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SideLion reader interview: Detroit Lions fandom is like a Michigan highway

By Payne Schanski

DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 07: A Detroit Lions fan cheers during a game against the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field on October 7, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 07: A Detroit Lions fan cheers during a game against the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field on October 7, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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On longtime Lions fandom …

I’ve spent the past 25+ years of my life as a frustrated but eternally hopeful Detroit Lions fan. I’m only now beginning to understand just why my dad and uncles were so negative about the Lions growing up. This stuff wears on you.

If you’re a player or coach, you’re in it for a few years, a decade or so at best. If you work for the team or in the stadium, at least you’re getting paid for it. If you’re one of the Fords, every loss is still another million in the pocket.

As fans, we’re in it for life.  And pay for the privilege. And it’s not as voluntary as it seems to people who don’t really get it. In fact, I actively tried to quit the Lions back in 2012. Yes, we’re in it for life, and James has been in it for twice as long as I have.

Through the first 0-16 season in league history, a “50-year curse” that has gone even longer, team legends leaving before their time, two paralyzed players, and the only on-field death in league history, James has been here for them all. What can you call a fandom like this, other than a deep and abiding faith in something better on the other side?

What are your Top 5 Memorable Lions Moments?

James: I could name just about any time Barry touched the ball…if you wanted my Top 5 favorite moments, every one of them would have him in it.

(Just to spread the wealth a little bit, here’s James’s Top 5 that includes a few others besides Barry:)

  1. Barry Sanders playoff run against Dallas (1992) 
  2. Barry Sanders reaching 2,000 yards (1997)
  3. Steve Owens, first-ever 1,000 yard rusher for the Lions (1991)
  4. Billy Sims’s first 1,000 yard season (1980)
  5. Brett Perriman/Herman Moore combine for 3,000 receiving yards (1995)

What about your 5 Most Heartbreaking  Lions Moments?

  1. Chuck Hughes on-field death (1971) 
  2. Tom Dempsey 63-yard goal to set NFL record (and beat the Lions) (1970)
  3.  The Calvin Johnson Rule (2010) 
  4.  2008*: “The entire 16 game season”
  5. Mike Utley paralyzed (1991)

*Author’s note: I pretty much gave up on the 2008 season around Week 6, so that one didn’t hurt me as much.

Talk me through your 50+ years of Lions fandom. What has that journey been like?

James: It’s been a heartbreaking mess. It’s been a bumpy road, full of potholes like a Michigan highway. Things will smooth out, and it lulls you into complacency, and it lulls you into, you know, a sense of security, and then all of a sudden, bam! You’ll get a smooth patch, a nice season here and there, that gets you right down to the end … but like a Michigan highway, that’s the way it’s been.

Next. Matthew Stafford at 40,000: 40 memorable moments. dark

What would a Lions championship mean to you?

James: Oh God, it would mean everything.

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