Detroit Lions fans were so loud the Giants had to use a silent count... in the preseason

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was so impressed by the fan environment for the team’s opening preseason game agianst the New York Giants, he had to start his Monday press conference by giving them some love.

“Our fans were unbelievable the other night,” Campbell said. “I mean for a preseason game—you saw when your young players and rookies out, ‘Hey man, it’s the first one, NFL game, and it has to be a pretty good atmosphere.’ But, my god, I didn’t expect that. I don’t think any of them did. That’s unbelievable. That’s a packed house for a preseason, so it was awesome.”

The noise was so loud that according to Campbell, the Giants actually had to move to a silent count—typically used when the quarterback cannot verbally communicate with his teammates because of the noise level.

“They were using silent count on offense, in a preseason game. So, certainly helps,” Campbell said.

Lions fans are obviously riding a huge wave of optimism right now. Two weeks ago, the team announced that they have sold out of season tickets for the first time since the Lions moved to Ford Field in 2002.

It’s easy to see why there is so much excitement and optimism around this team right now. Not only are they led by a charismatic, easy-to-love head coach in Dan Campbell, but he actually helped produce results last year, with the Lions winning eight of their last 10 games after a woeful 4-19-1 start to this era of Lions football. Now the Lions enter 2023 as the odds-on favorite to win the division for the first time in 30 years and are commonly regarded as one of the best teams in the conference.

Hopefully all of this optimism leads to Ford Field being one of the bigger home-field advantages in the league.