New Logo, Colors, Good Fit for Matthew Stafford

Burning Questions | by Mike O'Hara | 04.20.2009/2:04PM

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Five burning questions as the Lions rolled out their new logo, uniform and design on Monday:

Q. What was the best part – the color, the design or just the change in general?
A. None of the three. What stood out was the enthusiasm of the fans at the Dunham’s sporting goods outlet in Madison Heights. They were excited and loud. They came to cheer.
Obviously, they’re the core fans – the ones who live and die with their team. They want the Lions do win and get disappointed when they don’t. They aren’t the ones who criticize everything.
Q. They kept the old colors – Honolulu blue and Silver, with some black trim – and changed the logo and the Lions’ script. Should they have made a radical change and gone away from the traditional color scheme?
A. No. Keeping the blue and silver is the right thing to do. The Lions have a long history, dating to 1934. Those colors are part of their history and heritage. They’re part of the franchise, for better or worse.
Q. Fans were chanting for the Lions to draft linebacker Aaron Curry of Wake Forest with the first pick. Should the Lions listen to their fans?
A. Of course they should listen. And after that, they should make what they think is the right pick. I remember how the fans went bananas over Charles Rogers in 2003. The year before, they cheered for Joey Harrington – and wanted him to be the opening-day starter.
The fans have a voice, but it’s more important for them to cheer on game day when the team wins games, not in March and April when they’re signing free agents and drafting players.
Q. Lions President Tom Lewand responded to the fans, basically saying he respected their enthusiasm. He was upbeat and cheerful about it. What should be read into that?
A. It’s another bread crumb in the trail that leads to drafting quarterback Matthew Stafford of Georgia. Lewand could have told the fans they wouldn’t be disappointed on draft day. He didn’t – and I didn’t expect him to say that.
But nothing has happened in this offseason that would lead the Lions away from drafting Stafford. Daunte Culpepper is the only veteran on the roster with any possibility of being a starter or a backup. The other two quarterbacks, Drew Stanton and Drew Henson, are third-stringers at best.
It’s still set up for a young quarterback to come in and get groomed to start.
Q. OK, bonus question. What odds do you give now that Stafford is the Lions’ pick?
A. No odds, but a percentage – 100 percent for Stafford, zero percent for anyone else.
And it doesn’t matter if the he isn’t signed before draft day. GM Martin Mayhew and Lewand have said it’s important to have the player signed before the draft, but it isn’t a deal-breaker.
“We don’t have any preconditions,” Lewand said.

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