In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Lions sleep

I saw the first exhibition game for the Detroit Lions is coming up August 11th. I no longer have satellite so I will have to hit the sport bar to see it. For my first "Something I have been meaning to do and keep putting off" today I wrote the following and mailed it to the fan email.

To the entire Detroit Lions Staff and all players,

I have followed the Lions through thick and thin. Aside from being born in Michigan, I decided in my early years that they were MY team. This only became important in my teen years to impress the guys with how much I knew about something important to them. For my husband, though, it was a life long obsession. He remembered watching his first Lions game with his Dad when he was only four years old. Nothing was allowed to be scheduled if the Lions game was on unless the event INCLUDED the game in that family.

I knew that when I married him. We were always where we could watch the games. If he missed one he would be wild until he read all about it. Every year he would avidly watch from the first draft pick to the last game of season. He knew the stats on the players, where they were from, their college records and their girlfriend's names, if they had one. He could tell me the score of any game in any year. He lived to see you win and didn't just watch your games but berated, encouraged and cheered you on either from his chair or the stands the few times we could afford him a ticket.

Several years ago he won a Spuds type stuffed dog dressed in a Lions uniform in a claw machine. He put it right up by the TV. One day, after a miserable loss that left my mate cussing a blue streak and screaming about incompetent coaching, I took a lunch sack and put the small brown bag over the dog's head. I thought it would make him laugh. It did. He took the bag off and cut eye holes in it so the dog could see the games, he said. It stood there every day, bag or no bag, and I would know how you were doing even if I missed a game.

His daughters, raised to be stout fans and who also love the game, would make every effort to watch games here or, if they could not come, call their Dad at high points (or spectacular lows) and ask, "Is the bag off or on the dog NOW?", and he would tell them which and they would talk about why. If we were all here watching then, after the game, he would ceremoniously remove or replace the bag on the dog and we would all boo or cheer.

As the years went by he continued to say "maybe this year the Lions will get in the Super Bowl" every time we talked sports. But on my blog I used the phrase "Sure, and the Lion's will win the Super Bowl this year," like you would say, "a snowball's chance in he** ", because we didn't see it happening. The coaches changed and the players changed and the game changed a little every year, you still never made it.

My beloved mate didn't get to watch the Super Bowl this year. In fact, he will never have the chance to see you play there. After being a Lions fan for 48 years, at the age of 52. he died this January on the 25th. In all the years he has watched the Lions, cheered, been heart broken and thrilled, The Detroit Lions never played in the big game. Two things he never got to do in this life that he really wanted to do, drive a NASCAR race car and see the Lions win the Super Bowl.

Whole families plan their days around your games. What you do on the field is not just "play football", it is striving to be the BEST football team out of all of them. By falling into the "it's just a game" mentality, the "I got my money, who cares" or the, "me, me, me the star" you each keep the team from being the best it can be.

You are not just highly paid athletes but humans we expect to demonstrate supreme, extreme, and top of the line abilities - not mediocre play that we can see at any high school game - but champion players we expect to see striving to win so hard together that they are bigger than life. You are role models who create a state wide pride we feel with your every win and mourn with every loss.

When even one of you lets politics, money or a poor attitude affect your ability to play for the team and as a team member you spoil everything we hope for. It's not that our team can't lose, we expect you to lose to a better team, it's that in the last few years evidence of THE TEAM playing on the field has been thin. It's the quarterback or the receiver or the blockers or the center, not THE TEAM. If you are not functioning as a team how can you expect to even challenge another team? 12 guys can't beat ONE TEAM, it won't happen.

Now, it is the beginning of a new season for you. The Detroit Lions have changed coaches, staff and players once more in the intricate dance to create a winning team for Michigan. It's a fresh start. I would like each of you to commit yourself to the team the way you would to your woman. If you are going to cheat, not do you best, not support the guy next to you when he needs it, lie and drink and use your big bucks to party all night, bribe someone to get you an extra large whopper or a bottle or whatever, you will end up the same way a relationship would if you act like that - All broken up.

You have to go into it swearing nothing is ever going to be worth letting the team down. Not just saying it but acting like they were always first with you. You set standards for others, behaving with honor and respect toward each other shows younger men how to act. Faithfully practicing your skills to become even better yourself so the team will be better over puts you where you really can win.

You have to each decide that - bad breathe, body odor, color, accent, size, 'tude - ain't none of it gonna count. If that guy is a Lion then the TEAM needs him then you need to get along with him to work together. You, yourself, will be stronger, better, faster, and more experienced at what you do. You have to be committed to nothing BUT the team.

You will have the satisfaction of knowing you did whatever you had to so the TEAM could get there. You ate right, rested, exercised, practiced, encouraged each other, kept each other pumped for winning, for striving, for attempting to be the very best TEAM the Lions have ever been. Then the team can win. The TEAM can go to the Super Bowl this year.

So please, for my mate who never got to see it, for the guy with the next ticket out of here after next year's Super Bowl, I'm asking you; Work together, sleep together, dance together, sing together, whatever it takes for you to be a TEAM that plays football TOGETHER.

Make it to the Super Bowl. Do it this year. Not, "oh, this is a shake down year, maybe next year", not, "Uh, we just got this coach, maybe next year,'.

You are supposed to be the best of the best. Show me the best. I want to see the best you have every time you hit the field. I want every play to go until the whistle blows. I don't want to see one player stop trying to catch that ball, stop that man, block that kick, make that tackle until the refs pull you off. And for crying out loud guys, learn the rules! Flags are BAD!

The only thing the kids almost fought about when the mate died was the Lions Dog. I claim it until I am gone so the fight will have to wait. I can take the bag off the dog if you win even one game. I leave it off until you lose, unless it is a justifiable loss. That means you lost to a better team.

Are you going to let there be a better team than the Lions this year? Are you going to leave that poor dog with the bag on his head forever? Are you going to let even one more true fan die without seeing you play in the Super Bowl?

I have had one heart attack, if you don't get it in gear and hit the Super Bowl this year I may never get to see you play in it so I can tell him about it when I get there.

Your next best fan,
Valerie

And now the Lion Dog lives on the side bar. Last year ended with the bag on. It stays until they win one that isn't just lucky breaks but skill and team work.