The Lions play the Packers tonight. I’ll be cheering for the Packers because my son is a huge fan of the Pack and he is very fussy when they lose. So Go Pack Go. But the Lions are finally good and like legitimately good for the first time in my life. So I thought it would be fun to remember some of those Lions you likely forgot.

10. Jeff Campbell

Yes that is right, they had a guy named Jeff Campbell. He played wide receiver for 3 or 4 years in the early 90s. The best part of his game was that he was on Tecmo Super Bowl so I could play with the Lions and see my name on the game running around. Of course I rarely got to play because I didn’t have video games as a kid. So I only got to play when I went to a friend’s house and I was always get crushed because they played all the time and I didn’t. That wasn’t as bad as when we played super mario brothers though and my turn took 3 minutes and their turn took an hour and half. Anyway, I am sure my lack of playing video games allowed me to use my imagination and become such a great writer. So your welcome and you should thank my parents.

9. Rodney Peete

Rodney was an All-American at USC and then was drafted by the Lions. He did quite well at handing off Barry Sanders. He also married Holly Robinson of 21st Jump Street and hanging with Mr. Cooper fame and she is also easy on the eyes.

8. Andre Ware

Ware was a Heisman winner and the idea was to pair him with another Heisman winner Barry Sanders. The problem was that Ware barely saw the field. Ware threw a whopping 161 passes in his career.

7. Herman Moore

Herman was Calvin Johnson before it was cool to be Calvin Johnson. Moore absolutely tore it up in the NFL. He had over 100 receptions 3 years in a row including 123 in 1995 including 14 touchdowns. And he didn’t have Matthew Stafford throwing to him, he had Rodney Peete and Erik Kramer throwing to him. And also the next guy on the list.

6. Scott Mitchell

Scott Mitchell came in for Dan Marino when he got hurt and played really well for 4 or 5 games. So the Lions decided to give him a bunch of money to be their starter. Mitchell got hurt his first year with Detroit. The second year he played pretty well and then after that he threw about as many interceptions as touchdowns. The Lions wanted their money back.

5. Dan Orlovsky

Dan only started 7 games and now is famous for his solid takes on ESPN. But he makes the list for famously running out of the back of the end zone for no apparent reason.

4. Joey Harrington

The Lions picked Joey 3rd overall and their bad luck with quarterbacks continued as he was not good. He started for a few years until the Lions gave up on him and then he bounced around the league for a while. He seems like a pretty good guy. He was not a pretty good quarterback.

3. Bennie Blades

Bennie was a baller. He could cover and he could tackle. He was a physical safety who was part of the crazy good teams of the University of Miami. He didn’t win nearly as much with the Lions but it wasn’t his fault. Also, as a side note, his brother Brian played receiver for the Seahawks.

2. Chris Spielman

Spielman was a very good linebacker that was a force to be reckoned with. He was often a league leader in tackles. He was also a pretty terrible commentator for Fox for a while. Now he works in the Lions office and now finally gets to be a part of the Lions winning some games.

1. Mel Gray

Gray was quite the return man. He returned 9 kicks for touchdowns and he was named to the all 1990s team. He also played at Coffeyville Community College and shared the backfield with Mike Rozier who went on to play at Nebraska and in the pros with the Houston Oilers. He gets to be number 1 because my Dad wrote 2 books about the Coffeyville football program and Mel gets mentioned in there. I don’t remember if he is in volume 1 or 2 or why there is two volumes but copies are available if you are interested.

Tune into tomorrow for 5 for Friday!