Honolulu Blue Kool Aid Week 1
It's not so sweet is it?
In Michigan, it’s often said, you can experience all the year’s seasons in one month. Well for a Lions fan, you can experience every emotion and mindset possible in a single game. Sunday made me do just that.
Hope
Like so many in this town I spent my summer getting absolutely sloshed off Honolulu Blue Kool-Aid. Hard Knocks, the Draft, and the final few watchable games of last season convinced me that I should spend my hard earned money on tickets to the home opener, and drag my girlfriend and friend along for the ride with me.
Our walk to the stadium featured all the fixings of an NFL pregame. A dad sharing a beer with his teenage son in Greektown. Grown men wearing lions manes wigs on their head. Suburban woman screaming the lyrics of rap songs that came out no less than a decade ago. A guy in a wifepleaser throwing up behind Harbor House as his friends plead with him to straighten up for their walk to the stadium. It was electric. A kind of optimism that’s only possible before you actually watch the Lions play a meaningful down.
Excitement
The crowd at Ford Field was unlike anything I’d heard before. Any other time I’ve been in that place it’s been cavernous but there were times on Sunday when I could barely hear myself think. Our roaring began when the team ran out of the tunnel and sustained itself through most of the game aside from a few moments (more on that later). We were so loud that on the Lions’ first drive of the game the jumbotron operator had to put a graphic on the screen telling the us to be quiet. The crowd noise made an impact on Philadelphia’s players and fans alike as an Eagles fan in the section next to me actually lit up a cigarette in the first quarter.
Dejection
Have you ever heard 65,000 people sigh at the same time? No? I hadn’t either, until Sunday afternoon when Jared Goff threw what was maybe the worst interception I’ve ever seen, giving the Eagles their third unanswered touchdown of the quarter and sucking every ounce of life out of Ford Field. Between the moans, groans, and depraved laughter, I heard a familiar refrain from a few rows back. It didn’t sound like it was any louder than a whisper but it traveled down the section into my ear: Same Old Lions.
Acceptance
At some point during the game, I noticed that a guy in front of me was wearing a Jarrad Davis jersey. Davis the Lions’ 21st overall pick in 2017 has been let go by the Lions twice in his five year career. His friend came back from the bathroom a few minutes later wearing a LeGarrette Blount jersey. It took me a minute to even remember that he played for the Lions. (In his one season with the Lions he ran for 418 yards. The Lions won six games.)
Seeing these jerseys were a reminder that people have been excited about this team before. Excited enough to buy a fucking LaGarette Blount jersey. Are people going to look at us in our jerseys 10 years from now or even five years from now and wonder what the hell we were thinking?
Kool Aid Meter
I’m still drinking. It tasted good enough all summer and on Sunday that I’m not ready to put it down yet. But I’ll need another tablespoon of sugar if I’m going to make it through the fall.