Lions grab crown as America’s Team
Before the NFL season started, Dan Campbell wondered about something out loud.
The Detroit Lions coach grew up a huge Cowboys fan in Glen Rose, Texas, a tiny town about 75 miles southwest of Dallas that got a population spike in the mid-1970s when a when a nuclear power plant opened smack-dab in the middle of oil country.
Campbell, like most of the footballloving world in the 1990s, marveled at the juggernaut Cowboys of that era that won three Super Bowls in four years. The Triplets — Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin — seemed otherworldly and impossible to stop.
But America’s Team? It was ostentatious and polarizing, exactly how the Cowboys liked it. And it had been around since 1978, when John “the voice of God” Facenda coined the term while narrating a hype piece for the reigning Super Bowl champs for NFL Films.
America’s Team was born. And Campbell wondered about that moniker 45 years as he was about to embark on a historic season with Detroit’s team, which he’s taking to San Francisco for Sunday’s NFC championship game for the first time since the 1991 season.
“That’s been ‘America’s Team,’” Campbell told the Atlantic back in the summer. “Why can’t we be America’s team?”
So I asked Campbell on Thursday what being “America’s Team” means to him and if the Lions have gotten closer to that ideal.
“I think our environment, our culture, the coaches, the players,” he said. “I think we have a lot of people that respect football and try to stay true to it. And hard work, discipline, all the things that I think most people can resonate with.
“And so I think that’s probably why we’re somewhat attractive. And then we’re winning. Obviously that helps everything.”
Work, discipline and winning aren’t unique to the Lions. But something else important is. They’ve been underdogs for the better part of 65 years. They’re the only NFC team that has never played in a Super Bowl and are more famous for being the first team to go 0-16 and waste the careers of Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson.
America’s Team? Maybe America’s Underdog is more accurate. Then again, America was once itself the world’s ulti
mate underdog.
So it’s fitting that the Lions are far more representative of our nation’s ideals, even if some people prefer to align themselves with a team full of winners that always win.
But is that really who we are? How many people do you personally know who have uninterrupted success? And how do you root for that?
The Lions, on the other hand, represent a curiosity that’s not only endearing but also imminently interesting. That’s why the Lions’ wild-card win against the Rams drew 31.9 million viewers on NBC, making it TV’s mostwatched primetime show since last year’s Super Bowl.
The next week, the Lions beat the Bucs in a non-primetime game and drew 40.4 million viewers across all NBC platforms, making it NBC Sports’ most-watched divisional playoff game since 1994.
Eyeballs are the start, but the heart wants what it wants. And, as Campbell suggested, winning validates the various the team’s attributes and culture and helps capture people’s hearts.
Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, staying true to the company line, described his unit as gritty on Thursday. But then he went a little further in his definition.
“Listen, we know exactly who we are,” he said. “Are we the fastest? Are we the most talented? No, but we’ll bite somebody’s face off when we go play them.”
If I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s the exact quote George Washington uttered before he took on King George’s army.
The Cowboys’ dynasty have been over for some time. Their conference championship game drought was almost as long as the Lions’. The funny thing about Dallas is that even a lot of Texans don’t identify with the swanky city powered by oil tycoons.
But Detroit? There seems to be about two degrees of separation around the country with people who have connections to this quintessentially Midwest city in a politically purple state.
It seems about right and about time for the Cowboys and their fading star to pass the torch to the Lions. When I asked Campbell if he thought the Lions had taken the Cowboys’ nickname from them, he deferred.
“No, that’s not my crown to take,” he said. “That’s for somebody else to say whether we are or aren’t.”
Then I’ll say it. The Lions are now America’s Team, win or lose Sunday. Win or lose in the Super Bowl.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.