Buckley: Why I'm rooting for the Lions to win one for all the tortured sports franchises
To cut to the chase, yes, it would be great if the Detroit Lions knocked off the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night and advanced to the Super Bowl.
For me, it all goes back to the 1969 New York Mets.
Stay with me on this.
Background: In 1969, as the Amazin' Mets climbed to the top of the standings in the newly formed National League East, it occurred to me that I was watching a reboot of the legendary 1967 “Impossible Dream” Boston Red Sox. was 11 years old in '67, born in Boston, and it was breathtaking to watch the perennially last-place Sox come out of nowhere and capture the American League pennant.
Two years later, at the age of 13, I happily joined the Mets. After playing laughably bad baseball for the first seven seasons of their existence, the '69 Mets overtook Leo Durocher's Chicago Cubs during a hot and crazy summer, then defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS, and then brought down the mighty Baltimore Orioles in the world upset. Series.
Since then I've had a soft spot for, well, let's call them tortured sports franchises. Look, this isn't about supporting the underdog. Every playoff series, every playoff game has a favorite and an underdog, and the many variables that go into determining those designations don't pull me to the edge of my seat. But the tortured sports franchises – the pre-2004 Red Sox, the pre-2016 Cubs, the pre-until-a-few-months-
That brings us to the Lions. You've no doubt been inundated with breathtaking breakdowns of this franchise's postseason futility in recent weeks, so we'll stick to the basics, starting here: We in sporting America have an annoying habit of only looking at the NFL through the lens of the Super Bowl era, and in that vein, the sobering reality is that the Lions have never been to the Super Bowl, let alone won one.
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The Lions won four NFL championships in the pre-Super Bowl era, most recently in 1957. Baseball's Cleveland Indians/Guardians have gone longer since they last won a championship, beating the old Boston Braves in six games in the 1948 World Series, but the Lions' quest for a championship seems longer — to me, anyway — because of that awkward language about not having played in the Super Bowl.
I have no particular affinity for the Lions, except when fellow UMass graduate Greg Landry was their quarterback in the 1970s. Check that out: My interest was somewhat renewed in 2008 when the Lions selected Boston College tackle Gosder Cherilus with the 17th pick in the draft. Cherilus played football at Somerville High, about a mile from my house, and I covered the ceremony the day he signed to attend BC. So yes, there was home cooking during Cherilus' days in Detroit.
But this isn't about Greg Landry and Gosder Cherilus. It's about Jared Goff, the current Lions quarterback, and Penei Sewell, the All-Pro Lions tackle. It's about Dan Campbell, the enthusiastic coach who took the Lions from 3-13-1 to 9-8 to 12-5 in three seasons. With playoff wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Lions are one big step away from landing in the Super Bowl.
Welcome to Detroit@CityofDetroit @fordfield pic.twitter.com/5O5YQsCjVz
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 22, 2024
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Lions win playoff games and change the perception of what they can achieve
The sports connoisseur in me would like to see that happen. Just like last weekend, the sports pundit in me wanted to see the Buffalo Bills keep winning and get back to the Super Bowl…and finally win the thing. In fact, a Lions-Bills Super Bowl matchup was a dream lurking within me. It would have been a nice follow-up to the 2016 World Series between the Cubs, who hadn't won a championship since 1908, and the Indians, who last won it all when they defeated the Braves in '48.
It would be an exaggeration to suggest that all football fans will root for the Lions to beat the 49ers with all their heart and soul. Legalized sports betting has changed the landscape forever; Fans betting on the games will be less likely to take into account that the Lions haven't won it all since Dec. 29, 1957, when Tobin Rote threw four touchdown passes in Detroit's 59-14 win over the Cleveland Browns.
A much more pressing concern, if you've seen the Lions' two playoff wins so far, is that the Rams' Puka Nacua (nine catches, 181 yards) and the Bucs' Mike Evans (eight catches, 147 yards) benefited from the mediocre Detroit secondary. If the 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk posts numbers like that on Sunday, we might be seeing the end of Detroit's dream season.
That's a story yet to be written. So far, the story has been riveting for those of us who follow the tortured sports franchises. Picture this: the Detroit Lions are one win out of the Super Bowl. For those of us who support the story, this is worth following.
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(Photo by Amon-Ra St. Brown and Taylor Decker: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)