Harrington Could Still Be "The Guy" -- But It Won't Be In Detroit

Maybe Joey Harrington flunked quarterback school.

Maybe he was sent home, with a note to his parents, describing him as incorrigible, unwilling to learn, unteachable.

Maybe he decided he had had enough of it and decided to play hooky instead.

Or maybe the school's administators and their pupil came to a realization: This ain't gonna work, brother.

Regardless, Harrington is as good as gone now, about to be cast away by the Lions on the heels of the signings of Jon Kitna (33) and Josh McCown (26). If you love someone, they say, you must set them free. The setting-them-free thing also works if you aren't particularly enamored with them.

This is going to be an interesting release/trade, because of all the Lions quarterbacks that the team has kissed goodbye -- on the cheek or elsewhere -- Harrington is by far the most talented and has the most potential to reinvent himself and arise from the ashes, like a phoenix. This isn't Scott Mitchell being waived goodbye. Or Charlie Batch -- Super Bowl ring or not. Or even Erik Kramer. And certainly not Mike McMahon, or Jeff Garcia (both with Philly, inexplicably).

Harrington has tools. He is still young. He can wing a football -- if he's given the authority to do so further than 15 yards. He cannot run well, but with a team who has an offensive line capable of moving a rolling chair backwards, then maybe that's not a big deal. Dan Marino and John Elway were about as mobile as marble statues, after all. So this isn't some scrap-heap guy the Lions are offloading. Joey Harrington can still be a very serviceable quarterback -- for someone. How his career pans out is anyone's guess, but he certainly could be the first QB in a long time to leave Detroit and be lethal elsewhere.

Today's Detroit Free Press, citing sources familiar with the situation, says Harrington came away from his so-called "quarterback school" with new offensive coordinator Mike Martz without a warm and fuzzy feeling. That led, the source says, to a mutual understanding: maybe it's best if the Harrington-Lions marriage was ended.

If Joey has his way, there wouldn't be a divorce, but rather an annulment. That way, he can declare that his Lions years didn't really happen -- legally. If you're going to go for a clean start somewhere else, may as well go for it all.

"Draft bust" is an ugly, cruel term. It is a tag that, once it is attached, is about as easy to remove as a tattoo. Whether Joey Harrington is, indeed, a bust, will be determined as his career unfolds. If he goes to another NFL team and puts in a few decent years, then maybe the "bust" word will fade away.

But in Detroit, it must now be officially declared that Harrington was a bust. And it can't be easy for Lions president Matt Millen to choke down the thought of essentially admitting his third overall pick in 2002 was that four-letter "b" word.

The Lions were not winners in the Joey Harrington era. His starter's record, now ingrained on the minds of all Lions fans, was 18-37. And the fact that not all of the blame for such a hideous won/lost mark can be laid at Harrington's doorstep is irrelevant, frankly. For the Harrington Years will be remembered with derision -- like the end of Mitchell's time here, and the bust to end all busts -- Andre Ware. It may not be fair to think like that, but there is no other way to recall a winning percentage of .327.

I was actually looking forward to seeing Harrington with a fresh start in Detroit. I was eager to see what he was capable of -- with a new head coach, a new coordinator, and the promise that whatever happened in the past stays in the past. I thought such a clean slate was the perfect tonic for a quarterback with still the best years in front of him, presumably.

But now we'll never know -- at least not in Detroit.

Certainly, there are parties being thrown in offices in metro Detroit this morning. Honolulu blue and silver confetti might even fly in Campus Martius or the New Center Area. That's fine. Some would never be Joey Harrington fans -- save a Super Bowl victory.

But there is also a chunk of Liondom that thinks this could be yet another move destined to haunt the Lions in some way, shape, or form. After all, Harrington is being replaced by a 33 year-old with an average resume, and a 26 year-old who couldn't impress the Arizona Cardinals -- one of the few teams the Lions have been able to handle recently.

If this is discernible improvement, if this is an upgrade, then I'm dying to see it on the field.

Because, on paper, it seems awfully like a lateral move. And in football, laterals are tossed backward.