VIDEO: Lions honor former owner Martha Ford with play named after her

The Detroit Lions finished Sunday training camp with one extra rep to close out practice. With former Lions owner Martha Ford in attendance with her daughter—and current team owner—Sheila Hamp, the Lions opted to honor the 97-year-old with one final play.

Coach Dan Campbell approached Ford before the play started and had a message.

“This is a real play with your name on it,” Campbell said.

Then quarterback Jared Goff broke the huddle, and when he approached the line, he screamed out to his teammates the playcall.

“Martha! Martha! Martha!”

The team then walked through a run play, and after David Montgomery had broken free, the entire team turned back to Ford. Montgomery offered her the ball.

You can watch the moment below:

After that, Ford did her best to break down the huddle before practice came to an official close.

Ford stepped down from ownership back in 2020, handing over full responsibilities to her daughter, Hamp. While this fanbase has had an understandably combative relationship with ownership for decades, Sunday’s practice was a reminder of how that dynamic is shifting.

As Ford and Hamp traveled the perimeter of the practice fields, they were met almost entirely by cheers and applause from the fans in attendance. Some fans even started as “Shei-la, Shei-la” chant. That’s a far cry from just a couple of years ago when Hamp was so heavily showered with boos at Ford Field that she couldn’t get through her speech celebrating Calvin Johnson’s induction into the Hall of Fame.