The Counterpublc Papers vol. 8 no. 9

(The Culture of Poverty and the Detroit Lions pt. 1)

Author

Lester Spence
January 30, 2024

(Trigger warning. This is a sports issue in two parts.)

In the late fifties/early sixties anthropologist Oscar Lewis developed the “culture of poverty” concept. Although Moynihan never used the term in his report on the Negro family, the concept—that poverty is the result of cultural dysfunction—runs all through it. By the early seventies, it had become a prominent but not quite dominant explanation for poverty and for the urban crisis—it wasn’t bi-partisan, as the Democratic Party was still the party of big government liberalism, but with the election of Ronald Reagan, the popularization of the “welfare queen” stereotype, and the publication of Charles Murray’s Losing Ground, it would soon become dominant. 

I don’t think I ever believed it—not just because by the time it had become not just a bipartisan consensus I was already an adult. It just didn’t make sense to me given the rich life I’d grown up in. 

(Moynihan begins Chapter IV—“The Tangle of Pathology”—with the following passage:

That the Negro American has survived at all is extraordinary—a lesser people might simply have died out, as indeed others have. That the Negro community has not only survived, but in this political generation has entered national affairs as a moderate, humane, and constructive national force is the highest testament to the healing powers of the democratic ideal and the creative vitality of the Negro people.

(Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family: A Case for National Action, p. 29)

Rereading that passage recently for another project, it struck me that Moynihan never understood that the democratic ideal he lauds so much was actually produced in large part by those Negroes. Time and time again.)

Now while I never believed that something like a “culture of poverty” could be used to explain the circumstances of blacks in the United States, I did think that it could be used to explain organizations. 

In fact I thought it explained one particular organization pretty easily. 

The Detroit Lions. 

(See. I told you.)

I’ve been following the Detroit Lions all my life. On two occasions—when I moved to Saint Louis and then to Baltimore—I’ve moved into cities with Super Bowl quality football teams. And on those two occasions I wasn’t able to shift my allegiance. 

In Saint Louis in 2002 I remember driving the better part of an hour and a half to find a bar to watch the Lions play Minnesota. On the way to the bar I’m listening to the St. Louis Rams (who’d just gotten to the Super Bowl the year before) blow out somebody (google tells me it was the Oakland Raiders). I get to the bar with 3 minutes left in the game, just in time to watch the Lions blow a lead and lose the game with two minutes left. 

My Wash U colleague and friend Andrew Martin had season tickets to the bears the year they played in Champaign, Ill. (only an hour and a half drive). He took me to my first NFL game—Chicago and Detroit went into overtime. The overtime rules are different now, but back then the first team to score won, “periodt.” The Lions head coach won the coin toss, but instead of taking the first possession, he decided to give the ball to Chicago, who ended up winning the game. I’ve already committed to reliving this pain so I’m going to give you the wikipedia break down of how Chicago won the game:

After the Lions gave up a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter, the game went into overtime, and the Lions won the ensuing coin toss. However, due to the strong wind at Memorial Stadium that day, Mornhinweg chose to let the Bears have the ball first so that Jason Hanson could kick with the wind rather than against it. The Lions defense managed to force a 4th down with 8 yards to go on the Lions 35 yard line, which would have likely forced the Bears to punt as a 52 yard field goal would have been beyond kicker Paul Edinger's range due to the strong wind gusts. However, the Bears got called for a 10 yard holding penalty which Mornhinweg accepted, allowing the Bears to replay 3rd down with 18 yards to go, rather than declining it to let the Bears still face 4th and 8.[7]  Bears quarterback Jim Miller then completed a 15 yard pass to Marty Booker to make it 4th down and 3, which the Bears converted with a 5 yard pass. After using three run plays to get closer to the goalposts, Edinger kicked a 40 yard field goal to win the game.[8]  Mornhinweg's decision making was met with astonishment and mockery from the press and ESPN anchor Chris Berman.[8][7]  Mornhinweg was then fired by the Lions at the end of the season.

I was here in Baltimore when the Ravens won the Super Bowl twelve years ago in the Harbaugh bowl (John and then-former-Michigan QB Jim Harbaugh were the opposing coaches—because Jim Harbaugh went to Michigan I rooted for Jim). I skipped work—well, not really, I got my writing done then stopped working—to attend the Super Bowl parade, primarily because I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do so for the Lions (who’d ended that year on an 8 game losing streak).

I remember where I was when Detroit lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the 1983 playoffs on a missed field goal (my parents bedroom). 

I remember where I was when Barry Sanders retired (on I-94 in traffic driving to do fieldwork for my dissertation).

I remember the 2008 0-16 season. In fact it was probably that season that I said that I was done. Only to return.

….

PT 2 next week (this is running a bit long). Hopefully you’ll still be here.