All aboard.
But first… seats — they need more seats. Because this hype train is filling up fast.
So, two Detroit Lions media relations workers hurried off and carried extra chairs into the workroom.
“Packed house,” Lions coach Dan Campbell blurted with surprise in his voice, as he looked at a jam-packed room of reporters before his first training camp news conference on Sunday morning.
Nine video cameras were set up against the back row, and the room was filled with reporters from across the state, a strong reflection of far-reaching interest and obsession in this team.
The excitement and expectation around this team are off the charts, and this fan base is craving something special for an organization that hasn’t been in the playoffs since 2016.
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“The thing that’s going to worry you is the hype train,” Campbell said. “This thing has just taken off and it’s out of control right now.”
Leave it to Campbell to be the voice or reason. To put things in perspective for this organization.
The “hype train” quote will get all the attention, but what he said next without taking a pause was far more important.
“That’s fine as long,” he said, gesturing his right hand, “as we stay focused on the job at hand and the work.”
Campbell was sticking his right hand on the top of the podium, moving his head for emphasis.
“I just keep going back to that. We got to put the work in and earn it.”
That way of thinking has filtered down to his players. Even with the increased expectation and hype, there is no sense of entitlement with this team. Campbell would never allow it.
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“I think it’s funny to me that you go 9-8, you don’t make the playoffs and now you’re all of a sudden a favorite,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “Of course, we’ve got good players, we’ve got good coaches, we’ve got a good team, but we haven’t done anything and we have a lot of work to do. Minnesota won 13 games last year, Green Bay has won the division a handful of times the last handful of years, so we’ve got some work to do to put a stamp on who we want to be and are nowhere near that yet, but we’re on our way.”
The unflinching focus on hard work and the obsessive determination to improve, never forgetting where this team came from, making it the foundation of everything, are even more reasons to believe in this team.
Hype train leaving a station near you
The Lions have become the national darlings.
“It’s kind of hard not to see it,” Aidan Hutchinson said. “We got the TVs on in there, it just pops up, so you see it … it can get to your head a little bit, but I think we’re doing a good job of keeping our mentality and keeping what we’ve been doing, especially even last year just and building off of it. So I think we’re doing a good job with our mentality and, and we keep that underdog mentality.”
ESPN Analytics offers a strong dose of encouragement for this long-suffering franchise, proclaiming the Lions have a 43% chance to win the NFC North (best in division), 65% chance to make playoffs this season and a 10% chance to make the Super Bowl.
Anything less than the playoffs would be a disappointment. Anything less than a home playoff game would be a serious bummer.
What could go wrong? Ha! Have you paid any attention to sports in the Motor City lo these many years?
Injuries. Strange games. Surprising upsets. A string of bad luck. Strange calls from the refs — ah, let’s not go there, OK?
Yes, everything can go wrong. We’ve seen it over and over.
Not to even use their real names — for fear of putting it into the universe — but if this team loses somebody with a name that sounds like Lared Yoff or even Lamon-Ba St. Trown — this entire season is toast.
But today, let’s not focus on that.
As training camp gets underway, instead of worry and fear, I found plenty of reasons to fuel that hype train on Sunday morning. Campbell’s inspirational up-downs are a great example of how he has a feel for getting this team to focus.
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Real reason for hope
When you get beyond the hype and the blustery comments from the national talking heads, when you dig into the DNA and structure of this team, when you study the increased talent level, you find the source of all the excitement.
All these young players should be better: “The game slowed down,” Aidan Hutchinson said. “Everything just feels a lot easier now.”
The defense should be better, with a completely revamped defensive secondary: “They definitely got a bit more stickier,” Amon-Ra St. Brown said.
Or as Goff said about the defense: “They’re really deep. They’ve got a lot of good players. They’ve got a lot of good ball-hawks.”
But the Lions’ explosive offense should be more explosive, too, and that was evident on Sunday morning at 8:35 a.m. during the first install session.
It was like offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was saying: Here, look at all our toys!
Goff hit Jameson Williams on a short route. The wide receiver might be suspended for the first six games but he’s full go right now. That seems smart. This is the time to prepare him, so he can hit the ground running, literally, when he gets back.
David Montgomery, a new running back, took a handoff; and a moment later, Jahmyr Gibbs, the rookie lightning bolt, had it. Bang, bang. One after the other; and I thought: Man, this offense is gonna be something special.
Then, Goff hit Sam LaPorta, the rookie tight end; and it’s clear that he is going to be one of the main cogs.
Then Goff went to St. Brown — their chemistry is obvious. It almost looked too easy.
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It was just 5 minutes into the first practice, and even though they weren’t wearing pads, even though they weren’t hitting, I was sitting there thinking: dang, this offense has some special weapons.
If you wanna know why there is so much hype around this team, it starts right there.
The credit for this turnaround begins with owner Sheila Hamp. She created this unusual, arranged marriage of Lions general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Campbell. All they’ve done is improve the roster, add talent and then add some more.
Holmes and Campbell seem perfectly aligned, from the vision to the message.
“I told the team, talent with character and chemistry can overcome adversity and I believe that’s what Brad and I’ve built here,” Campbell said. “We don’t just have talent, we have talent that has character and now we just have to build chemistry. If we do that, we can overcome anything.”
Last year, when this team won eight of its last 10 games, we saw the core of this team. We saw what is possible. And that belief has only grown stronger.
This team is built to win now.
Expectations have risen and so have the standards.
And the hype and hope, for once, seem justified.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.