I remember becoming a Detroit Lions fan early in the 1970
season. Naturally, it didn't take long for something to happen
that, had I possessed more clairvoyance than what's normally
ingrained in a seven-year-old, might have caused me to run for
the hills, screaming like a banshee.  I have a few scattered
memories of the team's games prior to Nov. 8, 1970, a date that
shall live in infamy in my little world.  For that was when the
half-footed, stumped arm kicker named Tom Dempsey put himself
into the record book and the Lions into the loss column.  I was
a follower for less than two months, a rookie seven-year-old, as
I indicated. And already the team moved me to tears.  Not tears
of joy, natch. These were the Detroit Lions, after all.  The
game was on the tube, beamed from New Orleans. My dad and I
watched from our family room in Livonia, a suburb of Detroit.
The Saints were awful in 1970. They won only two games all year.
The Lions, on the other hand, were pretty good. They had been
improving every year un