What Season is it?

As anyone who watches football is painfully aware, we have some problems with our Lions here in Detroit. For starters, we've only won 21 games in the last five seasons. 21-59. Ouch. Good news, though - other than not being in last place the year we went 2-14 (that honor went to the 1-15 Carolina Panthers, who went to the Super Bowl 2 years later). Here in Detroit, it is Quarterback season.

There are four seasons in the NFL. The regular season, the post-season, the off-season -- and quarterback season.

Unlike the other three, quarterback season runs 365 days a year. The moment there's a rumor, it's quarterback season. The moment a guy is cut or signed, it's quarterback season.

And in Detroit, it's quarterback season again -- after the Lions hooked Jon Kitna to a four-year deal Tuesday.

Jon Kitna is not an electric name. In fact, since he was a backup in Cincinnati the last two seasons -- and not even drafted when he came out of college -- many Detroiters may never have heard of him.

Until Tuesday.

Then quarterback season took over. And already you hear people asking, "Can Kitna be the answer?" "Will Kitna replace Joey Harrington?" "Is Kitna better suited to the new offense than Joey is?"

Never mind that we went through this exact exercise last year with Jeff Garcia. Never mind that Garcia also was a veteran in his 30s who still wanted to be No. 1. Never mind that Garcia was a bust.

When I asked Kitna about the job Tuesday, he told me: "Until someone tells me otherwise, I'm going out there to be the starter."

- Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press