When I saw the cover of Sports Illustrated picking the Lions TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL this season, I threw my head back so hard I knocked myself out.
And in my unconsciousness, I time-traveled back to my early years covering this team and tried to break the news.
After all, if we knew the world would one day point at our football team and say “championship favorite,” think of the hopelessness we might have avoided.
“The Lions are favored to win the Super Bowl!” I exclaimed to my 1980s self, who was perched over a Tandy computer.
“Look, Mister, I don’t have time for crazy,” he said. “I’m writing about how Darryl Rogers is counting pigeons on the Silverdome roof.”
I realized I was perhaps too young — I also noticed my mullet — so I hopped ahead a few years to 1990. I found my younger self in a media scrum around a locker.
“Hey, forget whatever you’re working on,” I said. “The Lions will be favored to win the Super Bowl in 2024. You can get the story early!”
“Out of my way, weirdo,” the younger me said. “Can’t you see we’re interviewing the quarterback who’s finally going to turn this team around?”
I stood on my tiptoes. There he was. In the middle of the crowd.
Andre Ware.
“I’ll be back in a few years,” I said.
Wisdom through the ages
I landed in the press box in 1994. A mass of reporters had their eyes in the air.
“Guys! Listen to me!” I screamed. “In 30 years, the Lions are favored to win the Super Bowl! They have Pro Bowl players, really smart draft picks, and a coach who doesn’t have a detractor in the world!”
I saw their eyes go wide. Had I convinced them? Then I turned to see what they were gaping at: A ball was in the air from Green Bay’s Brett Favre, and it landed in the arms of a guy named Sterling Sharpe, who was so uncovered, even Gene Autry would have sung about too much open space.
“Awwwwgh!” I heard the reporters groan, as Sharpe scampered into the end zone, ending the last home playoff game the Lions would have for three decades.
“What were you saying?” a writer with a bad turtleneck asked.
I realized this was younger me.
“Nothing,” I said. “Change your shirt.”
Every place I landed on the Lions timeline, nobody believed me. Understandable. Nearly 70 years since the last championship? A 32-year drought between playoff wins? A laundry list of head coaches — Rick Forzano, Tommy Hudspeth, Monte Clark, Darryl Rogers, Marty Mornhinweg, Rod Marinelli, Matt Patricia, et al. — who would never head coach in the NFL again?
And now, the Lions are favorites for the Super Bowl? Everyone from Fox Sports to ESPN to Yahoo to The Athletic has people saying Detroit will win it all?
No wonder everyone looked at me like I was nuts. Still, I tried.
I traveled to 1999, and declared Jahmyr Gibbs, as a rookie running back, would gain nearly 1,000 yards and be a Pro Bowl alternate.
But everyone was too busy watching Barry Sanders walk away.
I went to 2002, and shouted Dan Campbell, in going from 3-13, to 9-8, to 12-5, would make every right move.
But they were too busy watching Mornhinweg take the wind in overtime.
I hopped to 2007, and exulted how Jared Goff, a quarterback with Super Bowl experience, would spearhead one of the most powerful offenses in the NFL.
But they were too busy chronicling Jon Kitna and Dan Orlovsky.
I advanced a year, and found a group of sportswriters furiously typing away. At last, I thought, they’re in the news-breaking mood.
“Guys! Stop the presses! In 2024, the Lions are favored to WIN THE SUPER BOWL! That’s your story!”
One of them looked up and laughed. Then the guy next to him. Then everyone in the room. I looked at the dateline: Dec. 28, 2008.
The Lions had just gone 0-16.
“Thanks for the chuckle, old-timer,” the younger me said.
“Respect your elders,” I snapped. “And change those pants. Nobody wears slim fit jeans anymore.”
Overcoming the skepticism
This was tougher than I thought. Decades of losing don’t make winning easy. You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The new season starts Sunday night, at Ford Field, against Matthew Stafford and the L.A. Rams. We’re told the Lions have an unstoppable offense.
But what if Goff gets injured? we say.
We’re told the defense has been fortified.
But what if these rookies aren’t that great? we wonder.
We’re told the Lions are favorites to once again win their division and this time their conference.
But what if Jordan Love is the next coming of Aaron Rodgers? What if Caleb Williams makes the Bears tough again? What if San Francisco still has our number?
Let’s face it. To be a Lions fan is to be skeptical, even if you’re being hysterical. Or to be hysterical, even if you’re being skeptical.
“The Lions are picked to WIN THE SUPER BOWL!” I yell in 2010, and 2012, and 2015 and 2017. “It’s gonna start tonight, with what they do to Stafford.”
“Re-sign him?” my younger self asks.
“Beat him,” I say.
“That’s a little harsh. I mean, yeah, he’s made some mistakes. But you don’t hit your own players.”
“He’s a RAM!” I holler.
“OK, now you’re just name calling.”
I give up. I close my eyes. The world starts to spin, and suddenly I am back in the present, the Sports Illustrated on my desk, with the photo of Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell, sitting in a convertible under a headline, “Right Team, Right Town, Right Time.”
Maybe they’re correct. Maybe we are, finally, right. Maybe all those years of Same Old Lions frustration are finally behind us, and we should embrace championship expectations, because this team is that good? Yes? Is that it?
Wait. What’s this? I look up and my younger self has appeared before me, holding out his hands.
“Have you come to warn me?” I ask. “To tell me I’m crazy? To tell me not to believe the hype?”
“You left your glasses,” he says.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom.
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