Customer Reviews

"I Don't Believe It!": Memories Of A Detroit Lions Fan

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Detroit Lions. Nowhere in the history of organized human sport has a team displayed such an unwavering and thorough commitment to incompetance, amateurism and utter bufoonery. Despite 47 (and counting) years of producing excrement-like results on the football field, it is amazing that the Lions have ANY fans, let alone one passionate enough to write a book about the subject. It is even more amazing that after 6 years of the uttery insanity that is the "Matt Millen Era", anyone like me would even care to buy (let alone) read a book about the Lions. I guess that's a testimony to how great the Detroit fan base is - that with three pro teams and 2 major university teams which have won multiple championships in the last 30 years, they still manage to sell out Ford Field every year, with nearly 70,000 fans gathering every Sunday to see whether the Ford/Millen led abortion of a team will get 2 wins this season or 3.

In any event, it's clear that like myself, Mr. Schumer is a fan. A passionate fan. A fan who loves his hometown football team ... even if it is the Lions. His book is seemingly meant to be a personal reflection on his many decades of following the team, and all the great heartaches that entails. I say seemingly because while the book brought back a lot of the same emotions in me, I could never quite follow what it was the author was trying to say. While he had a lot of memories, it's clear he wasn't a professional "author", and thus the book was frequently meeandering and unfathomable. Each chapter leapt all over the place, and rather than segment the book into specific topics, it seemed like a loose collection of the same essay written over and over again. Furthermore, this appears to be a "vanity" publication, which was published without even the most rudimentary editing. Typos and incomplete sentences abound, and make it hard to follow any trains of thought.

I found the book entertainng, but it was mostly because it triggered so many of my own memories about the Lions' incompetance under Old Man Ford. With some editing, and a few more rewrites, I think this could have been a must buy for any true Lions fans ... but as the book is currently released, I just can't bring myself to recommend it.

I'd close this review with some quaint comment like "perhaps if the Lions ever turn it around and get to the Superbowl, Mr. Schumer could revise and rerelease the book", but as any true Lions fan knows, we'll all be dead long before this joke of a team ever gets to the top of the mountain.

I agree with the previous posting. The book read like a blog for the most part, especially in the later chapters. I enjoyed it for the most part because of the recolections of some of the Lions' most embarrassing performances (i.e. Marty take the wind, Boss Ross goes for 2 twice, Eagle playoff mega-blowout, etc.)

For the price, I would recommend it to another long suffering Lions fan. You can easily finish it in a day or two.

The opening anecdote should be enough to tip off the reader that the book will be incomplete. The event described is a 1970 Lion's loss at the hands of the New Orleans' Saints or should I say to the foot of kicker Tom Dempsey. Schumer tells how Alex Karas and his defensive line mates were laughing at the 63 yard field goal attempt with 2 sec left in the game. What he doesn't explain is why they were laughing. Dempsey was perhaps the least athletic person to ever play in the NFL- besides being slightly overweight, he was born without toes on his right foot which caused him to wobble when he ran. He wore a shoe with no toe box; it had a flattened face like a sledge hammer. As he ran on the field for the winning attempt, the Lions were laughing about the incongruity of a "cripple" attempting the longest field goal in the history of the NFL. Karas later admitted that they barely rushed because it seemed so unlikely that he could be successful. While politically incorrect by today's standards, the full story is necessary to explain Karas' laughter and the improbability of the subsequent loss.
The rest of the book is as incomplete and inaccurate as the opening story. In another story, the author recounts how Joey Harrington was isolated on the sidelines by his team mates after an interception. The author quotes an announcer reporting that "Joey was avoided like a piranha".... I'm pretty sure the announcer said "pariah" meaning "outcast."
The book lacks a narrative structure, contains numerous spelling & grammar errors and really does a terrible job of capturing the suffering of truly knowledgeable Detroit Lions fans... save your money!

I personally enjoyed this book. I have just turned 30, and am also one of those lifetime Lions fans. I haven't reached the level of cynicism that the author takes at times, but I still have time for that to build up.

This book fills in some partial memories I have of the team, as well as giving me a little more history through the eyes and words of another, older fan. The way Schumer puts it in a personal context is refreshing to me, because it brings old Lions memories to life. I liked this approach much more than the impersonal style that most sports history is written in.

My only issue with this book (I have a 2nd edition) is with the spelling and grammatical errors it is riddled with, throughout. This book could have really used a good editor. Even some Detroit sports figures like Eric Andolsek (pg. 9) have their names spelled incorrectly, and that hurts the credibility of the author. It also hurt the flow, and my patience with it at times. Otherwise, I likely would have read the book in a single sitting.

Still an interesting read, though. It will make a good conversation piece if left visible in any Michigan home.

No one is going to really get this book unless they have grown up being a Detroit Lions fan, but for those of us who have lived this NFL nightmare for the past 40 years or so, this book will bring back a lot of bad memories. The only problem is the book was written too early. Everything got even worse when the Lions went an incredible 0 - 16 for the 2008 / 2009 season. Being a Lions fan is a life sentence of suffering and this book captures that feeling really well.