2018 Detroit Lions Pride of Detroit Awards: POD Moment of the Year

Though we’re already a couple months in 2019, it’s still a good time to reflect on the good and bad of 2018. We here at Pride of Detroit like to celebrate the good and try to improve on the bad. While we welcome constructive criticism from our readers, today, let’s focus on the positive.

2018 was a big year for the site. It was our first year with full credentials, meaning we had unprecedented access for our viewers. We got exclusive interviews, we attended nearly every practice, and we even got to play Fortnite with Graham Glasgow (though that happened in 2019).

But as part of the Lions zeitgeist, we were also partially responsible for some moments that all Lions fans came to enjoy. So here are the nominees for Pride of Detroit Moment of the Year.

The Rowe Report Debuts

One of our biggest hires for 2018 was Fox 2 reporter Kellie Rowe—a huge Lions fan and a great Twitter follow. 2018 saw the debut of her Lions-centered YouTube series “The Rowe Report.”

In its first season, we saw just how much range The Rowe Report had. What first started out as a weekly recap of Lions events turned into some crazy, hilarious antics throughout the year. If you haven’t seen the episodes yet, I highly recommend going to our YouTube page and catching up.

“Africa” dominates Ford Field’s Song of the Game

2017 was the year the Detroit Lions “officially” adopted Toto’s “Africa” as their song. Thanks to a strict campaign from yours truly, the Lions finally picked up on the wave of drums echoing in the night, and even announced the hiring of Matt Patricia using TOTO AFRICA in their tweets.

So 2018 was already primed for Africa’s breakout season. Every game week, Ford Field ran a “Song of the Game” poll that fans could vote on through Twitter. Every single week, “Africa” won. Even when the Lions tried to pull out some universally loved songs, “Africa” took down the likes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “All I Want for Christmas is You.”

It cannot be stopped.

Audible Dong

Thanks to the likes of Cody Parkey and Mason Crosby, the Lions became famous in 2018 for having some sort of magical uprights voodoo. Opponents missed an ungodly amount of field goals in 2018 and they all seemed to bounce over the upright.

After the first Packers game, on our weekly PODcast, Ryan Mathews unknowingly created the term that would become the nomenclature defining the wild phenomenon.

Audible Dong spawned an unofficial Twitter account, and became the rallying cry anytime someone missed a field goal off the upright. Audible Dong’s peak was undoubtedly Wild Card weekend, when the Chicago Bears saw their playoff run end at the hands of Audible Dong.