Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell was incentivized to finish as NFC North champions in 2023.
The third-year head coach, who had never won more than nine games in any season before, led the Lions to a 12-5 season and the team’s second-ever appearance in a conference championship game.
In addition to winning Detroit’s first division championship since 1993 when it was in the defunct NFC Central, Campbell also got something else as a bonus: the return of the Lions’ black alternate jerseys — something he angled for after getting hired back in 2021.
“We’re in the draft room literally months into his tenure, and he wore the black when he was here,” Lions team president Rod Wood told reporters Thursday via WXYZ Detroit. “He said, ‘Rod, when can we get the black jerseys back? I said, ‘I’ll make a deal, when you win the division, I’ll bring the black jerseys back.’ So I went out on a limb. Thankfully, he delivered. That’s a true story.”