DETROIT — Jeff Backus felt 50 pounds lighter, having shed the biggest of the many albatrosses draped around his neck during his Lions career. The first player Matt Millen drafted eight years ago was the last player to leave the field Sunday afternoon, walking around Ford Field slapping hands with appreciative fans hanging over the railing, accepting thanks but offering it as well.

“You have no idea what a relief this is,” he sighed.
There was a glassy trace of tears in Hawaii product Dominic Raiola’s eyes as he walked around the stadium, signing every keepsake of the day that fans thrust in his face.
“It’s over,” he said afterward , occasionally repeating those two words as if he weren’t sure if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell might swoop down at any moment and tell the Lions that victory was only a figment of their imagination.
A flood of conflicting emotions are understandable when you’ve finally tasted a morsel after going hungry for 21 months. And if there’s anybody in a Lions uniform entitled to enjoy a brief furlough from the mockery, it’s Backus and Raiola.
They have been imprisoned the longest.
“It’s a monkey off everybody’s back,” said Backus. “It’s not good for the team. It’s not good for the city for us to continue losing.” This victory “allows us to move forward.”
Raiola, a Saint Louis School alum, couldn’t bring himself to watch Washington’s final desperate fourth down. He feared the worst. He has been a Lion for eight years. What else would you expect? He would let the crowd’s reaction tell the story for him. And when the crowd erupted in exhilaration, Raiola remained in shock.
“I don’t know what happened after the game,” he said. “I kind of just couldn’t believe it.”
The players headed for the locker room, but Jim Schwartz immediately told them to go back onto the field and share the occasion with those blindly devoted ticket buyers who still support this franchise regardless of its competitive hardship and perhaps their own economic challenges.
It was a nice gesture, certain to earn to new coach points with the public—at least until the next 19-game losing streak.
“As much as we’ve gone through as a team and an organization,” Backus said, “the city and the fans have been going through it with us. (Schwartz) just wanted to remind us and get us to go out there and just show how much we appreciate the fans that have been sticking with us and showing up every week.”
The victory doesn’t necessarily alter the direction of this franchise’s future. Although they no longer flirt with Tampa Bay’s record futility of 26 straight losses, they remain historically wretched when viewed within the timeframe of Backus and Raiola’s career. They’re both still one loss away from the 100th of their careers.
Detroit will awaken from its hangover Monday morning, rub the euphoria from its eyes and still see a team woefully deficient in talent in comparison with the rest of the league. The Lions’ victory over the Redskins finally validated the long standing NFL creed of “on any given Sunday.” Inevitability, even the worst gets the opponent that plays down to its level to create a fair fight.
The victory at least allows the Lions to see the future without the burden of the second-longest losing streak in history.
“We not only got a monkey off our back,” said owner William Clay Ford Sr., “we got King Kong off our back.”
The victory doesn’t instantly restore faith. It just means the Lions are no longer the nation’s joke. They’ve reverted back to Detroit’s own exclusive little taste of hemlock.
And in a sad commentary of Millen’s carnage, that’s considered improvement.