The Jim Schwartz dare

Detroit Lions' head coach Jim Schwartz doesn't seem like the kind of guy to back down. Even though his team would have to post winning records every season until maybe the year 2020 to get his career record over .500 as the Lions' head coach (and it's getting worse by the week), Jimbo continues to remain defiant. Bring em on, he says.

Well, OK then, but perhaps Schwartz should put something on the line as well. No, this isn't about the oblivious Ford family having wasted a few more million dollars to once again fire a coach that can't produce a winner, and buy out the remaining years on his contract. That's chump change to billionaires and we've already seen enough of that anyway over the years.

This is about Schwartz manning up. If we wants his team to put it all on the line every week, then Schwartz should too.

Way back in Week 8 of the NFL season, around Halloween time, the Lions defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24. A couple days ago those same Seahawks steamrolled the Arizona Cardinals to the tune of 58-0. The Cardinals started out the season 4-0, but have been slip-sliding away ever since, losing the last 9 in a row. They finally appear to have bottomed out. 58-0 is about as bad as it gets in the NFL.

And now the Lions travel to Arizona to face the Cardinals. Yes, the Lions are on a (surprise!) losing streak of their own, but surely they should be able to beat the lowly free-falling Cardinals -- right? 

Betcha Jim Schwartz thinks they will. As the Lions' head coach, Schwartz has dealt with many things, including injuries and discipline problems, both on and off the field. But that's always been about the players. It's easy for him to talk the talk, because it's always been about somebody else.

Now it's time for him to walk the walk, because it should now be about him. So if he wants to truly man up, then here's what he should do....

Come out to the press and say, "If we don't beat Arizona, I'll not only have my budding mustache and goatee shaved off, but my head and the rest of my body as well. Further, I'll keep it all shaved until we win another game. Further yet, I'll make all my coaches do the same".

The upcoming game would normally be a yawner. It's just between two teams playing out the season with no hope of going to the playoffs.

But throw down THAT gauntlet, and methinks the ratings might spike a bit.

Even if the Lions were to lose the game, all that would all grow back in time. On the other hand, the Lions seem to have been stuck in the "peach fuzz" stage of adolescence for the last half century.

Somehow it would all seem fitting......