New Aidan Hutchinson mural downtown greets visitors before NFL Draft

Football fans from all over the nation will descend on downtown Detroit soon for the NFL Draft, but it'll be a Lion who'll greet them.

A new mural of Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson has been installed on the side of the Cadillac Tower. The mural features a waist-up shot of Hutchinson pointing with the caption, "DREAMS GET MADE HERE."

The Hutchinson mural is in the same spot where a 14-story mural dedicated to legendary Lions running back Barry Sanders is now giving life to the next generation of football stars.

Hutchinson, a Plymouth native who attended the University of Michigan and is the son of Wolverines legend Chris Hutchinson, just finished his second season with the Detroit Lions, by whom he was drafted with the No. 2 pick in 2022.

The Sanders mural was on the side of the tower from 1994-2000 and was eventually replaced by a mural featuring Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman.

The Hutchinson mural isn't the only mural change downtown before the draft.

The “Whale Tower” mural on Detroit’s Broderick Tower, which was painted in 1997 by Detroit native Robert Wyland, has been covered again, this time by an advertisement for Cure Auto Insurance. It was installed during the Tigers’ doubleheader at Comerica Park against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.

Several advertisements have covered the whale mural over the last decade, but the newest is not very big and would likely fit in the empty space on the Broderick Tower above the mural. Instead, it covers the whale art.

In the decades since its creation, the mural has become a feature of the outfield view at Comerica Park, which opened in 2000, and a replica is even included in recent iterations of the “MLB The Show” video game franchise.

An October story in The Detroit News explained that the mural is one of 102 across the world to raise awareness over the fact that all water connects to the ocean.

nbianchi@detoitnews.com

@nolanbianchi