It's Detroit in 2009, with gridiron guillotines lopping off one football figurehead after another.
The bloodletting in the streets of Detroit has spilled over from Ford Field to the halls of the Fourth Estate – and deservedly so, according to at least one Lions blogger,
PrideofDetroit.com.
Detroit News columnist Rob Parker, who brought
Broadsheet Bully-style hackery to the Midwest and to ESPN,
"resigned" this week in the wake of a controversy that dogged him after one of former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli's final press conferences.
Following Detroit's 42-7 loss to New Orleans on Dec. 21, Parker asked Marinelli if he wished his daughter "had married a better defensive coordinator." Marinelli's daughter is married to Lions (now former) DC Joe Barry.
It would have been a nice artistic flourish if Parker had drop-kicked the family puppy while he was at it. We don't know where Parker's from, but he should have been beaten senseless for calling out a guy's daughter to his face in front of a big crowd of people.
Marinelli kept his cool. But the uncomfortable line of questioning caused
Terry Bradshaw in the Fox Sports studio to say of the reporter: "You know, Rob, you're an idiot. You're just a flat idiot ... You're a disgrace to your profession, my friend."
According to several accounts, even other reporters in the press conference were bothered by the line of questioning. And as
Pigskin Detention (not to mention your own observations) has proven over the years, it takes a lot to shame a reporter.
They even launched
a "Fire Rob Parker" campaign following the "do you wish your daughter ...?" question.
(This is Parker in the photo here.)
"Parker has asked downright ridiculous questions at times in hopes of getting Marinelli to say something controversial, and Marinelli has never taken the bait,"
wrote Pride of Detroit. "Despite the losing and the tough times, I respect Marinelli for staying so classy throughout this entire season."
PrideofDetroit is no apologist for Marinelli, though. They clearly wanted him gone, too. After all, 0-16 is 0-16. And Barry surely was a pretty poor defensive coordinator, as evidenced by the
single worst pass defense in NFL history (110.8 Defensive Passer Rating).
Parker tried to apologize
in a column that followed the controverial question, but it went over about as well as Detroit's secondary against Drew Brees. Pride of Detroit
called the column, fittingly, "embarrassing, narcissistic."
Parker was a classic hack in the mode of Ron Borges in Boston, stirring up sh*t just to see what he can get away with. And he was in rare form in 2008: at one point he said that college basketball players like Tyler Hansbrough will
fail because they're white, which would have got him fired immediately if the words "
fail because they're" were followed by "
black."
Fortunately, it seems that even fans of down-and-out-football teams, like the gang at Pride of Detroit, know hackery when they see it. And now Lions fans can hope to emerge victorious on two fronts: With any luck, they'll find a better product on the field and in the press box in 2009.
But, well, let's not get too crazy here.
The Lions have a long road to recovery from 0-16. The media, meanwhile, is not about to mend its hack-filled ways anytime soon. In any other line of work, such as yours, Parker would have been fired long ago for blatantaly racist statements or fabricating reports. You can't do either on your job.
Not fight for the readers, mind you, but fight for a guy who breaches every standard of the profession.
This isn't Paris in 1789, it only seems that way. 
