For ages, way down deep in the darkest recesses of my psyche, I've carried around a mental image of Sterling Sharpe streaking down the right sideline of the Pontiac Silverdome, and settling under a Brett Favre bomb, and sending the Green Bay Packers on an ascendent path culminating in a Super Bowl win, and sending the Lions on to a decade of boom or bust futility that, in retrospect, compared to this decade's utter futility, almost seems like a golden age.

I recall that play with an absolute, and horrible clarity, it was the moment that Barry Sanders' Super Bowl dream, for all intents and purposes, died forever, and the moment that set the path leading to where the Lions are now. yet, until last night, I remembered very little else about that game. At midnight central, aimlessly scrolling through the cable on screen channel guide, looking for something to peek at before heading to bed, I saw a listing for "NFL's Greatest Games" on one of the ESPN channels, and idly expanded the description, and "Lions vs Packers" caught my eye.

Instantly, I knew which game it had to be, and for the next hour, all thoughts of sleep were entirely banished. For it was one of those events that, even though you knew what would happen at the end, even though you knew your heart would inevitably be broken, you had to watch, to see how it had got to that point.

(As an aside, I'm totally that guy who'd watch game 5 of the 2005 NBA Championships on ESPN classic, the one where Sheed failed to close out the one guy, Horry, who's always going to take that one big three point shot that can beat you, even though I know that by the end, I will, as always, feel like putting my foot through the TV screen. That's just who I am.)

And so I watched the backstory, what with the Lions thrashing Favre and the Pack at the dome just the week before, to earn the Central Division crown and earn a home rematch against Green Bay, where a loss would have sent the two team to the frozen tundra. And I watched as Erik Kramer led the Lions down the field on the first drive, and had 6'4" Herman Moore 1 on 1 with 5'10" Terrell Buckley in the end zone, and failed to put any loft on the ball, allowing the shorter man to come away with an INT. I watched Chris Spielman and the Lions dominate the first half, get a lucky play or two to boot, the kind of thing that never happens to this team any more. I see the Lions dominate, but take merely a slim lead into halftime, and, as I know what will happen at the end, I rue all the chances that were left unfulfilled in the first thirty minutes.

I see the Lions take a lead into the 4th quarter, up 17-14, with time on thier side, with Eirk Kramer and Brett Perriman leading the way, I see the Lions get to the 5 yard line, and get ready to put the game away, and I see Kramer force a throw, not to the Inside, where Ty Hallock might have caught it and all but put a dagger through the Packers' collective hearts, but a bit outside, where George Teague is waiting, and watch him return the ball 101 yards for a TD, giving the Packers a lead.

(And I wonder why nobody in the NFL greatest games broadcast mentions the play that Teague, then a rookie, made in the national championship game against Miami just a year prior when he wrested the ball out of a pair of Hurrican hands and take the ball in for a TD en route to the Bama NC). 

But, you see, i know that isn't the end, because Favre made a come from behind miracle happen, so there must be more Lions fireworks yet to come. But I'm lamenting the fact that the Lions let the Packers get away with yet another red zone foray turning into zero points.

I see Erik Kramer lead a fantastic drive down the field to regain the lead for the Lions, and I know what's coming. That play, the one that gave me nightmares when I was 18 or 19. Alll my hyperbole isn't to suggest that detroit would absolutely have beaten San Francisco the next week or taken down the Cowboys juggernaut then heading to their 3rd super bowl win in three years.

But maybe they couldhave stopped the Packers from rising as they did? Who knows. I watched in horro as the Packers return man broke a tackle inside his own ten and got a decent return out of essentially nothing. I saw the clock roll towards a minute with the Packers still on their side of midfield, wondering desparately what the could do to get to Chris Jacke's field goal race.

I watched as Favre surveyed the field, scrambled to the left, and as the he was still moving, launch an awkward BOMB into the Silverdome's furthest reaches. And I watched, as ever ingrained in my psyche, in my nightmares, Sterling Sharpe still caught up to the ball, to the desperation heave, and he settles under it, gathers it, and turns to look back at the rookie corner (Kevin Scott, apparently) that he's left behind in the dust en route to his third TD of the game.

It is as painful today as it was back then. I'm paying for it even now, 13 hours later, because after watching that, I didn't manage to fall asleep for hours. I had to scribble up part of this, I just had to get that nightmare image out of my head.

It didn't work, I'm seeing the play in my head right now, even as I'm exhauted, trying to not doze off at work, and I'm thinking, it's rather fitting, in that I'm sick and tired of the entire Lions franchise being downtrodden, a laughingstock.in the league. I still blame that one play as getting all the dominoes falling, leading to where the Lions now lie.

Part of me wishes I hadn't watched the program last night, the other part of me like that I now have context in which to fit that play. Overall, though, it just feels like a scab has been ripped off, and a wound re-opened....