person who has held the position of "Head Coach" has ever left the organization and been able to take the same position with another NFL organization.

In other words, not a single Lions head coach has ever done the job well enough that another team thought maybe they could do it for them....in other words, the Lions have always had awful head coaches.

In this year of the Lions assault on "streaks" (ie winning on the road in the division, finally achieving a winning record, ending the playoff lapse, etc) may just extend to the "the Lions head coaching position is where coaches go to die" streak.

This week, former Lions HC Marty Mornhinweg will be interviewed by the Oakland Raiders new General Manager Reggie McKenzie as a candidate for the Raiders opening.

Mornhinweg put together a 5-27 record before being fired after the 2002 season. Since that embarrassment, he has spent the past nine seasons as an offensive assistant with the Eagles, including the past six as offensive coordinator.

Of all the coaches that have donned Honolulu blue and walked headlong into the insanity and oblivion of coaching the Leos, I think Marty Mornhinweg got the rawest deal and is most deserving of another gig...even more than Steve Mariucci.

Mariucci had a much larger say in what kind of players he got.  He was the favored coach of the worst GM in professional sports history...Mariucci had Millen's ear.  Two years before, when Millen first got the gig hired Mornhinweg as a "Marriucci-lite" and then forced all of his horrible decisions on him.

Marty probably had a say during his fist season--that draft produced both Jeff Backus and Dominic Raiola--but when he lost 13 in a row and finished 2-14...saddled with Charlie Batch, Ty Detmer, Johnnie Morton and James Stewart...he apparently lost all credibility with Millen.  The next draft...he got stuck with Joey "Blue Skies" Harrington, when he wanted CB Quentin Jammer...and it all just kept going down hill...

And then Mariucci became available and Marty was quickly shown the door...

But if you go back and look at the statistics...Marty--with players he didn't want--put up better offenses than Mariucci who had picked his own guys...although they were both stuck with Joey...

The only black marks on Mornhinweg's resume is his two year hell under the ironfisted numbskull rule of Matt Millen...oh...that and taking the wind instead of the ball after winning an overtime flip in Chicago...I'm sure that after eight years of usually very succesful season and the resurection of Micheal Vick and the creation of Kevin Kolb...he's probably learned better what to do if he manages to win the coin flip...

This year has been incredible for the Lions.  They started off 5-0, part of a nine game winning streak.  They've looked awesome and have repeatedly been the talk of the NFL...but then they played a really, really hot 49'ers team--a 49'ers team that they'd lost to 12 of the last 13 times they'd met...

And they lost....and all hell has broken loose.

First of all, there was "ShakeGate."  Jim Schwartz and Jim Harbaugh met to shake after the end of the very emotional game and Harbaugh may or may not have shaken Schwartz's hand too hard, he may have pushed him in the back, he may have said something under his breath...I don't know exactly what happened, I just know that I'm not fully believing the messages the coaches have been putting out about the incident....but when it happened, I can lip read well enough to know that Schwartz didn't say "Have a nice day!" or "Good luck next week."  And then Schwartz chased him down the field and bumped into him a few times...

So that was a real mess, probably propagated by two very young very competitive coaches, one who was pumped to the nines about having won and one who was really upset about having lost...

On Monday, it came out that Jahvid Best was suffering from concussion symptoms...which is especially scary because it's his third concussion in two years...which was the BIG, BIG fear when the Lions drafted Best.  That's why he was available at the bottom of the first round....

As the NFL Trade Deadline approached, with the Lions not having any idea of what Best's status would be this week or moving forward, they engineered a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles for former first round running back, Ronnie Brown.  The Lions were sending RB Jerome Harrison and a seventh round pick for Brown.

This was new...the Lions were dealt a major blow and, contrary to their long history of not addressing issues during the season, they actually went out and made a move! 

But then, today, it comes out that the deal has been voided by the Eagles.  And the trade deadline has now passed...

What happened? According to NFL Network's Adam Schefter, the physical the Eagles gave Jerome Harrison revealed a brain tumor--not a shaky knee or elbow...not a bad achilles or hamstrings...a BRAIN TUMOR...a life threatening condition!  I don't mean to make light of this.  My hopes and prayers are with Harrison and his family as he deals with this horribly unexpected, life changing event.

But this is Lions luck, by definition.  This is not the kind of thing that happens every day...The Lions have had to deal with horrible injuries like Reggie Brown, Mike Utley, and Zack Follet--just to name a few...  They have had to deal with the awful passings of Erik Andolsek, Lenny Fontes, and Chuck Hughes--the only player to actually DIE on the football field.

Hopefully this tumor was found early enough that Harrison can receive treatment and beat it...but it doesn't look like he'll be suiting up any time soon...

The Lions then went out and made a second move to try and shore up the RB position...signing James Davis to the practice squad...a player whose played for the Browns and Eagles...and Davis lasted less than 24 hours...he's on the IR already...

 And Best's status still remains uncertain...