The 1972 Dolphins don’t want company. Neither do the 2008 Lions.
Detroit’s downtrodden team, the first and only 0-16 franchise in league history, isn’t rooting for the 0-14 Browns to complete the job.
“Nobody’s celebrating being a loser,” linebacker Ryan Nece recently told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “That’s not company that you want to share. We want these guys to win. We’re not hoping that they’re sharing our record or sharing what we went through. That’s not something that you wish on anybody.”
The Browns are down to two chances to avoid matching the 2008 Lions: Saturday against the Chargers and the following Sunday at Pittsburgh.
“I feel for them,” Nece said. “To be where they are now, there’s only a few men and a few coaches that have gone through what they’ve gone through. It is extremely challenging and it’s something that I’m actually hoping that they find a way to get a win, because just to be able to get that monkey off their back in the next two games, I think will be tremendous for them.”
Long snapper Don Muhlbach is one of only two 2008 players who still plays for the Lions.
“I don’t want to have anyone have to go through that,” Muhlbach told Birkett. “I just remember how rough that was. Just every week, having to just -- it just kept building and building. That’s not football, in my mind. There’s too much other stuff going on, too. I hope they get one.”
Most football fans do. And the Browns definitely need one, for plenty of reasons. Former Lions defensive end Dewayne White said he felt “somewhat blackballed” by other NFL teams due to the stigma of going 0-16.
The stigma remains affixed to former Lions coach Rod Marinelli. He has done great things with the Dallas defense, but his name never comes up for a head-coaching vacancy, because 0-16 is essentially tattooed onto his forehead.
Will that same thing happen to Browns coach Hue Jackson? He’s confident that he’ll be back no matter what; whether the team’s ownership agrees likely won’t be determined until 0-16 has a chance to settle in.
As the 2008 Lions know, once it settles in it tends to linger.
