Column: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Lions Bandwagon

It seems that all around the nation, people are slurping up the Detroit Lions Kool-Aid. In ESPN and NFL.com’s most recent power rankings, the Lions are listed as the fourth best team in the league. The Lions’ trademark honolulu blue and silver are gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time since Joey Harrington (!?) was featured on the cover in November 2002. There has been Super Bowl talk — Super Bowl talk! — and it’s only week five. It seems the entire world has caught Lions fever, and as a lifelong fan, I can’t stand it. And I’m not the only one. My story is a familiar one for my age group. I spent the better part of my life watching this team drudge through season after season. I remember the day Barry Sanders retired, praying it was a joke, and then waiting anxiously for him to get the same twinges that Brett Favre gets while the Lions paraded out James Stewart, Kevin Jones, Aveion Cason, T.J. Duckett, Tatum Bell… The list goes on. I’ve never seen th...