We were the Medflies, which, if you know your Bay Area fumigation history, dates our youth soccer team to circa 1980.

We had All-Stars. We had a bond as neighborhood buddies. We "... went winless.

Such a dubious feat sticks with you. Decades later, it still holds a special spot in the scrapbook (and, cruelly enough, on Facebook, where one ex-teammate recently posted our team photo).

The Detroit Lions are on the verge of joining that winless fraternity. One more loss on Sunday at Green Bay and they'll be the first team in NFL history to go 0-16.

But that loss must not happen. Detroit, as Wayne and Garth would say, is "not worthy" of this 0-16 milestone, for a number of reasons to be disclosed farther down the page.

The NFL's first 0-16 season deserves a home in the Bay Area. We can't welcome Mr. 0-16 here this season, but a move-in date could be available as early as next season.

Don't be fooled by that rare Sunday when both the Raiders (4-11) and 49ers (6-9) post wins. With six straight losing seasons by each club, don't be fooled into thinking these franchises are changing course.

Another December has come and gone without us being part of the playoff discussion. So we must take our chatter to the depths of the Lions.

Since 2003, the Lions have posted a 26-69 record. The Bay Area has endured 136 losses in that time span, with the Raiders going 23-72 and the 49ers 31-64. Our misery nearly doubles Detroit's.

The Raiders and 49ers change coaches, quarterbacks and free agents, but never owners, and, regardless of what you think of Al Davis or the Yorks, the buck stops at the top.

Same goes for the Lions and their leadership. But they do have a new stadium. We don't. They hosted a Super Bowl three seasons ago. We haven't in 24 years. They get Thanksgiving games. We get overhead projectors and Mexico City. They have Honolulu blue. We have stadium blueprints.

Yes, it's time to jump off the Ford family's Edsel (their version of an 0-16 embarrassment). Up to now, we've welcomed each loss each week, laughing at the symmetry between the Fords' Football team and the dying auto industry they founded generations ago.

The Lions' losses have been a guilty pleasure, and they've piled up like newspapers on a doorstep (yes, that's an ode to Detroit's newspapers that are stopping daily home delivery next year).

In losing Sunday's home finale 42-7 to the New Orleans Saints, the Lions fell to 0-15 and surpassed the 0-14 marks of the 1980 Saints (who finished 1-15) and 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who went winless in a 14-game season).

But Lions fans are used to dire circumstances. We, in the Bay Area, have enjoyed seven Super Bowl victories, and that makes these losing seasons far more humbling.

If you think the Raiders and 49ers can flip a switch, you're wrong. It hasn't happened. It did in Atlanta and Miami this season. It, again, didn't in the Bay Area, where the same questions remain: Who will be the coach; is the quarterback the quarterback; are there any free agents who will earn their money? Can the owners step aside?

On the surface and, really, that's all this is the 49ers have been revived by interim coach Mike Singletary. He won for the fourth time in eight games Sunday, but only after a 48-yard Hail Morgan in the final minutes (Shaun Hill's 48-yard fluttering bomb to Josh Morgan for the winning touchdown at St. Louis).

Was that play enough to forget Hill had a 33.3 passer rating and three interceptions heading into the final two minutes? Or that Singletary and Hill a winning quarterback, as they say were roadkill at Miami, Dallas and Arizona?

As for the Raiders, Sunday's 27-16 win over the Texans took some of the edge off their sixth straight season of double-digit losses. Postgame quotes focused on their flashes of success, mostly from the Raiders' young offensive corps.

Which reminds me, have I told you how promising my eighth-grade basketball team looked "... until we went winless?

Contact Cam Inman at cinman@bayareanewsgroup.com