In just a few short hours, the Detroit Lions will play their first playoff game in twelve long years, the longest such drought in the NFL. And if a lot of people had their way, they wouldn't be in the playoffs this year because a lot of people have inexplicably been cheering for them to fail all season long. They started the year 5-0, which, coupled with their 4-0 finish last year gave them a 9-game winning streak, the longest in the league outside of the Green Bay Packers.
The critics said that it was a fluke, or that those wins came against bad teams, and it didn't matter anyway because the Lions would get back to their losing ways soon enough and miss out on the playoffs again and that Mattew Stafford would end up on the sidelines injured again. And they did lose a couple close games and Stafford broke his finger and started throwing some interceptions, and the critics got louder with the "I told you so"s. And then Suh had his stomping incident and the jeers got louder and all the talk became the Lions were just dirty football players who got put in their place and need to go back to the bottom quadrant of the league where they belong.
Only Stafford's hand got better, other guys stepped up, and the Lions started winning again. And lo and behold, they locked up a playoff spot with one week to go in the regular season. And then in week 17 Matthew Stafford became only the fourth quarterback in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards.
And then something started happening that really, REALLY pisses me off. Even though there are still the Dan Patricks of the world who take their cheap shots at the Lions every chance they get (actually making the comment on last week's pregame show "Can the Lions score enough points to make it interesting?" when their offense set a franchise record and scored 34 points or more 7 times, as well as having 4 games in the 40s) some people are starting to jump on the Lions' bandwagon. There have started to be some comments about how almost every year there's a 5 or 6 seed that makes a playoff run and can it be the Lions this year? Some people have compared the Lions' resurgence in Detroit in the midst of terrible economic times for Detroit with what the Saints have meant to New Orleans after Katrina. All of a sudden, there's an awful lot of people who were talking an awful lot of shit a month ago who are now starting to talk pretty glowingly about MY Detroit Lions. And all I can say is...
FUCK. YOU.
As someone who has been a fan for years, it really sickens me to see bandwagoning pieces of shit suddenly pretend to be in the Lions' corner. And if by some chance the Lions do happen to be this year's miracle Wild Card team and get to the Super Bowl, I am going to punch every Johny-Come-Lately I see in a Lions jersey right in the throat. If you were not there for 0-16, you do not deserve to be there for the Super Bowl.
And for the record, I don't expect to see them playing in the Super Bowl. As a legitimate fan who loved them as much at the beginning of the year as I do now, my goal was to see them relevent at the end of the year and be in the playoff conversation. So even if they come up short against the Saints, I'm still very happy with this season. I saw them make the playoffs for the first time in forever. I saw a lot of very good games and very dramatic comebacks. I got to see the emergence of a finally healthy Matthew Stafford into an elite quarterback (and yes I said elite, I don't give a shit what the Pro Bowl voters said, if you don't consider 5000+ yards and 40+ TDs elite, then I want some of whatever you're smoking). I got to see Calvin Johnson step up to the pedestal of possibly the greatest receiver in the league today and someone who would finally make Lions fans say "Herman Who?" I got to see Kevin Smith, a very likeable guy and hard worker who Lions fans love come back for the stretch run and start in a playoff game for the Lions after we all thought injuries had cut his career all too short (and of all the Lions seeing their first playoff game today, I may be happiest for him). I got to see Cliff Avril step up his game at defensive end and the Lions defensive line in general start to see some recognition as arguably the best line in the league. I got to see announcers actually respecting the Lions' players enough to learn to pronounce their names (No more Java Best, Brandon Pettigree, and "Unintelligible Mumbling" Suh). Hell, I even got to see Jim Schwartz try to pick a fight with Jim Harbaugh (the former Chicago Bear), which definitely won him some cool points with me.
But most importantly, I got to see a team that's finally headed in the right direction. Of all the comparisons I've heard to this year's Lions squad, the one that bears the most resemblence for me is the early years of the Jimmy Johnson Cowboys, before they started winning Super Bowls. They were a team that had been really, really bad, but had been rebuilt almost completely from scratch, and you got the feeling they had some special pieces in place and could really be a special team for a lot of years to come. Obviously there is still some work that needs done, but they have a solid front four on defense with some young talent, and one of the best offenses in the league with some extremely talented players who are almost all on the right side of 25.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am finally, finally starting to see some return on my years of loyalty to what has been a really God-awful team. And if you bandwagoners try to jump on and leech it from me, I swear to God I will go to your house, beat you to death with my Lions foam claw, and skullfuck you. Just sayin'.