MILLEN STILL PULLING THE STRINGS?

After years of privately blaming former CEO Matt Millen for the problems with the franchise during his tenure with the team, folks hoping to preserve their front-office positions after a nightmarish 0-13-and-counting season mercifully ends possibly have come up with a way to continue to pin the responsibility on Millen. Even after he has been fired. It’s easy -- just float the rumor that Millen is still in charge. That’s right. According to Bob Duff of the Windsor Star (yeah, we’re citing it even though it’s Canadiean), there’s a rumor that Millen is calling the shots from exile, and that his termination was staged in order to placate Lions fans who believe that the end of his seven-plus-year career came about six years too late. It sounds so ridiculous that we actually thought about not even posting it. But, given whispers that the Ford family might opt to keep G.M. Martin Mayhew, COO Tom Lewand, and coach Rod Marinelli in place after the season, perhaps the best way to get the locals to swallow that particular razor-blade shaped pill is to get them to think that Mayhew, Lewand, and Marinelli aren’t actually responsible for the ongoing morass in Motown, since Millen still had his hands on the wheel from a remote location. Meanwhile, the fans don’t seem to care anymore. In past years, they could show up at late-season games if for no reason other than to loudly cry for Millen’s ouster. Now that the face of the franchise’s futility is gone, there’s no reason to bother attending . “It was about a half-filled stadium,” Vikings safety Darren Sharper said of Sunday’s crowd at Ford Field, according to the Star. “It seemed as though we were at a morgue more than at a football game. It was so quiet.”