Dan Campbell is going full Clark Griswold on the Lions and their fans and it's exactly what everyone needed
I know what you want Detroit Lions fans. You want to be sad right now. You want to be angry and mad and depressed and feel like the season is over. Deep down inside, a part of you craves that feeling, and I totally get it. I want to feel that way too because if […]
I know what you want Detroit Lions fans. You want to be sad right now. You want to be angry and mad and depressed and feel like the season is over. Deep down inside, a part of you craves that feeling, and I totally get it. I want to feel that way too because if you expect disappointment, you can't ever feel disappointment. It's all about coping people. Let's all give up and crawl in a hole.
The problem is that Lions' head coach Dan Campbell won't let you in the hole. You went out back looking for it and its been filled in with dirt.
Whenever you want to feel bad about this team or think it's over, Dan Campbell comes along and starts talking and the next thing you know you're fully back in. This week he didn't just talk though, he went full Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Vacation.
I know it's Christmas time and you might think I'd go with Christmas vacation, but we're going with the original and I'm talking about the scene where the family wants to give up and no longer go to Wally World. Clark can't handle that.
NSFW if you haven't seen it.
This is no longer a football season, it's a quest for fun.
Dan Campbell went on 97.1 The Ticket on Tuesday and you can't tell me that what he said on there wasn't the same thing that Griswold said in that car on the way to the fun park.
“Let me say this first, man. Anytime you lose players, man, it’s hard. The obvious that everybody sees is that you lose the player and that production and what he’s done on the field, but it’s more than that to us. It’s more than that to his coaches and his teammates. They bring so much more to the table than just out there running around and trying to make plays. They bring to the locker room the laughs you have, the bonds you have with those guys. So when you lose a guy like Alim McNeill, it’s a big part of what we do, and David Montgomery, and Khalil Dorsey, and Carlton Davis. Those hurt. Those hurt, man, and you hate losing guys like that.
“But at the same time, we’ve got an opportunity. And I told those guys—and with anybody that’s been hurt, Hutch(inson) to Cominsky to all of them, ‘Man, this can’t be in vain.’ These injuries that these guys—which all of our guys lay it on the line—but we can’t let these injuries be in vain. All of those players helped us get to the point we’re at. These last four (injured players) helped us get to 12 wins, and we owe it to them to finish this thing out. And that’s how I view it.
“So, it means there’s another opportunity for other guys. You know what happens is you win 11 in a row and you lose, and then the sky falls. I hate to say it, but we’re not going to be able to win 11 in a row again for the rest of this season. We’re just not going to be able to do it.
“What happens is you get used to eating filet—and I’m talking all of us—and everything’s good. Life’s good, but you forgot what it’s like when you had nothing and you ate your fucking molded bread, and it was just fine. And it gave you everything you needed. Sometimes you’ve got to get punched in the mouth and remember what it used to be like to really appreciate where you are, and we’ll do that.
“So we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth, we got kicked around the other day, we lost a few guys, and you know what? It’s exactly what we needed. This is exactly what we needed.
“So we’re going to bounce back, we’re going to respond. We’ve got guys that are about to have an unbelievable opportunity here, and we will play the game any way needed to win. We still got a good offense. We’ve got plenty of defensive players. I could go rattle them off right now. We’re going to put the best 11 out on the field. We’re going to friggin’ cut it loose. We’re going to play with our special teams.
“And I don’t give a crap whether we gotta win by one point for the rest of the year, that’s what we’re going to do. And I’m going to be happy about it. We come out of the game with 50 yards of total offense and we win by one? You’re going to see smiles on my face. I promise you. If it’s the other way, defensively we give up 700 yards and we win by one point, you’re going to see a fucking smile from my ear to ear, alright? I can promise you. So we’re going to find a way, and we’re going to get it done.”
It's the same right? Get ready Lions fans, you're going to be whistling Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah out of somewhere very soon.
Lions finished in the top 10 of the league in a stat that you don’t want to be near the top of the league in
Did anyone else notice that the Detroit Lions got fined a lot this season? Well, if you haven't, the NFL definitely has. They had quite the running tab on the Lions in 2024. They fined the team 20 times for a grand total of $444,007. That puts them at ninth in the league for total […]
