Beware of blinding loyalty...

The nice thing about the NFL off-season compared to other sports is that it gives every fan a reason for new optimism and hope with their team.  Unlike other sports, the NFL Draft provides teams with players who can make an instant impact.  For Lions fans like myself, you finally have a defensive play-maker that should, based on all projections, be an unstoppable force that frees up the rest of the defense while stopping the hell outta the run.  For New England Patriots fans, it's a chance to restock and reload some aging pieces on a once formidable defense.  New hope can also be found with the approach the Chicago Bears took this off-season in bringing in an offensive/defensive specialist to be a new coordinator.

Although this optimism is warranted, past experience or performance isn't always a good thing to have blind faith in.  On paper you have a guy who was the architect for one of the most impressive offenses the football world has ever seen.  A guy who has been a part of a Super Bowl Winning team and won his division as a Head Coach three times.  Any fan would be excited to have that, but to these fans who are thrilled this mad scientist is going to try and revamp your offense, I want you to ask yourself why a coach with such a pedigree was even available.

I offer you this as an answer, Martz is incapable of building the type of offense to do what he would like to do.  When the Rams won the Super Bowl he was given the privilege of working with 2 unbelievable WR's and an amazing RB.  The offensive line in front of his QB was the best in the league at the time.  But most importantly, all of these pieces were put in place by Dick Vermeil.

Once Vermeil left and the greatest show on turf began to show its age, Martz was unable to deliver the replacements.  Incapable of evaluating the proper talent needed to run the offense that had been so widely heralded, the Rams nose dived out of relevance and are still trying to fight their way back today.  The skeptics said maybe Martz was just not cut out for a HC gig and that a return to OC would be a great move for him.

Enter my Lions.  In need of a offensive genius, Detroit gave Martz that shot allowing him to solely focus on the offense.  2 losing seasons, 117 sacks and 44 interceptions later, Martz was again hunting for a new job.  San Francisco may have figured that Martz inability to fix the Lions offense was a result of my Lions being, well, my Lions.  That Bay City experiment ended even quicker than the Motor City one with similar results; 55 sacks, 19 interceptions and a losing record.

Now Martz finds himself in Chicago, a job that several potential candidates turned down before it was even offered to him, and Bears fans everywhere are poised for the Monsters of the Midway to return to the playoffs.  Be wary though, you may have the gun-slinger to thrive in the Martz offense, but you are sorely missing your Isaac Bruce, Tory Holt and Marshall Faulk.  You are also missing the offensive line to accommodate the infamous 7-step drop (roughly translated into more time for the d-line to get Cutler).  Martz could craft the second coming of the Greatest show on turf, but, as Niners and Lions fans will tell you, history and a lack of personnel say he won't.

Having trust in your team is one thing, but as fans, some times we need to take a step back and re-assess the situation without our heart.  Despite my belief the Lions are back on their way to the days of mediocrity under Wayne Fontes, I have yet to order my NFC North 3rd place t-shirt, well, not just yet.