Ex-Lions assistant: One decision led to 0-16 season

PHOENIX -- The Detroit Lions were one controversial roster move away from avoiding the NFL's only 0-16 season six years ago -- that according to one of their former assistant coaches.

Seattle Seahawks receivers coach Kippy Brown told the Free Press on Tuesday that had the Lions not placed quarterback Jon Kitna on injured reserve five games into the 2008 season. they would not be remembered as the worst team in NFL history.

"We'd have won some games," said Brown, the Lions' assistant head coach and passing-game coordinator in 2008. "It'd have been a lot different. Jon Kitna's a heck of a player, in my opinion, and a good man, and his leadership, if we'd have had him, we'd have won some games."

Kitna aggravated a back injury in a Week 5 loss to the Chicago Bears that year and sat out the next game before then-interim general manager Martin Mayhew placed him on season-ending IR.

The Lions were 0-5 at the time and coming off of a 12-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which backup QB Dan Orlovsky ran out of the back of the end zone for a safety.

Kitna, who claimed that his injury was minor shortly after the Lions shut him down for the season, was playing golf later that year, as the Lions struggled to generate points with Orlovsky and Daunte Culpepper starting at quarterback.

Brown said he can't recall how much coaches fought to keep Kitna off of IR. Orlovsky and Culpepper combined to throw 14 interceptions and complete less than 50% of their passes in Kitna's place.

"We just weren't good enough," Brown said. "But I'm lucky enough to come to a place where we're good enough (now)."

In his fifth season with the Seahawks, Brown will coach in his second straight Super Bowl on Sunday, against the New England Patriots.

He said he received a letter from Jim Colletto, the Lions' offensive coordinator in 2008, after the Seahawks won last year's Super Bowl, saying that the two were in exclusive company.

"He said, 'Kip, we're part of a fraternity,'" Brown said. "We've been on a team that lost every game and (a team that's) won a Super Bowl, so we've been on both ends of the spectrum."

Colletto, who's now retired, won a championship with the Baltimore Ravens in 2001. Brown said "it's special" to reach another Super Bowl as he enters the twilight of his career.

"That year we didn't win, the coaches and the players worked just as hard as we're working now," Brown said. "They really did. Rod Marinelli's a terrific coach, and I think he's proven that. We just weren't quite good enough."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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