Why Are You A Lion???

thats tough in moment considering my age I guess the first time I ever really cheered for the lions when I heard they were facing the packers in the playoffs. For the first time at that point I wanted to see favre lose becuase this was the home team Spielman and Barry I always liked but growing up I was a favre fan…not a packer fan just loved watching him play. While for YEARS i dipped in and out of football watched other teams more than detroit I was always a Lions fan at heart. I always watched the score and the highlights and always asked myself why are we doomed to lose forever. BUT that is no longer true I am a die hard lions fan now with talent like calvin,stafford,delmas,suh, and best we are no longer doomed to lose forever! A fair weather fan no I am a real fan but for years it was from a farther distance there wasn’t anything to get excited about it was fun to watch guys like Peyton manning win clutch games and D mac overcome the hatered of the down he played in or even the Bears make a superbowl. I am a LIONS FAN and I will say that to anyone the LIONS are my team.

As long as I can remember, he would watch the game on Sundays and let us sit with him. It was always nice to be around him. Watching him cheer for the lions infected my soul at a very early age. I don’t remember the year I became a fan but I do remember the reason.

I still call him on Sundays before and after the game just to keep in touch and chat the game up. He has an understanding of the game that dwarfs mine. A good man, who worked hard for his family and loved a little Sunday Lions break.

It’s tough for me to pick A moment, but I am only 25 and while growing up there was Barry. I went to one game at the silverdome when I was about 9 or 10 and they beat the Packers so that was a good one, but living in Michigan and having Barry to watch made it easier.

the first time I watched a football game, I witnessed #20 breaking defenders ankles. . .i couldn’t believe how ridiculous he made people look. . .I have been hooked ever since. . .Go Lions!!!

…..birth…..

and got introduced to ‘another one bites the dust’

Oh god… I am old aren’t I…..

/TOV’ed

Because I was born in Detroit. There wasn’t really a specific moment, I’ve always been a fan. Watched Barry as a little kid and was hooked.

Lion ’til I die.

and Honolulu Blue colored blood came pouring out.

To steal a line from toled0lions

Lions ’til I die

I became a football fan my Junior year in high school. I had actually been playing the game for 2 years and only played because it made my father proud. My junior year though in high school, 1990 I transferred to Cabrini from Gabriel Richard and met a guy that was a huge fan in my study hall. We used to BS about the Wolverines endlessly and that is when I started to become a fan of the game.

I remember my father talking up Billy Sims, Charlie Sanders, Lem Barny, and other greats. Hell he even talked up Otto Graham and Jim Brown so he might have been a bit of a closet Browns fan. My fathers true sports love was the Tigers and Al Kaline though. I swear to God that he thought Kaline walked on water. I loved my father very much and he was from the Pittsburgh area originally. I don’t know why but because of that in my youth I was more of a Steelers fan. I loved Jack Lambert and their Iron Curtain defense. I could have cared less about the offense other than Franco Harris.

Later on in the 80’s I was a bit of a 49ers fan, because my older brother liked them we used to talk em up. I was definitely more of a Lions fan by that point in my life but I was still mostly just a fan of certain players. Barry Sanders, Herman Moore, Eric Kramer, Chris Spielman, and of course Robert Porcher. I don’t know why but Porcher was actually my favorite of them all, and Barry came a close second. When Barry left with gas still in the tank and then Pocher left with, well in my opinion anyways, at least another year or two in the tank I became an anti Lions fan. Pittsburgh actually became my main NFL team at that point in time. I was fortunate enough to see them grow. First they built a solid running game and defense and then finding a game manager in Rothlisburger to bring it home. A part of me will always root for them, when they are not playing Detroit that is.

Honestly this is going to sound odd but something brought me back to my roots. I don’t really know what it was. I mean I had followed the Lions through all the years but I was not a true blue, thick and thin fan. Until the 0-16 season. Maybe I am a masochist, maybe I just love rooting for the underdog that much, I don’t know. But I watched every game that year, with optimism that the next game was a win for us every time. I was probably a Lions fan before that, but I didn’t know it, and the world didn’t know it. Now they do. That was my birth as a Lions fan, it is my rite of passage and my badge of honor. If I would suffer through that I can endure anything.

but ive been a lions fan only since the beginning of the 0-16 season… lol
hooked now

Delusional…says it all…..My 2 sons, aged 26 and 22 think I am certifiably delusional over why I even give a sheet about this team and get worse year after year.

They can’t remember a Lions team that wasn’t a joke. The organization that wasn’t a laughing stock. Millen? Pure ass.

Well I can, and I sure hope I can spot talent to some extent, and a turnaround in the making. I can feel it, this is it. Were about to witness something we haven’t seen in a long time.

I grew up with the Lions and Billy Sims on TV on Sunday, and that’s been my team ever since, through the ups and the downs. Obviously, it’s been mostly downs, but there have been good times in there, the multiple division championships in the 90s under Wayne Fontes, Sims and Sanders, when Millen got fired.

