It’s a little early still for a Detroit Lions preview column. It’s never too early for hype, as evidenced by the deluge of coverage and anticipation for the season opener the last several months.
Shoot, you could argue that the hype train, as Dan Cambell called it back in late July, began the moment his team secured a victory against the Packers in Green Bay in January.
The Lions season wasn’t even 10 minutes old, and an entire state began buzzing about what is nearly upon us. And that was before NFL schedule makers slotted the Lions onto their biggest season-opening stage: next Thursday night in the home of the defending champs.
Surely, we can all agree the game at Kansas City can’t get here soon enough. Until then, we’ll make do with news from a few more practices, a few more news conferences, a few more interviews with players about the season that is just … about … here.
Besides, this is a newspaper (even when its online), and newspapers like preview sections, especially when its coverage area’s most beloved — and cursed — team is showing signs its history might finally, mercifully, be ready to change.
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Campbell, for what it’s worth, talked about the hype surrounding his team exactly once during training camp, on the night after camp opened. The elephant in the room, he called it.
“And I haven’t spoken one word about any of it any more, not one word,” he said a week and a half ago.
Why?
“Because the message was exactly about putting the work in … and we’ve got to go earn everything. And that’s all. That’s all I said. And those guys have done that. I mean they’ve been working. They’ve been grinding. So, I haven’t felt the need to talk about it.”
It’s a good bet that Campbell will address expectations before his team takes the field at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium next Thursday. For one, that’ll be the only game in town, so to speak; the Lions will have the stage to themselves, along with the Chiefs, of course.
For another, the expectation and “hype” are unprecedented around these parts. And it makes sense that Campbell might want to diffuse it internally once more. It can get heavy.
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As heavy as it once was three-plus decades ago?
Some long-timers speak to similar prophecies back in the early 90s, and those early Barry Sanders-led squads were certainly thrilling and compelling.
But those teams operated in a fraction of the media. Nor did those teams have to worry about social media. Nor the extra three decades of mostly losing.
It’s simplemath: The difference in the gap between 1957 and 1991 and 1957 and 2023 is vast. In the early 90s, the weight of the losing wasn’t the same. The phrase “Same Old Lions” didn’t exist. Wayne Fontes wasn’t talking about changing perceptions and the soul of a franchise.
Dan Campbell is. Or was, a little over a year ago ahead of last summer’s training camp.
“Man, who doesn’t want to change that?” he asked. “Once you’ve gone through a great suffering, if you will, as it pertains to sports … man, that’s when there’s a great triumph. And to be a part of that, and to be able to help it become that, man, that’s something special.”
A year ago, his team entered camp off a three-win season. No one was talking playoffs. The goal was simple improvement.
Nine wins, fueled by an 8-2 finish to the season, has changed the talk again. Now it’s not just more improvement he and his staff and everyone else wants to see. It’s the playoffs. A division title. A home playoff game.
Maybe … even … a … playoff … win.
It’s possible and, frankly, almost expected at this point, after months of sunny pub. The national analysts jumped on the train long ago.
Is it fair?
It doesn’t matter, not at this point. Not that Campbell or his players are worried about whether the expectations are fair or not. It is easy, however, to forget this team started 1-6 last season.
Easy to forget the historically inept defense, the helpful schedule the second half of the year, and some of the offensively challenged teams they faced.
That won’t be an issue next week. The Lions and their revamped secondary and their increased depth along the defensive line will get a test against the best quarterback in the game and one of the league’s best offensive minds.
And while it would be ludicrous to judge the Lions off a single game, a score that gets ugly will unsettle. The Lions don’t have to beat the Chiefs to keep the expectation rolling. Being competitive would help though.
Here’s betting that they will show the 8-2 finish wasn’t a fluke, that it was the distillation of a few breaks, sure — everyone needs ’em — but also a distillation of what Campbell and Brad Holmes and Sheila Hamp are building.
That these Lions really, truly are different, and headed in a different direction, a new direction. And if it falls apart sometime between now and Thanksgiving, and the Lions are wasting the football-loving nation’s time on Turkey Day, well, that’ll sting, in a way a football season hasn’t stung around here in a long time.
Because while misery is part of the DNA for those that love this franchise, this level of hype and expectation makes it easy to forget all the pain that’s come before. Right now, there is genuine hope.
As Campbell said, “once you’ve gone through a great suffering …”
The chance to get from under that is almost here.
Finally.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.