Fans ask Mike Tirico all the time if 2023 Detroit Lions are for real — even in Paris

Mike Tirico was in Paris in July preparing for next year’s Summer Olympics, when the play-by-play voice of Sunday Night Football took a morning walk by the Eifel Tower and heard the one question he has been asked more than any other this summer.

“I had my Tigers hat on, and a guy comes up to me — we’re walking by each other, he’s jogging, and he says to me, ‘Hey, can’t wait to watch the opener with the Lions. Do you think they’re for real?’ ” Tirico told the Free Press this week. “So even at the base of the Eifel Tower somebody stopped me to ask about the Lions, so it just gives you a little sense of the fan base, so desperately hungry but having I think tangible reason to anticipate the coming season.”

Tirico will broadcast the NFL’s Thursday night season-opener next week between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs as part of a whirlwind nine days of football. He’s also scheduled to do Michigan football’s season opener Saturday against East Carolina on the Peacock Network and next week’s Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game on Sunday night on NBC.

For Tirico, an Ann Arbor resident the past 24 years, it’s an “amazing” start to a season that has an extra special local feel.

Michigan is favored to win its third straight Big Ten title and is a legitimate national title contender for the first time in decades, and the Lions have Super Bowl aspirations as America’s new team.

“It has a chance to be (a fun fall),” Tirico said. “I always think it goes underappreciated as a football area. I think in those weekends where you have Michigan and Michigan State at home, which happens more than a couple times, and the Lions … you get a quarter of a million people on a weekend in like a 60-mile radius, with very little overlap, going to football games. So this area really deserves a season the likes of which we could be on the front door of.”

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The Lions, coming off their first winning season since 2017, are the darlings of the NFL after winning eight of their final 10 games to narrowly miss the playoffs last year.

They return most of their key starters on both sides of the ball, have an easy-to-root-for coach in Dan Campbell and bolstered their roster with high draft picks and key free agent additions this offseason.

The Lions are resounding favorites to win the NFC North, something they have not done in the division’s existence, and when fans ask about the team’s legitimacy, Tirico tells them, “Almost all the pieces are in place.”

“What needs to carry over from last year to this year is the Lions won games that they have lost for years. Close games. It reminded me of the progress under (Jim) Caldwell, which I think people now have an appreciation for. They didn’t make the small mistakes and won the games they should have won,” he said. “I think that’s a huge part of why this momentum is real and this anticipation is real, and this team is a legit contender to win this division. No doubt about it. It’s not made up, it’s real.”

That the NFL put the Lions in its marquee Week 1 game is a testament to their rising star, and Tirico said it gives the Lions a unique opportunity.

The Chiefs will raise their Super Bowl banner before the game in what should be a turbo-charged environment. Arrowhead Stadium is one of the best homefield advantages in football, and defending champs have won four of their past five openers.

“It’s always a tough game to win on the road, because of the celebration, of all of that energy,” Tirico said. “You’re the invited guest to somebody else’s party, right? Most aren’t there for you. However, I’ll go back to point out, one of the big wins in this Kansas City run was when they went to New England (in 2017) and won on banner night in Foxboro. And so, you couldn’t ask for anything more if you are the Lions to have a chance to show how worthy this hype is. People will find out very quickly.”

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As for Michigan, Tirico has not done a Wolverines game since the Outback Bowl in 2013 — the Jadeveon Clowney hit game — or a game at Michigan Stadium since the Wolverines’ triple-overtime win over Michigan State in 2004, when Braylon Edwards had 11 catches for 189 yards and three touchdowns as Michigan erased a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Saturday’s game probably won’t be nearly as competitive, but after the game, Tirico will make his way to a nearby parking lot to join his family’s regular tailgate, something he has never been able to do as a broadcaster.

“As a guy who’s lived here for the last 24 years, to have the chance to do a Michigan game in the Big House when I live less than five miles away … and to see the Lions on that NFL stage, it’s so cool for everybody who lives in our area,” he said. “So to have that as the start of my football season was amazing.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mike Tirico: Detroit Lions can 'show how worthy hype is' vs. Chiefs