2020 Detroit Lions Name Bracket Tournament: The Field

Season 4 of the hit TV show “Community” was a regrettable one.

The story behind it is a bit odd. Show creator Dan Harmon was fired after Season 3 due to constant conflict with the network and it left the show in a weird place.

For a series centered around a community college, Season 4 was a crucial year, as it reflected the cast’s “senior” year at the college (even though many community colleges are two-year programs, as the series later joked). But without their showrunner—and a huge portion of the writing staff—the show was no longer itself. It had some of the same beats at the original series—genre parody, quick banter—but it always felt like it was something lesser cosplaying as “Community.”

Harmon returned for Season 5 of “Community,” quite unhappy with what they had done to his show. One of the most endearing qualities of the show was its self awareness. Abed Nadir, one of the show’s main characters, saw reality through a pop culture lens, and always referred to his semesters at the college as seasons in a TV show. So he, and the other characters, made several references to Season 4 as “the gas-leak year” on campus.

Why am I talking about “Community” for several paragraphs on a Detroit Lions blog? Well, because it’s Name Bracket season, and I’m about to talk about a lot of weird things that have nothing to do with football.

2019 was our “gas-leak year.” The 2019 Name Bracket devolved into chaos as cheating ran rampant, and I lost all control of the tournament. And while normally I welcome—let’s say bending of the rules—last year was something different entirely. At every step of the tournament, someone was fudging with the results, and people got fed up, and it felt like a little bit of the heart of the tournament was missing.

I hope to return to this tournament this year with a little more integrity and a lot more pop culture references. Now more than ever, we I need this tournament, so let’s have some fun this year.

In case you were wondering, here are our previous winners.

2019: Amani Oruwariye
2018: Quandre Diggs
2017: Storm Norton
2016: Jace Billingsley
2015: Ezekiel Ansah

Now, it is time to unveil this year’s field. Here is your 64-man bracket.

If you’re new to Name Bracket Tournament, here’s how it works. I already shaved the roster from 90 to 64 based on my own personal preference of names and hastily gave them each a seed. Those seeds were then thrown randomly into a region, and voila! There’s your Name Bracket.

Over the next few weeks, we will hold polls for each matchup while I give my running commentary. The first round will consist of four different posts (one for each region). The second round will be split into two. Then the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four and Finals will all have their separate postings.

So, enjoy your weekend—the chaos begins Monday.

(By the way, if you’re a weirdo that wants to print out their own bracket and fill it out, click here for the printable version)