Lions' Anzalone opens up about Super Bowl disappointment: 'Next year, it’s us'

Allen Park — As a reporter, one of the stranger components of the job is being around players and asking them questions in the immediate aftermath of their greatest triumphs and harshest defeats. It's easier, for everyone, in those moments of jubilation, but the job for both interviewer and interviewee doesn't change after a loss.

Now magnify the intensity of those moments by 10, maybe 100. That's the challenge after a devastating defeat a step shy of the Super Bowl. And even though the interviews took place, we admittedly only got a snapshot through the dense fog of emotion. Even a day later, when those same players are cleaning out their lockers, not enough time has passed to fully reflect on reality.

It's all an imperfect process, but it's the way the path is carved between players and the fans who root for them, to share the moments, good and bad.

But Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone has allowed us to bridge some of the gap between the relatively instant reaction to the team's devastating loss in the NFC Championship by offering far more detailed and processed thoughts a week after the defeat through a lengthy, first-person piece via The Players' Tribune.

Anzalone opens with an immediate defense of coach Dan Campbell's fourth-down decisions, a pair of failed attempts in field-goal range that have been hotly debated from the moment they were made. For Anzalone, it's not a shades-of-gray conversation between analytics and instinct. For the team captain, Campbell's choices were a black-and-white foundational element of the team's identify.

"On fourth down, in that situation, we’re always going for the kill," Anzalone wrote. "That mentality took us from 0–10–1 to the NFC Championship game in just a few seasons. Honestly, if anything, when we decided to kick the field goal in the first half, I was more surprised then. When the chips are down, Detroit is always going to bet on Detroit."

From there, the heart of Anzalone's piece takes us through the emotional toll of the week, and how his family, particularly wife Lindsey, served as a stabilizing force. But when three-year-old son Connor innocently asked Anzalone if he was going to the Super Bowl, all the pain he had tried to bury quickly resurfaced.

The way Anzalone describes it, the season flashed before his eyes, from the season-opening win in Kansas City to the Ford Field crowds erupting in euphoria as the team won its first playoff games in more than 30 years.

"I looked at Lindsey, and I almost lost it," Anzalone wrote. "It hits you right in the heart. Everything kind of came back in that moment, you know? I mean the whole journey. Coming here to Detroit because Dan took the coaching job and believed that I could be a leader on our defense. All the heartbreaking losses in 2021, when the world was laughing at us, and Dan was telling us: 'F the world. It’s about the guys in this room.'"

As Anzalone went through his exit interview with Campbell last week, the coach asked the veteran linebacker if he planned on watching the Super Bowl. It's a question many Lions fans have been wrestling with since the NFC Championship disappointment, and something the Anzalone hadn't yet considered before Campbell followed the question with an assignment.

"Dan said, 'No, you gotta watch it, man. Use every second of it as motivation. I’ll sure as hell be watching.'"

So yeah, Anzalone is going to watch. He expects everyone on the roster and the coaching staff will, as well. He wants Lions fans to watch, too.

"You’re gonna have 53 dogs out there doing the exact same," Anzalone wrote. "You’re gonna have a whole coaching staff doing the same. You’re gonna have a whole city doing the same."

And echoing sentiments expressed by general manager Brad Holmes on Monday, Anzalone believes brighter days ahead for the Lions.

"This year, it sucks. Next year, it’s us," he wrote, closing out the piece.

jdrogers@detroitnews.com

@Justin_Rogers