Dear Lions fans, you don't have to defend yourselves anymore, it's ok

I don't think I've made it any secret at all. While I cover the Detroit Lions for a living and have to keep some sort of professionalism about it, I love this team. I have been a fan my whole life. I love the team so much that I made a career out of them. 

For a long time, I knew that came with a lot of flak. Not just from watching the team break my heart, but from having to deal with fans of other teams making fun of me or making fun of us. I know I'm definitely not alone in that. 

I've been in a ton of arguments with fans of other teams and it sucks to go back and forth with these people. It sucks even more when you know that no matter what you say, you will never change their mind. There will never come a time that a Packers fan says "You've changed my mind. You're right." It just won't happen. 

With all that in mind, I totally get that this is the fight you've been fighting your whole life so at this point it feels like second nature. It feels like it's something you have to do. 

Now that the Lions are a great team, I personally felt like the arguing would go away because before it felt like I was arguing to prove to fans of other teams that my team was good. Now the team is proving it themselves and I don't have to do that anymore. Those fans know it. That's why they're trying to discredit it any way they can. It's a coping mechanism and we have all done it in our lives. 

This week I've watched from the sidelines as a lot of Lions fans have seemingly started a war with Commanders fans for no reason whatsoever. It made sense with the Vikings fans or the Packers fans. They came at us and there's a lengthy beef there. With Commanders fans it felt like Lions fans were running at them and puffing their chests out. 

1. That doesn't feel smart to do. While I'm confident in this team against Washington, you're going to look like a complete idiot if the Commanders win this game. They didn't have the height to dunk on you before, then you gave them a trampoline. That's how you get posterized.

2. We're doing everything that we've always hated. The way Lions fans have always hated the way that Packers fans act so smug and behave as if their team wins the Super Bowl every year, you'd think Detroit fans wouldn't start acting that way too. Yet here we are with some. 

3. We haven't won anything big yet. The first seed is awesome and the NFC North title is awesome too. But the Super Bowl is the only thing that matters when it's all said and done. If the Lions don't win that, all the smack talk you've done this year means nothing and can be turned right back onto you. You immediately lose every argument you were in because your team didn't do the thing.

At the end of the day, you live your life however you want. If you want to spend a lot of time on social media yelling at fans of other teams, that's on you and I totally understand it because I've been there. Just know that it's ok, you're not a fan of the 0-16 team anymore. You're a fan of one of the best teams in the NFL. It's ok to just let the haters yell into an echo chamber and enjoy the golden years.