It’s the night before Thanksgiving and I sit to type with a full heart. Tomorrow, my heart will remain as full and my stomach will rival that feeling. Food, family, and tradition; food, family and football; food, family and football tradition. As a fan of the Detroit Lions, Thanksgiving has always meant these things, and always delivered them. I was lucky enough to attend a Lions-Bears Thanksgiving Day game some years back and, as a native of Chicagoland, a Lion living behind enemy lines, it was an incredible experience to visit Ford Field and watch a relatively rare victory.
“Relatively rare”. The pain and reality of being a Lions fan is well-known and maybe even more well-documented. The sympathetic sigh from even strangers when they find out who “your team” is resonates to the soul. They don’t know the pain, but they know of the pain. However, to hear that some are promoting a boycott of the Lions on Thanksgiving Day shifts a stoic passivity to a typed anger, for it is exactly these “fans” that may in fact be bringing down our storied franchise.
Detroit actually has a history of success, it just hasn’t been recently. Detroit also has a history of talent. Within my lifetime we have had arguably the best running back in NFL history, one of the most dominant wide receivers in NFL history (when the refs weren’t taking away clear catches because of a well-deserved celebration), and probably one of the toughest quarterbacks in NFL history. However, we are better known for futility on the field, drafting wide receivers every year, being at the wrong end of some of the most memorably horrendous calls ever made…and this has become our identity. It has become what the league thinks of us, it has become what all fans of football think of us, and it has admittedly become what we think of us. There are countless Sunday afternoons where I am measuring my excitement because I “know” that we are somehow going to mess up a good thing. Even when the final whistle blows, I find some justification for my lack of enthusiasm. There is no fan more frequently right about his/her team than a Lions’ fan…and this is never in the positive.
Now I hate it, but I will allow myself hope. It is sarcastic, pessimistic, history-damaged hope, but I have it. Being allowed the tradition of the Thanksgiving game, I am somewhat content in the season if it is the one game we win. I will make friendly wagers on the game, I will have my Jason Hanson jersey ready to wear, and often I will hope the tryptophan kicks in before I have to see the end of the game…but I have hope.
I also have a proposition: let’s all hope. More, let’s all know. Let’s all know it’s going to get better. Let’s all know that we are going in the right direction. Let’s all know we are making the playoffs next year. Let’s all know, that even with a third-string quarterback and numerous other starters out, that we will be competitive tomorrow; let’s all know that we ARE Thanksgiving football.
Now, before you laugh, I KNOW this is crazy. The last thing I am good at is blind hope, worse hope where hope may not exist. But why not? Has all the negativity helped? Has all the hate helped? Has all the Detroit vs. Everybody helped except to reiterate how frequently we get jobbed out of a call, out of a game, out of a smile or something to cheer about? Maybe, knowing that we have a franchise of despair, it is up to us, the fans, to shift the momentum to something positive…to believe.
The lifetime Lions fan in me hates everything I just said. It doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t feel right. For so long I have “been right” when I predict a turnover, when I foresee a blunder, when I expect a loss. I’d be happy to be wrong. The culture has improved but the football has not. I’d be happy to be at least partially wrong. We have no chance tomorrow. I’d be thrilled to be completely incorrect. I don’t need a Super Bowl immediately, but I’d love to at least have hope. I’d love to lose in the playoffs to a better team that beats us without black-and-white assistance. I’d love for the organization to mend relationships, hire the right people because they are good people, and follow the lead of the fan-base toward a better future.
At the very least…Honolulu Blue is easily the most beautiful color in the NFL. Wear it proudly tomorrow; Thanksgiving is our day.
Happy Thanksgiving. One Pride.