There are endless statistics available to describe five decades of failure for the Detroit Lions. This is a personal favorite: The Lions were 0-8 against Mike Tice, a man who will need a second chance as a head coach in order to build a Hall of Fame résumé.

The last of Tice's Vikings victories over Detroit was 21-16 in Ford Field on Dec. 4, 2005. The Lions had fired their coach, Steve Mariucci, the previous Monday and replaced him on an interim basis with assistant Dick Jauron.

Mariucci's departure gave inspiration to a young man in attendance on that first Sunday in December. He made a square from a paper bag and printed the message: "Fire Millen."

The target was Matt Millen, Lions CEO, and the architect at that point of five consecutive miserable seasons. Security guards tried to remove the sign, the fan took off and part of the pursuit wound up being shown on the Fox telecast.

The fans cheered the protester's every dodge and booed raucously when he was tackled by his pursuers. The episode would turn the young man into the Rosa Parks of the "Fire Millen" movement.

A few nights later, Mariucci attended a Michigan State basketball game. He was shown on a scoreboard screen. He received an ovation, and then a "Fire Millen" chant rocked the arena.

Associated Press, Star Tribune
Matt Millen is gone, but not forgotten by the Lions.

The chant started to surface at Red Wings and Pistons games. "Fire Millen" signs started to show up when Michigan teams played in L.A., Charlotte, anywhere in the country.

It would take until Sept. 24, 2008 -- three losses into his eighth season -- for the Ford family ownership to finally fire Millen. The carnage he left behind continues to astound.

The Lions' record from Millen's hiring to his firing was 31-84. They have lost nine more since his departure. The Lions need only a perfect 0-4 December to become the NFL's first winless team in a 16-game schedule.

Bob Wojnowski, a columnist for the Detroit News, reminded his readers early this season of Bobby Layne's curse. Layne was the hard-nosed, hard-drinking, Everyman quarterback for the great Lions teams of the 1950s.

He led the Lions to three NFL championships. He was injured for the 1957 title game. Backup Tobin Rote threw four touchdown passes in a 59-14 rout of Cleveland.

Early in the '58 season, the Lions traded Layne to Pittsburgh. Embittered about leaving a city where he was immensely popular, Layne was alleged to spit out the epithet that with this type of management, the Lions wouldn't win for 50 years.

And now, in the 50th of those years, the Lions are on the cusp of an achievement more ignominious than a .000 winning percentage against Coach Tice.

Millen is gone, but his fingerprints cover this corpse. For Lions fans, he turned decades of frustration into incomprehensible futility.

The loathing for Millen is such that I ran across another theory on a Lions website to explain the 50 years of failure. It's not the Bobby Layne curse of 1958; it's the fact Millen was born in 1958 in Hokendauqua, Pa.

"The precocious youngster immediately announces that, with their No. 1 pick, the Detroit Lions will draft an overrated wide receiver," was the punchline of that observation.

The Lions' season reached its nadir on Thanksgiving with what was basically a total team no-show in a 47-10 loss to Tennessee.

After that, there are no longer pretenses with the Lions -- no suggestions a strong December could create hope for the future. After the Thanksgiving debacle, the players just want one lousy victory to avoid the eternal ridicule of being a cog in 0-16.

Jason Hanson, Detroit's 17-year placekicker, said last week: "I hope everyone here would have a sense of urgency. You hope that guys would do something extra. If they haven't been caring -- I don't see a guy here that doesn't care -- but if there was, then he should say, 'Man, I feel that [urgency], too.'

"I don't know what to say besides everyone knows it's there. We got to do something about it."

Come on, Jason. You've been around long enough to know the deal. You're the Lions and you're not going to do anything about it.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com