Thank you, Dan Campbell, for 17 weeks of feeling good about being from Michigan. Thank you, Jared Goff, for giving us something to chant about. Thank you, Jahmyr Gibbs, for giving us impossible feats to watch and marvel at. Thank you, Ben Johnson, for trick plays. Thank you, Aaron Glenn, for keeping together a defense made of second, third, fourth stringers. Wow, they kept the Vikings out of the end zone with a string and a prayer.
Did we get a Super Bowl? Not yet. Did we get a great season of lots of wins and pride in the Honolulu blue? Hell yes!
No, you didn’t play your best against a young upstart from Washington, but let’s not cloud what you gave us, with what we wanted.
You took away the stigma of being “that team from Detroit,” and gave us the strength to stand up and say, “We’re Lions fans!” and be respected around the country.
We’ll get there. There’s a Lombardi trophy in Detroit’s future. That’s been proven by unbelievable runs, trick plays and upside down touchdown celebrations. Soon. Soon, you will figure out the combination of wins vs. injuries vs. byes vs. whatever the football gods want as a sacrifice to reach the final goal: a Super Bowl trophy.
Some of us have been waiting a lifetime. Hell, most of us have been waiting a lifetime for a Lions team we can be proud of. That’s you. You haven’t won it all yet, but you will. Until then, thank you for the fun and hope you have given us so far.
Now, get back to work. We aren’t going to live forever!
Mark Phillips
Mount Pleasant
Same old Lions
So the Lions are out of the chase for the Super Bowl, again. Same old story for the Lions: Win when it doesn’t matter, and lose when it does. Somehow things never change with this football team, which is why I can’t be a supporter. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon this year because I knew in the end it would be the same old Lions. Sorry, Lions fans, some things never change, and this is something that will also never change.
Walter Kaatz
Boca Raton, Florida
The Curse of Bobby Layne is not yet dead
Congratulations to the Detroit Lions on a sensational regular season and a second straight NFC North championship. But to paraphrase Mark Twain in a way only long-suffering Lions fans can appreciate, reports of the death of the Curse of Bobby Layne were greatly exaggerated.
Ron Campbell
Warren
I couldn’t sleep after Lions lost to Commanders
Saturday night, as I could not sleep and my head was swimming with thoughts and sentences, I knew I had to write something. Our football team, the Detroit Lions, lost to the Washington Commanders 45-31 while playing at home, in Detroit, after winning 15 games during their regular NFL football season.
I turned the game off in the early minutes of the 4th quarter, just after the Lions threw their third interception in the game while trying to run one of the trick plays for which they have become famous.
They didn’t need to run that trick play. Rather, in my view, they should have got down to their workman-style signature play. Ten-yard pick-up pass here, 12-yard pick-up there, an 8-yard run … and so on.
They were behind in the score, but they still had time. Washington was playing otherworldly football, but there was still time. Detroit is also capable of playing otherworldly football.
I couldn’t watch any longer. All season long they had played clinchers that they somehow pulled out of the hat, and everyone went home happy.
This game was different. I’m no rocket scientist, or for that matter, no football expert, either, but some things are just obvious. The game was brutal. The playing revealed this. Clearly both teams wanted to win. It’s not as if the Lions rolled over and played dead. But they made too many mistakes and ended up beating themselves.
While unable to sleep, I thought of the many analogies we are facing in our current times. Starting with the Lions. Surely they were deserving. Surely their fans, by now everyone in the city and the entire state, are also deserving. The Lions remain the only team in the NFL who has never gone to the Super Bowl. They are a team, prior to the past three seasons, that has rarely had winning seasons, at least in recent memory. During the whole time, their fans stuck with them.
Surely the city of Detroit is deserving. For decades it was the laughingstock of the nation with corrupt politicians, crumbling homes, fleeing businesses, fleeing residents and failing schools. It nearly lost its world-class art museum and a city park equal to New York’s Central Park.
Detroit had only one way to go and, over the decades, the city has clawed its way back. …
I think of the Lions’ players and coaches. While I am wrestling with my own disappointment and trying to find the words, they are probably still numb with only bruises and game images passing through their minds. Perhaps some haven’t yet even got out of bed, or have even gone to bed. What about the thousands and thousands of hard core, dedicated fans? The bitter taste and hurt will linger, but life goes on. It must. Nothing stops the minute hand of an ever faster moving clock. Given time and the correct perspective, the players and coaches will move on, hopefully take well-earned vacations, and finally have the clarity to make needed changes. Next season will be upon them before they know it.
Perhaps, for the Lions, it will take three tries. Champions do not give up.
Catherine Carroll
Dearborn
Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.
