Restoring the Roar: Motor City Kitties Cheer a Retirement

That hissing meow emanating from Michigan might be growing into a roar again.

The City of Detroit that hasn’t heard anything like that from its football sector since the Barry Sanders days.

This restoration might be due to the signing of star running back Reggie Bush. But it’s not.

There's only one thing Lions fans would cheer more than Reggie Bush coming into the locker room, and that's Jeff Backus leaving it.

For 12 straight seasons, Backus has managed to be the most average player in the NFL, and saying 'average' is a bit of a stretch. The last time that Backus’s name made the news was when his streak of 187 consecutive starts was broken, and you can bet that was QB Matthew Stafford’s favorite game of the season.

Actually having someone who knows how to block a defender on the Lions O-Line is certain to keep Stafford’s shoulder from separating. At least, that's how it was until Backus came back. But those days are finally over. The Lions can now proceed with their offseason while Jeff heads back home to spend his retirement laying on a couch and watching highlight reels of himself missing blocks that led to his quarterbacks getting dismembered.

Funny how people didn’t seem to care as much when Daunte Culpepper and Joey Harrington were the victims, even though Culpepper is still a starting QB for the Lions. The Sacramento Mountain Lions, that is: a franchise in the United Football League.

Now that it's done, Lions fans can actually let bygones be bygones with a straight face. And so, Jeff Backus, the fans of Detroit formally thank you for being the satisfactorily mediocre player they always dreamed you could be, and each one of them can look forward to the pleasant thought of you doing anything besides taking up space on the Lions' line of scrimmage.