It’s Super Bowl week! The nation will be treated to what looks like a great matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. For most, it’s one of the most compelling Super Bowl setups in years.
Sigh.
I’m unfortunately not one of the excited ones. It’s just hard to get enthused about the Super Bowl as a Detroit Lions fan this year. Not with our beloved Lions coming up two steps short of the championship game.
Yawn.
This was supposed to be our year. NFC North champs with a 15-2 record. No. 1 seed in the playoffs and every game set for inside Ford Field, leading to our destined trip to New Orleans and the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance.
Pfft.
The divisional round home loss to the Commanders exploded all those dreams in a Hindenburg of false hope and hot air. For many of us, it sucked all the oxygen out of football. Many of us, myself included, still have a hard time generating any enthusiasm for the game.
I didn’t watch one play of the Eagles-Commanders matchup in the NFC Championship game. The pain was still too raw, the wound too open to relive the idea that “it should be Detroit,” as it seemed so fated to be. For the second year in a row, a great season ended abruptly short of the goal. Canceling a long-planned trip to New Orleans for Super Bowl week and turning down a media credential for the big game poured more salt into the festering sore in my soul.
Aagh.
It’s been difficult to find any Lions fans who have sincere enthusiasm for Sunday’s game. And that’s sad, because I really do believe this is going to be a great game. It’s also the last time we see a meaningful football game for almost seven months. To quote the Philadelphia band Cinderella, “it’s a long cold winter,” indeed.
I’m planning on watching Super Bowl LIX. This week-long buildup, however — not a chance. I completely ignored media day on Tuesday. Don’t care. Opportunities for promotional interviews and radio interview requests, I’m not even responding to them. I’m not going to fake the interest.
I sense that’s something we Lions fans are discovering the hard way. When there are quite realistic expectations for your team to be in the game and then they’re not, it’s different. Back in the myriad years when Detroit’s season was over around Thanksgiving (or earlier in many cases), it was a lot easier to get pumped up about watching the playoffs and especially the Super Bowl. Now that the Lions are legit contenders but came up short, something just feels wrong about Detroit not being in the game.
Deep sigh.
Enjoy the game as best as you can, as I will try to do as well. And know that the painful hole and combination of frustrated apathy you feel is significantly worse for the Lions themselves. Good. Beware the angry, hungry Lion in 2025!
