There’s something very special about this time of year. You know what I’m talking about. When the football season finally arrives and we get to spend our Sundays cheering our Lions to (hopeful) victory. If you’ve been a fan for more than 5 minutes, you’ve probably run the whole gambit of emotions with this team. Ecstasy, agony, and the worst feeling – staring deep into the pit of darkness and despair. That last one usually hits when you realize the Lions’ season is over, often prematurely, as it was last year when the Lions started the season 1-7. We wanted to hope for redemption, but in our hearts we knew it wouldn’t come. We already knew in October that we weren’t going to be in contention for anything for 11 more months. There was no love coming from anywhere for our Lions back then.
The media has to love us, don’t they?
Why wouldn’t they? They love a good underdog story, they love a scrappy fighter making his way in a world that is stacked against him. These are the emotional hooks that make movies, and TV, and sports so exciting; it’s what sells. The reality is that they like those stories, but only when there are really good odds that Cinderella is real – that the dream can come true. Unfortunately, the Lions have tricked the media too many times to count. They members of the media don’t like it when that happens. They also love to kick a dog when its down. The latest example? The Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary pass from the 2015 season. We all know the one. It is forever etched into our minds. The one that should never have happened based on a facemask that actually never happened.
So what do we get? Well first the ESPYs decide its worthy of being named the “Play of the Year” – thanks for ruining my day, again, ESPN. Now the NFL Network has made it a key part of their commercial for Thursday Night Football. We’re going to have to see that damn play every commercial break until the NFL Network decides to start celebrating the Thursday flex schedules and create something new.
Some things never change
The one thing that never seems to waiver though is that the Lions get the worst of the worst when it comes to the broadcast crews that cover our games. The only way to watch a Lions game is with the television audio turned off and Dan Miller and Jim Brandstatter calling the play by play for you. Unfortunately, for those outside the Detroit area, it can be pretty difficult to find Dan and Jim on the dial.
This leaves us with some of the most awkward, sometimes terrible, play by play calls imaginable. Week in and week out. Ad infinitum. We decided that we were sick of the media treating us that way and decided to “give back” in our own special DetroitLionsPodcast.com way.
Introducing the “Media Play of the Week”
Beginning this week, we take our first shot at the media coverage of the Detroit Lions. Its our chance to turn the tables and call out silliness and just plain bad behavior. Being the preseason we have to admit that the fruit hangs pretty low. Calling these games are local broadcasters put into situations in which they are not familiar and don’t have much practice. That’s why we wont be so hard on them – everyone’s getting themselves into regular season form still. When the bad nationals take over, we’ll be ready for them.
So without further delay, we bring you Missy Matthews who gets so crossed up that her eyes roll back in her head before she just plain bails out:
That was certainly worth a good chuckle. Hopefully Ms. Matthews takes this in the good humor it was intended. We can’t pick on the local broadcasters too hard, they work hard to do these with much less than the national crews.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as we begin to create new and exciting partner content to join our other offerings. There will be live-streams of content in the near future, and those who have subscribed will be notified of those before they happen. Lot’s more fun coming!
Follow Chris @DetLionsPodcast on Twitter and join the discussion in our Reddit community!
