Lions fans finally taste success

“Act like you’ve been there before.”

It’s often the rebuttal to when a player over-celebrates a play, an overall performance or a victory.

Batter hits a home run and shows up the pitcher? Act like you’ve been there before.

Shooter makes a game-winning 3-pointer as time expires and frantically jumps around in excitement? Act like you’ve been there before.

But what if you’ve never actually been there before?

As a Detroit sports fan, I’ve had the pleasure of celebrating league championships five times. The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997, ’98, 2002 and ’08. The Pistons — let’s not talk about this year’s team, please — beat Kobe, Shaq and the Lakers in 2004.

The Tigers, though not my favorite baseball team, won the World Series in 1984, the year before I was born. I’ve celebrated two World Series wins when the Atlanta Braves, my actual team, won in 1995 and 2021.

The Lions, on the other hand, are one of four teams — the Browns, Jaguars and Texans being the others — to never make the Super Bowl.

(Worth noting, the Lions won four NFL championships before the AFL-NFL merger in 1935, ’52, ’53 and ’57.)

Year in and year out, the mantra every September has been “This is our year!” This is the year the Lions won’t stink. Every season we’re drinking the Kool-Aid, hopeful to dig ourselves out of the bottom of the division and conference.

But by Thanksgiving, reality has all but set in and Detroit is generally without much reason to play; no division title, no playoffs and, obviously, no Super Bowl.

We keep coming back for more, believing again: “This is our year!”

“SOL,” or “Same Old Lions,” is something often thrown around up here in Michigan. Some way, or some how, the Lions will find a way to lose rather than find ways to win. It’s inevitable.

Enter MCDC in 2021. “Motor City” Dan Campbell made headlines by saying the Lions were going to “bite kneecaps.” Ten days after his hiring, Detroit traded away Matthew Stafford, the franchise leader in every passing category imaginable. In return, we got some draft picks and Jared Goff, a QB who was supposed to bridge the gap between Stafford and whatever stud the Lions were going to draft with a top-five pick in the future.

Dark days were ahead, we thought.

The 2021 Lions were 0-10-1 before they got their first win, a 29-27 triumph over the Minnesota Vikings. They won only two more games the rest of the season and ended with a 3-13-1 record.

The following year, with HBO’s Hard Knocks taking an in-depth look, MCDC, Aaron Glenn (defensive coordinator) and Ben Johnson (offensive coordinator) had the upward trajectory going in full force. Detroit finished 9-8, barely missed the playoffs and ended Aaron Rodgers’ legacy in Green Bay with a win at Lambeau Field in the final game of the season.

Enter the start of this year.

Not only did us Lions fans, once again, believe “This is our year!” but many across the country did too. They were favorites to win the NFC North, a goal they accomplished for the first time in franchise history and their first division title since 1993 (NFC Central). 

They were even getting picked to reach the NFC Championship game for the first time since ’91, previously the only time they won a playoff game.

It was hard to not get caught up in the hype, because we’ve been there before; get our hopes up to have them dashed early on in the season or earn a Wild Card berth and be one-and-done in the postseason.

Sunday night at Ford Field — the stadium’s first playoff game and Detroit’s first home postseason game in 32 years — was a culmination of MCDC instilling belief in his players (and fans), Goff being THE quarterback instead of A quarterback and a team putting three decades of futility to rest.

I stood alone in the middle of my living room, the TV as the only trace of light as my wife lay in bed when Detroit held on to beat Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams 24-23. 

I raised my arms in celebration, careful not to make too much noise and wake my bride.

My eyes watered. 

I sat back down on the couch and put my head in my hands, taking the time to myself to reflect on what just happened.

I didn’t know how to act. I’ve never had my football team win a playoff game and be old enough to know what’s going on.

“Act like you’ve been there before.”

Us millennial Lions fans have never been there before.

Now, we have.

And we’re not done yet.