He didn’t know what to root for, he said, his voice a mix of lament and confusion, a mix I often hear this time of year, when the Detroit Lions are stumbling, and the playoffs are a pipe dream, and the NFL draft order takes center stage.
The torment is a rite of passage for younger Lions fans, a gloomy, annual tradition for those who’ve loved them for decades: Do you want to see them win? Or do you want to see them position themselves for the next … great … quarterback? Pass rusher? Offensive tackle? Hey, bite your tongue!
Befuddlement abounds, no doubt. A testament to the unrequited love so many feel for this franchise and to the hope that next year’s draft will somehow make it better — it usually doesn’t. But then when hope is all anyone has draft results are easy to forget.
No need to name my son here. Let’s just say he’s my youngest, and I relate his achy perplexment because he is not alone in this psychological dance.
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His internal fan struggle represents thousands and thousands. Fans who’ve spent the last week wringing their hands after the Lions beat the Packers, fell four spots in the draft order — long enough, presumably, to miss out on Alabama’s Bryce Young or Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud — and are now trying to decide whether another (meaningless?) win is good in the long run.
Hey, it’s the Bears this Sunday, though, right?
And nobody likes the Bears around here, just as nobody likes the Packers, especially their quarterback, and a few hours of watching Aaron Rodgers flail isn’t the worst thing, either.
So, yeah, in the moment? When the Lions stopped the quarterback who likes himself a little too much to seal the game?
Roar. Let it out. As so many did at Ford Field last Sunday.
But the next morning?
That emotion is a little dicey. Perhaps not full-on regret, but something not far from uncertainty.
It’d be one thing if the Lions had been missing proven playoff-winning players and they had all returned against Green Bay and the win represented a genuine turn towards momentum. That 2-6 would soon be 6-6 or even 7-6 and now the playoffs are real.
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This isn’t that kind of situation, though. This is a team that may well beat the Bears — though their young quarterback, Justin Fields, is starting to look much better. And this is a team that might pick off the Giants, though I doubt it.
The Lions could also pick off the Bills if they’re missing Josh Allen, or the Jaguars, or the Panthers, or the Bears again, or the Packers again to end the season.
That’s seven winnable games if luck breaks right. Not that this franchise is getting lucky.
Say the Lions win four of them: the Bears, the Jaguars, the Panthers, the Packers again. That’s 6-11.
For comparison, six teams finished with five losses or fewer last season. If that happens again, that puts the Lions in the No. 7 spot in the draft.
A spot that could land a damn good player, of course. But not a spot to take Young or Stroud. And if you’re a believer that the Lions must take a potential franchise quarterback next spring, then no way should they win four more games.
Which requires a rooting interest against a team that you love, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, no matter how much one tries to convince themselves during the week. Because when the game is on, and the Bears are driving, and the Lions need a stop to win the game?
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You want that stop. My son desperately wanted that stop. For in that moment, it’s hard to go against your gut. Heck, against your heart.
Further confused?
I don’t blame you.
So how about an alternative?
How about you scream your godforsaken lungs out every time the Lions play the rest of the season? I mean, if screaming is your thing; a silent, understated fist pump works, too.
Cheer without guilt. Rail at the refs or the play calling. Lean into the parts that motivate the soul to don a Calvin Johnson jersey, pitch a canopy at daybreak, and party for six hours until kickoff.
And know — know! — that four drafts ago the Buffalo Bills selected Josh Allen with the No. 7 pick. True story, I promise.
Not the only story like it, either. Patrick Mahomes went 10th, Justin Herbert went sixth, Lamar Jackson went 32nd.
There’s no reason to mention Tom Brady, the all-time example for general managers missing out on a quarterback. But just in case you don’t remember, he was taken 199th.
He’s an outlier, obviously. The outlier, to be fair, and the odds that the Lions will find a Hall of Fame quarterback in the sixth round are almost zilch.
But the odds aren’t completely favorable finding such a player in the top five picks, either. History tells us that Stroud or Young will flame out.
Sure, sometimes a draft produces a quarterback class of future stars. Just not often. It’s a crapshoot. A Hail Mary. If teams truly knew how to identify quarterbacks, they wouldn’t whiff so much.
They do, though. That should be liberating when you’re watching the Bears, and the Giants, and the Bills, and the Jaguars, even though Jacksonville stinks, possibly more than the Lions.
So go crazy. Eat a full slab and half a chicken. Howl at the television all you want without regret.
All you have to do is remember that a quarterback from next year’s draft not named Stroud or Young might become a star, and that all the Lions have to do is identify him and get a little lucky.
That’s an entirely different story, indeed.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.