FanPost

Why I'm a fan of the Detroit Lions?

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

I was raised a few hours north of St. Louis. My family passed on the love of the baseball Cardinals and making one trip a year to St. Louis made it have a magical appeal. My older brother and I knew nothing of the vagabond history of the St. Louis (football) Cardinals or the ‘Big Red' as most of their fans called them. We got to see the Big Red every Sunday during the fall and lived and died with every game. There was little chance that we would ever see a winner (Cowboys/Redskins), but at times the Big Red would tease. Oh, would they tease. I even remember the year Jimmy the Greek forecast a Super Bowl for the Big Red. That was, of course, pure folly, but as young fans we believed it and then were gutted by it. The Big Red were losers.

I continued on with my love of the Big Red regardless of the losing records and the revolving door of coaches and miserable draft choices (taking a kicker in the first round, for example). I can't describe the despair and grief that one goes through when your team is moved. It's indescribable. Then, on Sundays in the fall, it feels like the whole country is laughing at you for not holding on to your team. My brother and I missed the games. We missed the players. We, yes, even missed the classic Cardinal defeats that were snatched from the jaws of victory in the 4th quarter.

I had friends at this time that did the unthinkable: they became Bears fans. The Bears now appeared on local TV (puke). Geography and TV suggested that the Bears were our new team. I couldn't do it. I couldn't even try jumping on the bandwagon of winner.

When I was ten, my aunt, uncle, and cousins moved from Hannibal, Missouri to Melvindale, Michigan. We made lots of trips to see them over the years. One of those early trips was over Thanksgiving weekend. We went to see a parade in downtown Detroit and then went back to the house to watch a football game. That was pretty cool to me and I kept thinking that this game on TV is happening just a few miles away. It wasn't that I liked the Lions or anything but I think it planted a seed. Another seed was planted when I saw some highlights of running back from Oklahoma State on television. He looked fun. The Lions drafted him, which I thought was great because he would be in the same division as the Bears. I watched two games that season. Barry was outstanding and was the best running back in the league. He led a 5-9 team. Perfect. I had my team of losers back. I was home.

When I made the decision to become a Lions fan I had no idea what came with it. Did I know they would be this bad? No. I somehow thought with me (and Barry) on their side it would be different. What I didn't realize at the time is that it would impact my life. With the magic of NFL Sunday Ticket, I passed my Lions affliction on to my sons. I took them on vacations to Detroit to see the Lions play. When I met my second wife, she proclaimed herself a relative of the early Lions royal family. It was true, I discovered, when her brother showed me the documented investment his grandfather had made in the team. His name was Paro Thomas and he was a minority owner that helped bring the Lions from Portsmouth to Detroit. The Lions have since become a Sunday family tradition. I even have a grandson that might very well support the Honolulu blue someday. My brother never made the switch to the Lions. He went all in the St. Louis Rams, which gained him an opportunity to cheer for a Super Bowl winner, but now he is heart-broken and shattered once again. It was that feeling of loss that led me to the Lions and the agony that my brother is in that I spared my sons. The one great thing about being a Lions fan is that no matter how bad the team is (can't beat 0-16), there will always be fans that show up hoping that somehow the outcome will be different.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.