Fans roars as Lions advance and fans rejoice: 'We got this'
Detroit — For the second time in a week, delirious Detroit Lions’ fans celebrated a nerve-racking playoff victory as their favorite football team continued its improbable march toward history.
Chanting, towel-waving Lions’ enthusiasts spilled from Ford Field to the streets surrounding the stadium, exchanging one mad-cap venue for another as they cheered a 31-23 win over the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay.
As they did a week ago, ecstatic fans chanted the name of Lions’ quarterback Jared Goff but Sunday added a new hero, linebacker Derrick Barnes, whose interception sealed the win.
“I feel good,” Brando Woods said as he stood outside Elwood bar after the game.
Woods, 31, of Warren had worked hard as a nurse to afford tickets to Sunday’s game, and he’s ready to do the same to follow the team to San Francisco. He said Sunday’s game was electric.
“It makes the city feel good. The fans deserve it,” he said.
In the euphoria, it appeared like Matt Hornsby and Chris Evatt were dressed in formal evening attire.
In fact, it's their normal Lions’ outfits: long blue fur-trimmed robes, purple fedoras and blue mirrored sunglasses. They looked like winners.
“I’ve never felt like this before,” said Hornsby, 52, of Romeo. “It’s been a long time coming. Very excited.”
Also at Elwood was Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, rejoicing in what he described as a great week of sports after the Lions' and University of Michigan’s successes.
He said these have been the best two weeks of football in his life.
“It shows you Detroit is a football city, Michigan’s a football state,” he said. “We’re going to win the NFC championship and go to the Super Bowl.”
At Detroit Sports Bar & Grille, Ricky Gundrum and Adam Lamphere capped the historic night with a cold one.
They were feeling great, the best in 30 years, and hope to be feeling just as great after the Lions square up against their opponent next week.
“We’re going,” Gundrum said. “We’re buying tickets tomorrow.”
A week ago it was 6 degrees and the Detroit Lions hadn’t won a playoff game in 32 years. On Sunday it was a non-life-threatening 25 degrees and the team won its second postseason victory in a week.
The sunny circumstances had fans thinking about even hotter climes, Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, for which the Lions are one game away from for the first time in a long time.
With blue-clad fans wildly waving white towels in celebration, Ford Field looked like crashing blue waves as 66,201 fans celebrated the long-sought postseason success. An interception by Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes with 90 seconds left sealed the win.
“I’m ecstatic,” Louis Carson of Warren said as he exchanged high-fives and hollered in celebration.
He said this is the furthest the Lions have gone in his lifetime, 30 years. He said he can taste a Lions Super Bowl.
“We can do it,” he said. “If we play like we played today, we got this.”
At a joy-filled Hockeytown Café, where 30 TVs on three floors showed the victory in living color, Lish Carroll said she could get used to all this winning.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’m enjoying every bit of it. It’s one of the happiest times I remember.”
Carroll, 61, of Jackson said she and her friends used to joke they were victims of an unrequited love, that they adored the Lions but the team didn’t adore them back. This year they’re basking in the adulation.
One floor above Carroll, an amped-up Phil Franklin had arrived five hours before game time to ensure he had a good seat to see the victory. Why not just watch from home? Because it’s more fun to be surrounded by 100 fellow maniacs, he said.
Franklin foresees the Lions winning not just this Super Bowl but a few more in the near future.
“It’s not just this year. They’re gonna be great for years to come,” he said. “We’re gonna sit at the big kids’ table.”
Franklin sounded like the Lions’ coach, Dan Campbell, as he explained how the team will reach and win the championship this year. The team built a solid foundation through deft draft choices, he said, and never lost faith in the vision of what they wanted. He didn’t use the word “grit.”
Even the famous were present for the big day. Actor Jeff Daniels, a lifelong Detroit sports fan who provided the voiceover for NBC’s pregame feature on the Lions for Sunday’s game, settled into a suite about an hour before kickoff.
“You can’t buy happiness,” he said, “but you can sure feel it inside this building. Wow.”
