Detroit Lions Week 15 Song of the Game: ‘Blue Jay Way’ by The Beatles

When I used to be just a normal Detroit Lions fan like you, and not a “Media Member” I would always get frustrated when I saw writers on the Lions beat tweet out something sarcastic about meaningless games at the end of the season. Whether it was something about revisiting their life choice or some other random complaint about their lives, I viewed it as unnecessarily snarky and ungrateful. So many people would die for a job like that, and to not have a public appreciation for that—even for a moment of weakness—seemed disrespectful.

But for the first time since I’ve been on the Lions beat, I felt it, too. About halfway through the first half of the Detroit Lions’ massacre at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I just didn’t want to be there. Weeks of players giving the media dirty looks and nothing to write about combined with a team that is clearly no longer sporting a competitive roster had finally gotten to me.

For the first time in a long time, I spent much of the second half fantasizing what it would be like to be just a fan again. I could be at home watching Bears-Packers or enjoying the show put on by Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes every week. Instead, I’m stuck here enjoying a glorified preseason game.

I have always led the charge in the “enjoy the games while you have them” brigade, but today I am putting my sword down. I just want this season to end. I just want the offseason here. I am broken. Stuff my corpse with a million mock drafts. It’s the only way to save me.

Week 15 Lions-Bucs Song of the Game: “Blue Jay Way” by The Beatles

We’ll be over soon they said
Now they’ve lost themselves instead

We were promised this land of meaningless December games was distant now. The inhabitants sporting paper bags and carrying hopeless banners were supposed to be part of our past, not part of our future. How can we carry the “One Pride” label when fans are understandably not even showing up any more?

Please don’t be long
Please don’t you be very long
Please don’t be long
Or I may be asleep

“Blue Jay Way” is a trippy, melancholic song that’s about something simple. George Harrison is tired from his travels and waiting for his publicist to arrive. He pleads to no one in particular that his patient waiting finally comes to an end.

I, too, am tired. I’m tired of backup quarterbacks. I’m tired of no pass rush. I’m tired of opposing quarterbacks setting records every week and receivers earning Player of the Week honors against the Lions. Even the things that are supposed to keep up hopeful and engaged in this team—their youth—doesn’t seem to bring any joy right now.

The Fords did their part on Tuesday and at least made a decision about 2020. It has saved us the pointless talk about the owners selling or what they’ll do with Quinn and Patricia. And while I appreciate the gesture of not leaving fans in limbo for a couple weeks, that conversation has just been replaced by angry fans cannibalizing themselves over who cares about the team more and who knows what’s best for building a franchise.

As someone who hates the offseason, I’ve hated this season even more. If I’m welcoming the days in which Mel Kiper is on my TV screen, you know something is wrong. I’m tired, I’m weary. Offseason, please don’t be very long.

Song of the Game is an opportunity for our staff to express their weekly feelings of being a Lions fan, but through the art of song. Each week, we’ll provide a song that perfectly encapsulates the Lions’ game and how we experienced it. By the end of the year, we’ll have a full Spotify playlist telling the story of the 2019 Detroit Lions season.

You can listen to previous year’s soundtracks right here: 2016, 2017, 2018

You can catch up on all of our Song of the Week choices right here. And our season-long Spotify list is embedded below (if you can’t see it, click here)