DAVE CLARK: Are the Detroit Lions ready to roar after decades of despair?
The Lions of Detroit? They’ve broken me. It HURT ME. For many decades.
It’s the most dysfunctional, agonizing relationship I’ve ever been in. Despite the warnings and red flags raised by my friends – decent people who care about me and attempt to talk sense into me – I return to the Lions every fall.
I recall vividly the first, harsh taste of heartbreak. The date was October 21, 1984.
Billy Sims, one of my all-time favorite Lions, sustained a career-ending injury at the Metrodome on that day.
Simms received a handoff from quarterback Gary Danielson, turned upfield, and was sacked by Minnesota Vikings defender Walker Lee Ashley.
After being tackled, he did not get up. A television camera captured the reaction on Lions head coach Monte Clark’s face as Sims was led off the field. He appeared to be broken. As I saw my hero sway back and forth in misery on the icy field, his face mirrored mine own.
I was a newly converted Lions supporter. I could have called it quits when they finished the season 4-11-1.
But, sadly, I had let down my guard and became a Detroit Lions fan.
Since then, I’ve been broken. Despite this, I’m feeling fairly good this year.
That is extremely frightening.
A bitter start
“The Lions stink,” I argued with a group of pals gathered under a tall tree at Longview Elementary in the fall of 1980. We had meaningful debates about AC/DC, “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV program, and football there.
A re-recording of Jimmy “Spider-Man” Allen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” was booming out of the tiny speaker of a cassette player held by one of the guys.
“No! The Lions will be really good this year. “We’re almost certainly going to the Super Bowl,” my friends insisted.
The Lions began the season 4-0.
Everyone declared 1980 the “Year of the Lion.”
It was not the case.
The Lions finished the season 9-7, second in the NFC Central, and missed the playoffs.
In any case, I was a Sims fan. He was our star – the “Silver Streak” – and possibly the best running back in sports. In each of his first three NFL seasons, he was named to the Pro Bowl. He guided the Lions to the playoffs in 1982 and again in 1983.
With Billy blazing down the field, victory appeared unavoidable. When he was hurt during the game versus Minnesota, the season was virtually ended, as was the Lions’ chance for future success. I kept watching defeat after defeat, expecting that my superhero running back would somehow recover and lead us to victory.
Sims spent the entire year of 1985 in recovery. He never returned to football.
His is a classic Lions story: a terrific athlete comes to Detroit, gives his all, and then departs football with nothing.
So much potential squandered. So much dissatisfaction. So much defeat.
Future Prospects
Every fall, Lions supporters chant “Restore the Roar” as we begin another season optimistic and foolish. Around 1998, it came to me that the “roar” to which we fans alluded had been extinguished in 1957, nine years before the first Super Bowl and 14 years before I was born.
What do you mean, “restore”? For decades, there has been no roar. The Lions have never “roared” in my life. With lousy football, they’ve primarily coughed up hairballs and ruined Sunday afternoons and Thanksgiving dinners.
I hate to confess it, but I watched the most of the games during the absolutely dreadful, winless 0-16 season in 2008.
Why? What did I anticipate happening? Why watch such a bad team?
Hope.
To keep Lions fans interested, hope occasionally interfered and offered you a cause to care. Sanders, Barry. Johnson, Calvin. Suh, Ndamukong. There were times when the Lions appeared to be on the verge of something good. But, until 2022, hope at Ford Field was as transient as it had been at the Pontiac Silverdome. The Lions always appeared to have bad luck.
You are not a Lions fan if you couldn’t comprehend why Lions fans rooted for quarterback Matthew Stafford when he was dealt to the Los Angeles Rams.
Stafford was one of our most recent gridiron heroes, a tough athlete and a fine, moral man who found a way out of this never-ending losing cycle. Staying in Detroit would have eventually broken him, so he chose to leave.
Stafford went on to win Super Bowl LVI as a result of the transaction. The best a Lions fan could aspire for was adjacent success, so we toasted Stafford – one of our stars who made it out of Detroit to live another day, play for a better organization, and eventually achieve success in the NFL.
There’s another reason to rejoice in Stafford.
That deal laid the groundwork for the team that will take the field against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday. The Lions used those draft picks and quarterback Jared Goff to assemble one of the most fascinating, toughest football teams to ever come out of Detroit, thanks to General Manager Brad Holmes’ scouting ability and the unwavering excitement of head coach Dan Campbell.
They appear to be brimming with talent. They appear to be well-coached. They appear to be capable of roaring.
The Lions are 5-1 on the road and have defeated some truly talented teams. We have the best record in football, together with four other teams.
Winning is exciting, terrifying, and unknown terrain.
As a Lions fan, this is the most complete football team I’ve ever seen. Nonetheless, I’m bracing for the 2023 version of the Sims game to be a season-ending disaster. My heart starts racing when Goff, defensive end Aiden Hutchinson, or wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown remain on the ground too long after a play. “Not again!” I begin to think. “Not again!”
For all these years, we’ve been trained to expect the worse. Can Lions supporters learn to win?
This Lions team is confident in their ability to win. The team’s body of work demonstrates that they can win even when they are not expected to.
Perhaps this is our year. That would warm and possibly mend this tired fan’s broken heart.
Maybe it’s finally our time to roar.
Dave Clark is the Daily News’s editor. David Clark can be reached at david.clark@hearst.com.
