Goff a fitting leader for a team finally earning respect
DETROIT — They started chanting his name nearly an hour before kickoff, shortly after legendary rocker and Detroit native Bob Seger was spotted on the field and introduced by the PA announcer to a roar.
“Ja-red Goff, Ja-red Goff.’’ The often-maligned quarterback heard those chants last week, too, when he and the Lions were exorcizing the demons of countless empty postseasons in Detroit by beating the Rams and former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in the wild-card round to earn a second home playoff game.
That was Detroit’s first playoff win in 32 years.
This?
Lions 31, Buccaneers 23 in the NFC divisional playoff round in front of a frenzied 66,201 in full throat at Ford Field more than an hour before the game sent the Lions to the NFC Championship game for just the second time in franchise history, and first since they were drilled 41-10 by Washington after the 1991 season.
It was difficult to imagine Goff having a better, more satisfying night than the one he enjoyed last Sunday when he and the Lions dispatched Stafford and the Rams in the place that Stafford called home for 12 years and with the home crowd loudly chanting Goff’s name.
Now Goff enters an even higher level of self-satisfaction: He’s one more playoff win away from taking the Lions to their first Super Bowl in franchise history — something Stafford never came close to doing.
Moments after Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes picked off Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield with 1:33 remaining in the game to seal it and Goff was taking a knee in the victory formation to bleed the clock out, there were those chants again.
“Ja-red Goff, Ja-red Goff.” Goff is the perfect fit as the leader of this blue-collar Detroit outfit that truly represents the real “America’s Team’’ — move aside, Dallas Cowboys.
The Lions are a relatable, starless band of second-chance players and castoffs led by a head coach in Dan Campbell, with whom everyone in America wants to belly up to a bar and knock back beers.
After the game, Campbell talked about Detroit and its long wait for moments like the ones the Lions are giving it right now.
He talked about the region’s “harsh winters, auto industry, blue collar’’ vibe, saying, “You want something the city can be proud of. You can look at those guys and say, ‘Man, I can back that guy. I can back that team. I can resonate with those group of guys. They’re kind of salty. They don’t quit. They play hard.’ “I feel like we’ve done that.’’ Indeed they have, and Goff is the symbol, ridiculed as a throw-in piece to the trade from LA to Detroit that sent Stafford to the Rams in 2021. In exchange for Stafford, the Rams got the Lions’ first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 and a thirdrounder in 2021.
Oh yeah, and Goff, too.
All he did on Sunday was complete 30 of 43 for 287 yards, two TDs and no turnovers.
At the time he was traded to Detroit, it felt like Goff was sent to Siberia. Stafford helped the Rams win the Super Bowl that season and Goff and the Lions went 3-13-1.
Somehow though it all, Goff seems to be unaffected, and that’s endeared him even more to his teammates.
“His mental resilience is pretty special,’’ Lions left tackle Taylor Decker told The Post.
What is it about Goff that allows him to be so unmoved by the outside noise?
“He moves forward,’’ Decker said. “He’s a confident player, and he can put a ball anywhere you need him to. He knows that and we know that.’’
The Buccaneers sure know that. “The NFL is about narratives,’’ Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “Jared had a narrative that he’s had to fight.’’
Consider that fight fought … and won by Goff.
Next up is a trip to Santa Clara, Calif., where the No. 1 seeded 49ers await. “I get to go back home and play in front of some friends and family,” Goff, a West Coast native, said.
Every one of the 66,201 in the house who chanted his name, embraced Goff as if he were family, and will do so forever. He’s a “made’’ man in Detroit.
It was beautifully fitting that, as Goff ran to the tunnel following his TV interviews, the Ford Field PA system was playing Aretha Franklin’s hit “Respect.’’ “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.’’
Goff and the Lions have it and no one can ever take that away from them.
Not just Detroit’s team. America’s team.