by Mitch Albom | Jan 15, 2024 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Hear ye, hear ye, Detroit Lions fans. In the middle of a frozen January, our long cold winter is finally over. It expired less than an hour before midnight Sunday, when Jared Goff, after all his completions and all his pinpoint accuracy, made his favorite...
by Mitch Albom | Jan 14, 2024 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
“For one thrilling Sunday, it was perfect chaos, all these inspired men doing things they weren’t supposed to do, exploding like a silver-and-blue volcano after years of bubbling frustration. They took the ball and scored, they took it and scored again, and again, and...
by Mitch Albom | Jan 12, 2024 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The last game he played in Ford Field, he threw for three touchdowns and nearly 300 yards — and lost by two points. That’s a microcosm of the bittersweet career Matthew Stafford put in during his long tenure as the Detroit Lions’ starting quarterback. With...
by Mitch Albom | Jan 8, 2024 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The last four plays of the Detroit Lions’ regular season were four straight passes to receiver Josh Reynolds. In most ways, since the game was already won, the plays were insignificant. Except that Reynolds needed 36 yards on the day to earn a chunky incentive...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 25, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
How’s this for a Christmas morning stocking stuffer? The Detroit Lions will win their division. The Lions will host a playoff game. Manna will fall from heaven. OK, maybe not the last one. But the occasion calls for hyperbole, right? In a game that went...
by Mitch Albom | Dec 17, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Amon-Ra St. Brown darted across the middle, split the defenders, took a perfect pass from Jared Goff and zoomed to the end zone, flipping over an opposing player and landing with a boink, as if putting the dot on an “i.” An “i” as in “winning again.”...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 29, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Aidan Hutchinson said it best when it was all over, smiling and sweating and half-dressed in his postgame TV interview. “I grew up watching Aaron Rodgers kick our ass every year,” he gushed. Not anymore. Bye bye, Mr. Rodgers. If you had any doubts as to who will be...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 25, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Aidan Hutchinson came roaring across the line, spun off his man like a ballerina, and plowed over Atlanta quarterback Desmond Ridder, twisting the poor guy into the turf like a corkscrew. Hutchinson then popped up and launched into a dance that looked like his foot...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 18, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
If you’ve gone to Detroit Lions games over the last 50 years, you’re used to fans heading for the exits even before the final whistle blows. Sunday afternoon at Ford Field was the opposite. The 2023 home opener was over, but thousands of fans still...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 8, 2023 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
The house was on fire, the hostile crowd was wild, conventional wisdom called for surrender, punt the ball, you have the lead, it’s fourth-and-2 on the opponent’s 45-yard line, only a few minutes left in the game. You gotta punt it, right? Dan Campbell didn’t need a...