On the way to digging up other info, I stumbled upon these two quotes from ESPN.com on Dec. 5, 2001. The Lions were 0-11, on their way to a 2-14 season. The words might sound vaguely familiar since we’ve heard variations of them for the last nine years.

“Something always seems to happen at the worst time and the story turns out with the same ending. It's disheartening to go through this every week. People may think it sounds silly, given our record, but I know we are a better team than this’’ —  DE Robert Porcher.

“Just one Monday morning I want to wake up and feel the good kind of sore. I want to be able to look in the mirror and see that the black cloud is gone.” — TB James Stewart.