Daniels was one of several celebrities in attendance, including Detroit rock star Bob Seger, rapper Flavor Flav, football legend Peyton Manning, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, along with several Lions stars of yesteryear.
Inside Ford Field, fans said they weren’t sure how to adjust to the sunny side of life. How does one go from a longtime doormat to possible Super Bowl contender? How does one act like a winner?
At the Blitz bar and deli, Marilyn Hanson said she always tried to convince herself that the Lions would turn the corner at the start of a new season but, deep down, knew it wouldn’t happen. All of a sudden, it happened. What to do, what to do?
Hanson, 53, of Lake Orion allowed herself to reminisce a little about the dark ages, where she settled for celebrating little things, like rare wins over division rivals, or focused on special players, like running back Barry Sanders.
Her greatest memory was a 1991 win against the Dallas Cowboys, which, until last week, was the last time the Lions won a game in the playoffs. Her newest greatest memory is the playoff victory last week.
All of the earlier losing has made this year’s winning all the sweeter, she said.
“It would have been great if it wasn’t this long,” she said about the distance between playoff victories. “It hasn’t been easy. We’ve had some tough years but it makes it more satisfying.”
In the bustling concourse of the stadium, Rob West said he was skeptical early in the season. He thought the Lions were building up the fans' hopes and then, like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, just yank it away. The football stayed. Charlie hit a 60-yard field goal.
West, 44, of Monroe now has gone completely in the opposite direction. He now believes the team will reach the Super Bowl and is so sure that he made a big bet with a friend. If West wins, the friend pays for a trip to the game. If West loses, he pays $100.
West admitted that he may have gotten carried away by the Lions’ success.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s the emotion of coming so far, going from a laughingstock to a real contender,” he said.
West suspects that his friend, who is an even bigger Lions fan than he is, secretly wants to lose the bet so they can go to the game together.
Meanwhile, at a game watch party at Comerica Park, Gerald Drake of Detroit said he knew this success was coming. He’s been sure ever since he watched the Lions’ season of "Hard Knocks," an HBO series about NFL teams.
This is the Lions’ year, he said.
“Dan Campbell, he had me excited,” Drake said. “I’m biting kneecaps — I’m biting the whole leg.”
Drake and Stefan Tumey of Warren were camped out on a couch at the back of the watch party, roaring with confidence about the Lions.
“We’re here to see the Lions win, get another dub against the Bucs,” Drake said. “We’ve been waiting for this. All the way since 0-16 and even before that, we’ve had so many downs, but now we’re going up. This is our year. We got it. All day. Not just this year, next year and the year after.”
At Comerica, Dave Hauer wore his pride head to toe in a bespoke Honolulu Blue suit made for him by a friend. He showed it off at a pre-game party at Comerica Park.
Although he relocated from Eastpointe to Cleveland, Hauer, 49, never gave up on his hometown team. He rode with them through the ups and downs of the last 30 years.
“Back in the 80s, I loved watching the Lions,” he said. “Being in elementary school, no matter what happened during the week I always felt good when I was watching the Lions.”
Chris Brewer joined an energetic crowd walking toward Ford Field.
"I've been a fan since 1984, since I was born," said Brewer of Wixom. "I was too young to remember the last time they made it this far, and I'm just excited they finally made it."
Brewer had predicted the Lions' victory, even the part about it being a close win.
"Tampa Bay is on a hot streak right now," Brewer said. "But I feel like we're going to pull it off and win by at least a field goal."
Outside Comerica Park, Tom McDevitt’s dog Bobby was a big hit. Lions fans smiled at the fido as they milled the sidewalks.
Bobby was dressed like a lion with a fuzzy yellow mane, calmly standing for pets and pictures from adoring passersby.
McDevitt of Detroit is a “big time” Lions fan. The feeling of making it to the championship is surreal. He said he feels confident about his team’s chances.
“The feeling,” he said, “it’s hard to find words for it.”
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Reporter Tony Paul contributed.