A Letter For The Detroit Lions

Toughness and grit when it matters most

For those of you that are rolling your eyes right now because you think I’m being an ungrateful Vikings fan, you’re wrong. You might also think that I’m just writing about the Lions because they beat the Vikings tonight to win the NFC North and secure the #1 overall seed for the playoffs and I’m salty and reverse jinxing them…

🤷‍♂️

In all honesty I’m trying to move past my obsessive competitiveness that has often dominated my perspective since I was a little kid. A middle child with an 18-month older brother, who has always been bigger and stronger. The product of two competitive athlete parents.

Heck, the first time I lost a basketball game in 3rd grade I cried and threw a fit and had to be carried out of the gym. I didn’t really start trying to heal that part of me until I was 23 years old and embarrassed myself so deeply in front of my friends (and girlfriend - now wife) at a rec volleyball game on a Tuesday night in downtown St. Louis.

It’s just… in me.

Now I’m 37 and the competitive fire burns but it’s just a flicker deep in my soul. The only thing I know how to relate it to is addiction, it’s in my DNA, hardcoded somewhere and it takes a a lot of work and effort to not let it take over the program.

I’ve put more work into resolving this part of myself than anything I’ve ever put my mind to. It’s hard.

Enough about me, the point I’m trying to make is that I can now watch my favorite sports teams and admire the other team for the good things that they do in their oath to victory over my team.

The Lions tonight were excellent. They were coached well, they played well, they were tougher, and they executed all night long.

The culture that Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn talked about building a couple years ago when they had their moment on HBO’s Hard Knocks show has become a reality.

The poise, processing and toughness of Jared Goff is on full display for the world to see now, even though he was doubted for many years. He’s someone who I spent a lot of time with training and goofing around with at Sports Academy his rookie and sophomore year in the league (we were the Rams’ training and medical facility when they first moved to Thousand Oaks) and I (and everyone else) could tell then that he was special and could achieve this level of excellence. He never beat me in a hoops shooting contest or HORSE, but he is going to make $300million+ playing football.

Despite the most injuries in the league this season they ended up being the best team throughout the regular season. You just can’t do that without having special people do special things within an environment that supports that specialness.

We should recognize that and applaud it, despite whether they beat our hits tonight or not.

The beautiful thing about sports is that often times there is another chance. For the Vikings, we had one of our best and most fun seasons ever. We still get to play in the playoffs next week and try to win a Super Bowl. We might even get another chance to play Detroit two weeks from now in the second round and revenge our two losses to them this season.

We don’t have anything to hang our heads about, nothing to cry and throw a fit over, it just wasn’t our best game tonight and that’s OKAY.

Hats off to the Lions, they played great football tonight and all season long. I’m thankful for them for being a good example as to how to be resilient and build a winning culture. Their leadership on down should be proud, super proud, of what they’ve been able to accomplish for an organization that’s been mired in mediocrity for so long. They are a great example to look at and learn from.

We will see you Lions in a couple weeks, CAN’T WAIT!

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew