Would you Rather – Viewing the Upcoming Season

The NFL offseason is currently sitting in its yearly purgatory. The draft occurred, thus removing mock drafts and wishful thinking lists from the avid fan’s daily agenda, and training camp is coming around the corner. And until the actual action begins, news feeds are going to be flooded with season predictions. Some you’ll agree with, others you’ll wonder if the writer knows what football is. So instead of making my own predictions, I’ve decided to look at two different angles on how we should view the upcoming Detroit Lions season.

One last thing before we get started. I’ve decided to set a parameter to make sure we are all on the same page throughout. I’ve decided that no matter which route you choose, the Lions end the regular season back in the playoffs. This is to make both options worthwhile, along with making all of us happy that we get to think about the Lions in the playoffs yet again.

Option 1 – High Expectations

In this mindset, not only did the Lions make the playoffs, but you have been calling it since, well, today. The biggest perk of thinking this way is mainly just for bragging rights. Maybe you retweet your tweet when they make the playoffs from today, really showing the world that you knew this all along. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with doing that or thinking that way. Being right is one of the best things to happen to a person. More power to you if you lock in right away.

A huge perk of this would be both being happy and hopeful all season only to have your expectations met. Could you imagine having that much faith in the middle of May, and throughout the season they consistently back you? (This is probably how Patriots fans feel, which makes me both jealous and annoyed.) Maybe the best part of this scenario is I think this would have the power to knock “Same Old Lions” (which if you don’t know by now is my least favorite thing in the world) out of the brains of Lions fans. Finally, that narrative of the team still being bad, even though they haven’t been in years, will die.

Option 2 – Low Expectations

You’ve spent your Sundays glued to the T.V. but you never let yourself get too excited. You didn’t trust this team until the postgame show because you’ve seen enough weird stuff happen after the clock hit zero. Yet week after week they did just enough to make it into the postseason. You swore after a crushing mid-season loss that you were finally done, yet next week you were right back in your “lucky” seat. So by the time the season ends you find yourself so surprised and happy because the team you thought had no shot outshined your expectations. You were a SOL person, but you’ve now gone back and deleted negative tweets. In your mind, the playoffs are a new season, and this time you’ll believe.

This hits a little close to home for me. Last season after the game at Chicago, I walked out of Soldier Field with my friends mopey. I cannot confirm nor deny that I may have wanted to blow up the team. I was done with them, so angry that the season started so poorly. Then the Lions started winning, and winning, and winning. And at the end of the season, I was 100% sure that the Seahawks didn’t stand a chance. This team was special, and making the turnaround they did turned me around too.

This ideology is where most Lion fans fall. And though it isn’t perfect, it’s what makes us special. We won’t give up on this team, so we sure won’t let them give up on us. It would be nice to have high hopes all the time, but that just isn’t what we know how to do. Either way, as long as we support them and call the Lions “our” team, well that’s enough to me.

So what group are you in? Do you think the other group isn’t realistic? Or even worse, they aren’t real fans? Do you live your life in one mindset, wishing you could cross over to the other, but knowing that it’ll never happen? Let us know in the comments. And either way, GO LIONS!

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