Detroit Lions were the butt of jokes for decades. It makes these wins that much sweeter
MINNEAPOLIS — They were a joke. Their words, not mine. Don’t think for a second they didn’t feel that. Feel the barbs, the dismissiveness, the contempt, even.
The lack of respect.
No amount of money shields a lack of respect. As one of the longest-tenured Detroit Lions players said late Sunday afternoon: “You hear a lot of crap," Lions center Frank Ragnow said.
At Ford Field. At U.S. Bank Stadium here. Anywhere there is NFL football played, really. Anywhere and everywhere the Lions have been. They heard it. Noted it. Logged it away. Tried to forget about it.
They couldn’t. Not fully. No wonder the old guard cried so much. No wonder Ragnow got choked up when he looked at Taylor Decker in the middle of the celebratory locker room after the Lions held on to beat the Vikings, 30-24, and clinch the franchise's first division title in 30 years.
“It’s foreign to me,” said Ragnow, who is among the best centers in the game and critical to this burgeoning Lions offense. “It’s incredible, though.”
How about surreal? It’s surely that, too.
Three decades is a long time. Jared Goff wasn’t born the last time the Lions won their division. But as much as he allowed himself a little pride at his part in winning the division, what really got him was watching the big fellas who block for him.
Or anyone who has been around this organization a while and hasn’t tasted this. Who hasn’t felt this.
“We did something that team after team after team (could not),” said Goff. “For 30 years (they tried.) But this 2023 team did it. Broke that streak. We’re guaranteed a home playoff game. Got some work to do next week, and the following.”
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And?
“We'll see where we can go.”
This is the central theme in all this. This is what winning a division makes possible: more possibility.
Not to mention a home game — a possible springboard — the chance to get a decent matchup and, who knows where this ends?
Get a bounce, and, well, that’s getting too far ahead. Let's get back to Sunday, and to the history made, and to the team that wanted to revel in the new history for a little bit.
Dan Campbell was sure gonna enjoy it. He knows how hard it is to do this. How hard it was to do this here, in this place, for these fans, whom he understands as well as any Lions coach ever has. He played in Detroit, remember?
It’s why he often sounds like he’s talking directly to them. In fact, he was Sunday afternoon, when he included the fans when listing the various folks who were responsible for the division title.
He was proud of the owner and the staff, of course. And proud of the coaches and the players, clearly. Then he finished with this:
“I’m proud of all the Lions fans out there that have been dying for this. That was for you too. I know it’s been a long time. You deserve that. And it’s not over. That's just one.”
That’s just one, he said again.
One division. One big game. One piece of history.
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There is more out there. Lots more, he believes. They all do. The quarterback. The OG lineman.
Even the owner.
“Amazing,” she said.
No more crap. No more disrespect. Not this season. And if they keep building the way they have been, not anytime soon.
The Lions are learning. Campbell is learning. Two years ago, he lost here on a last-second field goal. A sucker punch. Last year, the Lions collapsed in the last few minutes. Campbell made a decision that was ...
“Awful,” he said.
Made it right on the sideline where he stood Sunday and raised his arms, red-faced and ecstatic, a Detroit Santa Claus who arrived in Michigan by way of Texas, and Miami and New Orleans, who brought the gift of changing history.
That gift didn’t come without pain. Little more than a year ago, they were 1-6. The owner, Sheila Hamp, held an impromptu press conference to assure fans they had a plan, and said that they believed in the plan.
Losing here in Minneapolis last September was one of those six losses. Campbell argued the pain of that loss in particular was necessary.
“We've learned hard lessons for a period of time here,” he said. “We could’ve closed that game out (last year). And I made an awful decision.”
He called for a 54-yard field goal when his kicker didn’t have it in him. Not really. He missed. The Vikings used the favorable field position to score and win the game.
“You learn from those, man,” Campbell said. “It makes you better. You hate that it happens to you, but you learn from it.”
That’s as much as you can ask of a coach, right? Of a team? Of anyone, really, who puts everything they’ve got into something — anything — who steps out onto a field or a stage and fights through the crap.
Through the noise. The obstacles. The history.
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The disrespect.
Well, here’s betting Campbell is onto something, and that this historic win isn’t “just one” — but the first in a new era of Lions football, just a peek at what these games and these moments can be — and can mean.
For while you may never “forget the first one,” as Campbell said Sunday, the first one means more when it’s followed by another one.
And another one. And the loser jokes fade away forever.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions were butt of jokes for decades. Not under Dan Campbell.
