Friday open thread: What nickname would you choose instead of the Lions?

It is fairly uncommon for professional teams to change their nicknames. Typically changes in names are associated with geographic moves, and the last high-profile change was probably the whole Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets-New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans swap, which was ultimately caused by a franchise moving between the cities. The most notable change before that was probably the Washington Bullets/Wizards.

The city of Washington, D.C. is undergoing yet another change, and this is a pretty big one. The reasons around the change are well-documented and will not be discussed here, but it did get us thinking about what we would change our team’s name to if there was ever a need to (which seems pretty unlikely).

Today’s Question of the Day is:

What nickname would you choose instead of the Lions?

My answer: Obviously the Lions name has a ton of history, but I do think there could be some cool alternatives if the name had to change. Right away I am going to eliminate “Spartans” since that name is already occupied by a nearby organization and has not been used by the team in almost 100 years (and is also a dumb name).

I think the Pistons have a great name for representing Detroit and also the persona of the team: hard-working and powerful. While the Lions do not have any a strong mantra right now, maybe there is another name that could both tie into the city and also the mission of the team. I would probably move away from an animal unless it had a direct tie to the city, or was mythical and more abstract. It is hard to draw a clear parallel between Lions and Michigan.

Honestly, I do not have a good answer for this question; I will leave that to the creative types out there. I do think there is room for improvement, though, and if history was not such a strong anchor, perhaps a rebrand could be exciting. However, barring something crazy happening, the Lions name is probably going to outlast all of us.