[DEFFF NOT OT]LIONS APPRECIATION THREAD
SOMETIMES SOMETHING SO AMAZING HAPPENS IN SPORTS THAT IT IS RELEVANT TO ALL DISCUSSIONS AND THEREFORE IS CERTAINLY NOT!!!!! OT.
GENTLEMEN AND THE HANDFUL OF LADIES AROUND HERE BRAVE ENOUGH TO WADE THROUGH THE SEA OF BO AND CHEETO DUST, TONIGHT THE WORLD BORE WITNESS TO THE MOST SELF ACTUALIZING EVENT IN ALL OF SPORTS HISTORY. YOUR [AND TODAY THE LIONS ARE EVERYONE'S TEAM] DETROIT FOOTBALL LIONS AFTER YEARS OF STRIFE AND STRUGGLE HAVE FINALLY CROSSED INTO ENLIGHTENMENT. YEARS OF BLOWN CALLS, POOR PERFORMANCES, WASTED HALL OF FAMERS, HAVE ALL COME CLOSE TO THE IDEAL THAT IS THE LIONS, BUT TODAY THE STRUGGLE HAS ENDED.
BEHOLD! THE EPITOME OF WHAT IT IS TO BE A DETROIT FOOTBALL LION
SHALL WE NEVER LIVE IN FEAR OF WHO WE ARE! MAY WE ALL ASPIRE TO THE BRAVERY OF THIS TEAM! FORWARD DOWN THE FIELD MY FRIENDS! FORWARD DOWN THE FIELD!!
October 6th, 2015 at 7:56 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 9:47 AM ^
I think I'd apply a different definition of "deserve" there. Do you deserve 15 yards when you throw an incomplete pass and roughing the passer is called? Most people would say yes. Opponent breaks a rule, you absolutely deserve to reap the benefits of that rule breach. I don't see a difference just because the rule is obscure.
October 6th, 2015 at 6:45 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 6:45 AM ^
And let's be honest about this. There's no guarantee they would have won the game even if they did get the call. More than likely, they wouldn't have been able to punch it in from the one and would have lost in OT after settling for a FG. After all, this is the Lions we are talking about.
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October 6th, 2015 at 7:53 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 6:53 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:09 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:43 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:02 AM ^
I'm a diehard Red Wings fan, even if they've been rather blah the last 5 Years. That's because they have a recent history of success.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:00 AM ^
I know what a diehard fan is. It's the why of it that's harder for me to understand.
October 6th, 2015 at 8:19 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
MSU was mediocre for about 40 years, 1987 being one of the few exceptions.
There's nothing cyclical about sports though. Indiana and OSU are not due to trade places.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:37 AM ^
10 years ago I didn't know anyone that actually cared about Spartan football that didn't go there. There were a lot of basketball fans that just didn't pay attention to football and all of a sudden fell out of the woodwork in the last 6-7 years.
I guess you could say the same about Michigan basketball though.
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October 6th, 2015 at 6:54 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:30 AM ^
for most of my life is probably a big part of the reason Michigan has so many local fans. Even if you didn't go to the school it's pretty much your only option for a football team to root for in SE Michigan. Unless you're a masochist.
October 6th, 2015 at 7:12 AM ^
You know, I'll probably always be a Lions fan - I grew up one and I am weirdly loyal like that, but yet I find my feelings towards them much more complex and considered when it comes to the subject of losing. Like someone said above, when Michigan loses, I feel genuinely awful and sometimes I feel that way for days. When the Lions lose, it is very easy to analyze and compartmentalize, or rather, it is far easier to do than when Michigan loses.
Maybe not everyone does this, but I approach the Lions and my Lions fandom with a vastly different mindset as a fan, given their history and because of game-changing calls like last night that don't go their way historically, than I do my Michigan fandom.
October 6th, 2015 at 7:20 AM ^
Well put. I just add it to the pantheon of "almost there but not quite" Lions games by placing it somewhere on the Spectrum of Eternal Futility (from 'Slight Head-Shaking' Futile to 'Hysterical Laughter Inducing' Futile) for the sake of comparison to past games that have ended in a similar fashion, and move on.
October 6th, 2015 at 8:16 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 7:27 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:27 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:28 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:30 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 7:32 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 7:34 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 7:47 AM ^
but Tom Lewan lived in West Quad with my husband and they are better than the Pistons. That call or lack of call was just brutal. Like Armando Gallaraga brutal.
October 6th, 2015 at 7:52 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:00 AM ^
Later in the week we'll see a new camera angle showing one of the refs did throw a flag but picked it up.
October 6th, 2015 at 8:03 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:21 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 8:38 AM ^
three quirks in the rulebook in the past 6 seasons and may, in the future, have 4 rules named after them:
2010: Calvin Johnson rule for process of the catch
2012: Jim Schwartz Rule: Challenges a scoring play (illegal). 15 yard penalty and the play can no longer be reviewed (since changed)
2014: (Proposed) Brandon Pettigrew Rule: Pass Intereference calls can be reviewed
2015: Calvin Johnson rule (part 2) for batting a ball
October 6th, 2015 at 8:49 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 8:52 AM ^
That both the Lions and the Browns lost in the most Lions or Browns fashion this week.
The Lions, as seen above, drove down the field, were going into the end zone, only to fumble the ball right before crossing the goal line.
The Browns made a brilliant comeback, everyone had their hopes up, the San Diego marches down the field and into field goal range. Only to miss the field goal... but the Browns were offsides, and then the Charges hit the subsequent field goal to win.
This is what it means to be NFL fans in this area of the country.
October 6th, 2015 at 8:56 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 9:03 AM ^
Yes, that play especially hurts when you have $50 on over 11-1/2 points in the fourth quarter. Of course that TD would've not only put the Lions ahead late, but it also would've won me my bet. I do think there is only one NFL team that can obliterate all your hopes on one play like that. And it is the Lions.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 1:14 PM ^
We're talking about a team that has won ONE playoff game in my lifetime, and I'm no spring chicken. You can't just stumble into being that bad -- you have to earn it, particularly in a league that is designed to achieve parity. As you say, the only case for being a Lions "fan" is to embrace the one thing they have consistently excelled at -- finding new ways to lose. To root for them to win is like hoping for incompetence to be rewarded.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 9:08 AM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^
Its good to know that some things in life never change
October 6th, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 10:01 AM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 10:48 AM ^
Could you imagine how much Harbaugh would be freaking out if that play happened to his team? He obviously knows rules inside out, so he would have been absolutely livid with the no-call.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 4:45 PM ^
October 9th, 2015 at 3:35 PM ^
And I literally had friends that aren't from Michigan texting me immediately after the game ended asking if I was ok... I know that I shouldn't be too surprised about these things, they've been happening for the whole of my 32 years on this Earth to the Lions. But yes I was still upset that we got hosed AGAIN by the refs. The only good that can come of this is if it can rally the squad to reel off 4 in a row before the bye. I know its a fat chance, but hell a guy can hope. I always tell myself that all this bullshit will be worth it when (if...???) we finally win the Super Bowl... Wishful thinking I know, but I'm still holding out faith that one of these years we can break thru.