The Detroit Lions Play Seattle Seahawks On Saturday Night!
Times are tough, but all I need is one more miracle.
Sunday Night Football was a heartbreaking experience for anyone who is a true fan of the Detroit Lions. I have been gifted the opportunity to write for this great Detroit Lions Podcast, and this entire week I can’t help but think if that is the right thing to allow someone such as myself to do.
Maybe I feel this way because I cannot be impartial. Maybe I feel this way because as a born and raised local “Detroiter” I cannot root against this team as many “fans” do and as the local media do. Maybe I feel this way because I cannot be negative for no damn reason other than that I choose to be negative.
The only TICKET to Detroit Lions information on the radio does nothing but rip on this team, their fans, and most importantly their coach. The local radio stations “professionals” are like teenagers who just went through a bad breakup and decide therefore to do nothing but try to trash their ex. They’re trying to sell how the team sucks and how their coach needs to be fired. They ignore the little good that may exist and only focus and overblow the negative. Only to try and have Jim Caldwell lose his job.
I for one am ecstatic that Jim Caldwell will be back in 2017.
The calls for the man’s head have been completely generated because of one pathetic local Detroit radio station that is out for revenge because the Detroit Lions dropped them as the team’s radio station as of last year. In watching the NFL Network this week, and reading the opinions of many journalists who make a living by covering the NFL, it was common consensus that they didn’t understand why Caldwell’s job was even a question.
Thank the local Detroit Media for that. In fact, I don’t know if this will clear editing, but thank Mike Valenti and Jeff Riger for this. Two hacks. Two hacks who couldn’t lace Matthew Stafford’s jock, or tie Jim Caldwell’s shoes. Why do they do this you ask? This is because the local media does not want the Detroit Lions to succeed. They want to take the easy way out and have an easy scapegoat and an easy topic at hand to rip on so they can gain ratings. The Detroit Lions history welcomes this behavior. The fans of Detroit do not feel this way.
The fans of Detroit such as I, who were present for Sunday Night Football hate this manure.
Days after Sunday Night Football I’m sure that there are many in Michigan who are still like me. We still have no voice. We gave it our all on Sunday night to try and help the Lions grind out a victory over our most hated bully, the Green Bay Packers. We failed. But if the rest of the true fans out there are like me, they don’t regret this at all.
To hell with our voices for the better part of a damn week. The city needed that support, and even though it didn’t help the Lions gain the win, we as the Ford Field faithful showed the team that we have their back. This is what this team needed. For years, the Detroit Lions “fans” have allowed this team to be nothing more than a joke, and a stepping stone.
It pains me to say this, but as the regular season has ended and the postseason has arrived, it is obvious. The 2016 Detroit Lions at the start of the year were exactly what everyone said they were. They were a 6-10, 7-9 team. That’s what they were. But what are they now? That is another story in itself.
These 2016 Detroit Lions were a team that stood up in the face of adversity and said hell, “I may be David, but I can sure as hell pick up Goliath one time over my head and slam him into the damn ground.” These Detroit Lions were not the same old Lions, and not the Lions that the Detroit media and fake “fans” wanted them to be. The 2016 Detroit Lions lived on this belief week after week, that they could slam Goliath, and created 8 come from behind miracle 4th quarter victories to vanquish their rivals who were sure to beat this team that was to become nothing but a footnote in NFL history to a better team on any given Sunday.
Are the Detroit Lions perhaps the “worst” team in the field of 12 that make up this years NFL Playoffs? Perhaps they are. But I dare to ask, are they the most battle hardened? I say yes. No team in NFL history has shown the resolve that this Lions team has shown over the course of an NFL regular season. Stats prove that. Go ahead and look up single season 4th quarter comebacks.
By this point it is obvious that the Lions are not the most talented team in the NFL. On the horizon, a Saturday night showdown looms against the Seattle Seahawks. Given the history of these two teams, nearly everyone with an opinion predicts that the Lions will be destroyed. That however becomes the problem. Folks are only looking at history, they are only looking to the past.
Jim Caldwell has taken a team to the NFL Playoffs without having a single Pro Bowl player. Jim Caldwell has taken this team to the NFL Playoffs with a statistically mediocre offense and defense. Matthew Stafford has been somewhat mediocre himself after suffering his middle finger injury at Ford Field in early December against the Chicago Bears.
The Detroit Lions’ defense has also been absolutely awful for the last two weeks, against good NFL playoff teams. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the Lions have been backed into a corner. The playoffs are simple. Win and continue. Lose and go home, for good.
For the Detroit Lions, at this point they are not going to be given another tomorrow. They will not be given another chance to succeed and gain victory. We’re down to the “nitty gritty”. From this moment onward, the Detroit Lions decide if they live another day. They will have to fight tooth and nail for one more victory, and for one more chance to live another tomorrow.
The last few weeks haven’t been kind to this way of thinking. I however, choose to look at things from a wider lens. I have not forgotten the heart of this team, and their improbable ways that they have survived for this entire season. I find it hard to believe that the magic we have all survived, dies out without nary a whimper. When it comes to Seattle on Saturday Night.
I’m looking at you, 2016 Detroit Lions. I need you to rise from your slumber and show up. One more time. One more miracle. One more day.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to follow Daniel Lewis on Twitter @DetDanLewis and leave him your thoughts on the Detroit Lions subreddit.
