The “least favorite Lion ever” thread got me thinking. We talk a lot here about Lions we hate–and sometimes even about players we like! But who are the Lions who you LOVED when they joined the team, were super excited about, but who failed to work out for one reason or another?
Mine is definitely Kevin Jones. For some dumb reason, I got really into VaTech football in the year or two before he came out, and I was a HUGE Kevin Jones fan. I was so pumped when we drafted him. And then… of course… meh. Injuries didn’t help. At least he always seemed to be a good dude.
Who were your faves among the guys you thought were going to be great here, before they realized they were Lions?
KJ had some real potential, I remember a 1000 yard season and him running all over the Packers one year.
2 others come to mind - Reggie Brown (Broke his neck, almost died on the field) and Germaine Crowell (Looked like a star young WR before all the injuries)
This one hits home for me too. I was dating a girl from VATECH at the time and watched alot of Jones games as I lived in VA at the time. I was super high on him…
For myself i would say Reggie Brown or Javhid Best or even Titus young.
Oh man Germaine Crowell… remember that one game, I think against the Rams, where the lions had a 4th and 27 or something ridiculous, they threw a bomb to him and he caught it and they went on to win?
Crowell would be one of mine… KJ is another great choice…
I’m gonna go with Chris Claiborne. I don’t know why, but I always hoped he would be awesome… never panned out to much, I think he went to St. Louis for a couple years after the lions.
Oh heck yea, I remember that game because I was at it live!!
Gus Frerotte on 4th and 27 hit Crowell and we went on to beat the Rams who had the greatest show on turf, the Rams went onto to win the super bowl and the Lions missed the playoffs. haha - Amazing game though.
If we’re going back to the Bobby Ross years, man, I was SURE we were going to have the most dominant OL in the league. McDougle and Aaron Gibson in back to back drafts, beat that, Packers! (They did, in fact, beat that.)
that game man…that game was a top 5 lions moment for me. 5-0…Monday Night Football…crazy to think we went 5-6 the rest of the year…and were never the same after he got hurt in the niner game.
Gus frerotte!!! Man I was trying to remember who the QB was. That was 99 correct? So I think we made the playoffs and got beat by Washington in the wild card?
That’s awesome you were at that game! Awesome Lions memory!!!
Yeah Gibson and McDougle in back to back drafts… James Stewart in the backfield… thought we would be running over teams! Still had Cory Schlesinger at FB if I recall.
Note - I could go look all this up but I’m much more interested in hearing everyone’s personal stories! Awesome thread topic!
Ok here’s one… Terry Battle. I think that was his name… had an awesome 3rd or 4th preseason game for the Lions, right after Barry retired… thought he was gonna step in and him and Ron Rivers would be able to fill the void…
Ron Rivers I recall didn’t look too bad at first, just couldn’t keep it up for a full season.
Man all great choices. I loved all of them. Reggie brown and Titus young being the most tragic to me… they were both legit… those teams would’ve looked a lot different had they stayed healthy.
Best too for sure… and not any less tragic, the distinction I was making I guess was he had the history of concussions so his career ending due to that wasn’t completely surprising.
