Detroit Lions fans deserve to go crazy now, but check out what's happening in locker room
Let me tell you about the cutest granddaughter in the world.
Her name is Lorelei, and she happens to be absolutely adorable. But there’s something else: Lorelei is responsible for the Detroit Lions' latest winning streak.
Because she was wearing a Lions onesie on Sunday afternoon — as is her Motor City duty — while the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 20-6.
“The Lions are undefeated when she wears this,” Leah, my daughter-in-law, said. “Four straight wins.”
Not that I live in a superstitious family or anything.
Think about it, Lorelei is 2 months old, and her favorite team has an .833 winning percentage in her lifetime.
Yep, things are changing fast.
NFL POWER RANKING: Dan Campbell is Coach of the Year favorite, Jared Goff in MVP hunt after 6 games
A few days later, I was working out at Planet Fitness and three guys were wearing Lions T-shirts — that’s just something you didn’t see a year ago.
Sports talk radio is filled with giddy fans talking about the potential for a No.1 seed, which becomes even more possible if the Lions win Sunday at Baltimore, and the excitement is through the roof.
And to all Lions fans I say: Enjoy every second of this.
Because you deserve it.
At this point, I could recite the statistics about the long, painful rebuilds in the Motor City and the playoff droughts for the Tigers, Pistons, Wings and Lions. But I don’t want to put you through that again. This is a new time.
So paint your face mid-week if you want. Drive around with Lions flags. Wear Lions gear to the store. Watch the games in your lucky chair. Eat the same pregame meal.
Don’t change a dang thing.
And get as crazy as you want.
Because here’s the interesting juxtaposition: the exact opposite is happening in the Lions locker room.
A steady, even-keeled approach
As excitement swirls and builds outside of the Lions facility — and that actually might be under stating it — the players have suddenly turned into the voice of reason.
“It’s so early,” quarterback Jared Goff said Wednesday. “We’ve done some good things and yeah, we feel the excitement from the city and from the fans and it’s fun. Certainly, home games right now are on a different level than I’ve experienced and now some of the away games have been on a different level than I’ve experienced as well. So yeah, we feel that energy and we certainly feel our fans behind us right now and it gives us that wind in our sails to kind of keep going and hopefully stay on this trajectory, but it’s a lot work, man. It’s a lot of hard work and we’re so early on.”
This is exactly how a starting quarterback should talk.
SHAWN WINDSOR: Don't call Jared Goff a game manager. Call him one of NFL's best QBs.
Yes, Goff is playing great.
But he is also the voice of experience.
He has led a team to the Super Bowl, so he carries extra weight.
“I know everyone’s so excited, as are we, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Goff said. “Another tough challenge this week.”
This team has created so many amazing stats:
It’s scored 20 points or more for 15 straight games — Indy is second with seven;
It has the No. 1 rush defense in the NFL;
It has the second most explosive plays in the NFL (behind the Dolphins) and ranks third in time of possession — a rare combination.
But I don’t get any sense this team is losing focus. There is no sense of entitlement or complacency. No sense they are losing sight of the bigger goal.
In the locker room on Wednesday, there was no giddy excitement or celebration. I just saw a bunch of guys just going about their work.
There is a steady, even-keeled approach to this team that starts with coach Dan Campbell.
“This team is built to handle these things,” Campbell said. “It’s built to handle adversity and anything that comes. And look, this season isn’t over. I mean we know that. We’re going to hit a tough patch at some point here. I don’t know when it’s going to be, but we’re going to hit one and we’re going to have to get back through and get back on our feet and that’s fine. We’ll be ready for that.”
One of Campbell’s strengths is his feel for the team. So, he took his foot off the pedal on Wednesday and eased up the practice schedule.
“We’ve been going pretty good,” Campbell said. “We’ve been playing physical opponents. We’ve got another one coming up and so, I wanted to back down today. It’ll be a lot of mental work and then we’ll do a little bit of just getting their heart rate up at the very end. But, felt like that’s what we need for today and then we’re back in rhythm tomorrow.”
OUCH! Aidan Hutchinson: Helmet to thigh 'price you got to pay' trying to score
This, too, is the voice of reason.
It’s a long season. And Campbell is focusing on the long term.
Lions fans deserve this
There is one other interesting element to all this Lions excitement.
I don’t sense any reservation from the fans.
Nobody is holding back and saying: I’m just not ready to go all in. I don’t want my heart ripped out. I can’t handle another crushing disappointment. I can’t handle more misery.
Nope. Fans are filling up opposing stadiums and making the roof pop off Ford Field and wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Their Honolulu Blue and Silver sleeves.
That, in itself, is remarkable.
After all the years of disappointing, after all the losing, after all the soul crushing losses, the love for this team is higher than ever. It is uniting all of Michigan.
MORE FROM SEIDEL: How Lions are shocking the world: They've learned how to land a knockout punch
And it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
So, again, to all you Lions fans I say this: Man, enjoy this. Savor this.
But whatever you’ve been doing for Lions games this season, whatever you have been wearing, wherever you’ve been sitting, keep doing it.
And yes, Little Lorelei will be wearing her Lions onesie on Sunday.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions fans going crazy right now, but players stay even-keeled
