Dominic Raiola is in trouble. You’ve probably heard the basics: fans were heckling him — even insulting his family — during the Lions’ loss to Minnesota last Sunday, and he responded by flipping them off. Later, in interviews, he amplified his response: he’s sick of losing, he’s sick of hearing about it from fans, and he’s sick not being able to confront classless fans when they heckle him. He hasn’t been able to change either of the first two issues, but the third he could, and finally did.

He went overboard, of course. So did those fans. But what interests me is this quote from Raiola, given in an interview with Sporting News Radio after the incident:

“You know, if you’re not happy, why are you coming to the game? I understand that they haven’t seen a winner in eight years, so don’t come. Don’t come until we turn it around.”

The thing about it is, I find Raiola’s attitude encouraging. For this team captain and eighth-year player, it’s clear the losing still stings. He’s not inured to it or insulated from it. Contrast that with owner William Clay Ford, about whom Mitch Albom said this in a recent TV interview:

With no malice intended, the finger gets pointed at the ownership. I have never gotten the sense that winning or losing matters at all to William Clay Ford. I don’t think it (makes) a whole lot of difference. This is just something that the Ford family happens to own and it’s been somewhat of an indifferent ownership over the years. And you can’t win in the NFL if you are indifferent because there are too many other teams that care.

That, folks, is the definition of insulated and inured. William Clay Ford hasn’t spoken longingly about a desire to get in fistfights with fans, as Raiola did. But if you’re a Lions fan and you think Albom is right, you’ve got every reason to be down on the team. The fact that Raiola is so frustrated at least suggests that he’s still trying to win. If the Lions’ players were flashing winning smiles at the fans and acting as though the gameday experience was all anyone could hope for, things would somehow have become even worse.

Raiola was in Millen’s first draft class, and when people want to bash Matt Millen, they often talk about how the Lions just missed the playoffs the year before he arrived. Which is true. Millen took the franchise to an astounding new low. But if you think the Lions were a model franchise before that, here’s a quote for you from a preseason New York Times story:

The Detroit fans and news media have frequently questioned Ford’s commitment to winning, and other N.F.L. owners privately laugh at the Lions.

The catch? It’s from preseason 1989.

These aren’t new issues, they’re just issues that were masked for a spell by Barry Sanders, Herman Moore, Lomas Brown and Chris Spielman. Faced with multiple decades of futility, it would be understandable if the Lions’ players coped by thinking of themselves as the Washington Generals — masters of the art of losing. Maybe that’s how the owner thinks, or maybe he truly doesn’t care. But fans care, and it’s reassuring to know that Raiola cares, too, even if it takes the form of a tirade.

The Lions fined Raiola for his actions Tuesday. Lions COO Tom Lewand said Raiola’s behavior “was not consistent with what we expect from members of our team.” Okay, but I’m still grateful to Dominic for showing some sign of life on behalf of the Lions. If we saw a similar reaction from the front office or the owner’s box, there would real reason to hope.