Earlier today, shortly after the Lions/Cowboys game was over, yours truly wandered into a local watering hole and plopped down next to a friend of mine. Let's call him "Dave". A conversation ensued about the Lions, and I'll get back to that.
But first a little background. For the better part of three decades, I was a super die-hard Lions fan. Dating way back to their Tiger Stadium days, and through most of their years at the Pontiac Silverdome, yours truly found a way to attend 3-4 home games every year. I don't know the exact total, but add it all up, and I probably went to around 100 of their home games over all those years. Many head coaches, front office personnel, and generations of players came and went during that time.
Another thing I don't know, and probably don't want to, is how much money I shelled out while following my beloved Honolulu blue and silver dream, up close and in person. Consider gas, tickets, parking, various concessions while in the stadiums, etc, multiply it by 100 games -- add in the team paraphernalia purchased along the way to boot -- and what do you get? Beats me, bet I'd bet it's enough to buy a small house. Unlike the reporters that get in for free with their press passes, or sniping TV armchair quarterbacks, I think I can safely say I paid my dues.
When not able to attend the home games themselves for various reasons (usually $$), and for all road games, it was a certainty yours truly would be watching on TV rooting them on. Back in the day of TV blackouts when a home game wasn't sold out, I had another friend, the late Bruce, who was as rabid a fan as I was. We'd hop in one of our cars and drive to Saginaw on Sunday morning, which was beyond the blackout zone. There was a K-Mart store there that very conveniently had the furniture department right next to the bank of TVs that were also for sale. We'd kick back in Lazy Boys and watch the Lions on a whole bunch of screens. An Arby's was right across the street for halftime chow. A pretty sweet gig. We saw Lions' receiver Chuck Hughes die on the field at Tiger Stadium while sitting in those K-Mart chairs in Saginaw.
Many years later, I was there at the Silverdome when Lions' guard Mike Utley got paralyzed on a freak play against the LA Rams in 1991. Also when linebacker Reggie Brown suffered a spinal cord injury against the NY Jets in 1997, ending his short career.
But there were better times as well at the Dome. During the Wayne Fontes head-coaching era (1988-1996) the Lions really weren't all that good (67-71), but they had a way of making their fans think they were. Indeed, after winning a few games, the team adopted the Queen classic song Another One Bites the Dust. It would blare from the stadium loudspeakers. As it turned out, every one of those teams would eventually bite the dust themselves, but it was easy to get caught up in the hype of the moment back then. As a footnote, at that time the Lions also had a safety that was nicknamed "Spiderman". When away from football, he seemed to be allegedly on a mission to impregnate every woman he came in contact with. Last I heard, after winding up homeless for a while, he's hunkered down somewhere in southern California. A gang of knocked up women, especially if they get together and find out the same guy fathered all their babies, can sometimes have a way of trapping a spider in his own web, and eventually eating him alive. But enough about that.
Many a time I showed up at the Dome at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning to stand in line with the other crazies hoping to get a couple end zone tickets for the upcoming game. Most times it worked, but sometimes they would sell out before I reached the ticket counter. And ALL times, I would wind up going into work a couple hours late. Either way, it was going to cost me, but I didn't care. Back then, it was worth it. I had the fever.
Most Lions' fans know their team has only won one playoff game since the Super Bowl era started way back when LBJ was President and the Viet Nam war was raging. That was in January of 1992. Through a stroke of incredible good fortune -- but mostly by knowing someone that always had an amazing knack for getting whatever tickets he wanted to whatever games -- truly a forerunner of the don't ask, don't tell policy -- yours truly and a few friends managed to score tickets for that game.
Yep, I was there when the Lions trashed the Cowboys 38-6. I have never heard anything louder in my whole life than the crowd in attendance at that game. The noise was not only incredible, but actually painful to the ears. The Lions would get trashed themselves to the tune of 41-10 the following week by the Redskins in the NFC championship game, but I'll never forget that experience at the Dome. What a day.
The hordes of Lions' fans, as they have been so inclined to do over the decades, saw brighter days coming. Alas, they were once again mistaken. A few short years later, the Lions would begin yet another of their death spirals into oblivion. Fontes would be fired, which would usher in an era of merry-go-round other losing head coaches, including the infamous Matt Millen reign.
Thing is, along the way, an epiphany happened. In July of 1999, Barry Sanders, certainly amongst the best running backs of all-time in the NFL, abruptly quit, while still quite in his prime. At the time, Sanders was within easy striking distance of Walter Payton's all-time NFL rushing record. (It should be noted that Emmitt Smith would eventually surpass Payton and remains the all-time leader -- but if Sanders had played a few more years, he likely would have set the bar so high, it would never have been approachable again.) Further, Sanders walked away from over $8,000,000 that he could have made by returning to the Lions for another season. Why? Barry, always a humble man, would later say it best. He had grown weary of the losing culture of the Lions and didn't see them getting much better any year soon. Turns out, he was exactly right about that. To him, the money and/or records didn't matter. It just wasn't worth it anymore.
Initially, yours truly was dumbstruck when Sanders quietly walked away from the Lions. But after a short while, Sanders' epiphany clicked into my feeble head as well. Why even bother anymore with the Lions? So when Barry walked -- that was good enough for me. I took a hike too, leaving behind decades of what I now realize was a futile mission as a misguided fan in the first place.
In the interim, I've never been to Ford Field, and have no desire to go there for a Lions game. I've even been offered free tickets on a few occasions by season ticket holders that couldn't go to a game for whatever reasons -- and politely declined.
To me, the Lions are a lot like my ex-wife. I don't like them nor dislike them. They're just out there somewhere and I wish them well. Sometimes I'll objectively write about them (the Lions, not my ex) and I'll get accused of "hating" on the Lions. Not true. I just call them like I see them, but I went cold turkey on the blue and silver koolaid back in 1999 when Barry showed me the way.
And you know what? No regrets. The Lions haven't been remotely close to Super Bowl caliber ever since. Nor are they now, or likely to be in the near future.
To boot, I don't know how much money I would have spent on the Lions in the last 14 years, but not having done so, I've been able to take several trips and buy a few things I never would have been able to afford if I was still shelling it out to the Ford family. Funny, or maybe not, how that worked out.
This has ran on a bit long. On to the conversation between Dave and I on the bar stools -- next time.
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