There wasn’t a moment when I became a Lions fan, it just happened, and I don’t recall a time when I wasn’t. The allegiance to Detroit teams occurred along with becoming conscious of sports.

very much a newbie. My wife is a HUGE Husker’s fan so we watch those games when we can get them….and….well, there was this man beast in the middle of the DL wearing #93 who seemed to be everywhere after the snap and in on every tackle. Some of this man beasts moves and plays induced involuntary giggles and bouts of “He did NOT just do that did he?” and then an amazed shaking of the head when the slow mo showed that not only did he just do that, but made it look like child’s play.

So many great college players do not make it in the NFL so I wanted to see how he did….and ya’ll drafted him. After visiting this site and watching some highlight reels I find myself being drawn in. The Lions are building a team the right way, have the building blocks in place and ya’ll are right on the cusp of something great. Adding Suh, and KVB puts your D-line in the realm of awesome. I believe KVB still has plenty in the tank and with Suh to take the pressure off of him and vice versa, we are going to see some opposing QB’s with brown drawers. Also, I am a sucker for underdogs, especially underdogs with devoted fan bases.

So here I am, a newly minted Lions fan….please be gentle with me.

Welcome to the POD, brother. There are plenty of knowledgeable, loyal, and intelligent fans on this site. Kick back and enjoy the ride my friend.

My dad is a big Lions fan. Has one of the biggest collections of Barry Sanders trading cards you’ll ever see. And I know nothing other than cheering for the Lions. LOVE the Lions. Will always cheer for them. And these past 10+ years of bad years will make the future Super Bowl that much sweeter. It would be glorious if Stafford, Schwartz, and company can eventually take us there.

I remember my dad getting pumped about drafting Heisman Winner Steve Owens from Oklahoma (1970 rd1-19th). But the biggest moment for me was Thanksgiving Day 1972 and beating Joe Namath`s New York Jets 37-20. We had won the 2 previous years but i really wanted that game. We had about 20 family members there and 2 birds.

I was about in the fourth grade when I could start watching football games and be emotionally invested. That year was 2001 and I remember when we started off 0-12 and I cheered like crazy when we won our first game against the Vikings.

I became a lions fan on Eddie Murray 12 men on the field kick to beat the cowboys.I was a cowboys fan before that and still remember my dad giving me crap about the lions winning.

Seriously. I think it was Ray Crocket and Bennie Blades that made me a Lion for life, not to mention i am a Michigander.

I think it started with Barry Sanders when I was like 9 or 10 back in 1990. The good ole days of playing Tecmo Super Bowl. The rest of the tem grew on me after that from Herman Moore, Chris Spielman, William White, Bennie Blades and Robert Porcher. Now that I really think about it, we have had some super bowl defenses if we kept some of those players. I mean, we had Henry Thomas and Chris Claiborne who we let go to the Vikings. Players who career erupted after they left the team. I been a fan ever since. I never have been the one to jump ship when the wave get rough.

However, I can say in all honesty that I clearly remember watching the Lions with my Dad and Grandpa when I was about 4 years old. 1980….

My Dad used to tell me that I would always get excited when I saw a certain player on that 1980 team make a play, and even when he would be introduced at the beginning of games. Can you guess who it was?

AT running back, from the University of Oklahoma, #20…..BILLY SIMS!!!

That is when I became a Lion for life. Billy Sims used to come out of the tunnel, high stepping, kicking his feet out above his head like a drum major…and he was ELECTRIC. I was just a little boy, but I still remember his style to this day…leaping over defenders, blowing by defenders, running defenders over, and putting on moves that were the true precursor to what another man, who would once again wear his number in the future, would do. Billy was Barry, before there ever was Barry…and I loved him.

Then I moved to Michigan about eight years ago to go to college, stayed here since then, and started watching the Lions during the Mariucci-Harrington era, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I don’t know how to explain why.

So, never having had a chance to watch the Lions during the Barry Sanders era, my most memorable experiences watching my team have been, let’s see…Shaun Rogers’ 66-yard int return in the blowout against Denver in 2007, Millen getting fired in 2008, Stafford’s comeback win against Cleveland last season, and every year’s draft.

The next time the Lions put a winning team on the field will be the first time I’ve seen it, and it looks like it’s coming sooner than later.

since growing up im michigan… even though i am in GA now .. A lIon for life… I will be buried with a Lion gravestone…. I hope a LONG time from now… I got some Lions games to watch!!!!!

I grew up in RI in the late 70’s and I became a Lions fan because of my early interest in lions (the animals). When I was real young, my older brother who’s a NY Giants fan just got one of those magnetic football games where the pieces moved from one side to the other. He asked me to pick a favorite team so that I could play against him. I could pick any team except the Giants (his team). I knew at that early age that the Patriots in those years were terrible but did not know anything about the other teams in the league.The field had the logos of all the teams so I chose the Lions based on the animal and the team logo (Not Bubbles but the older one). As I got older, the Lions were good enough to keep my interest unitil I was hooked by Billy Sims and later on Chris Speilman, Herman Moore and finally Barry. Atfer that the Lions became such a part of my being that I could not quit on them no matter how good the Giants or Patriots got.

Speedway Gas Station was giving out these penciled sketches of Lion’s players when you’d get gas. Al “Bubba” Baker, Eddie Murray, Ton Skladany, Freddie Scott, Doug English, William Gay, Michael Cofer,Leonard Thompson,Gary Danielson, Dexter Bussey and of course Billy Sims!