Lions Top List of Contenders?

Forget the curse of Bobby Layne. SI prediction might be worse

By Ken DeLaat

After last season and the continued gridiron renaissance of the Detroit Lions anyone who is a long suffering fan of the team has to be looking at the upcoming season with more than a tad of optimism. Coach Dan Campbell is back along with the innovative  Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn who directs the defense. They are young and hungry. A recent story in The Athletic named the top 25 players aged 25 and under. There are 32 teams in the NFL and yet 5 of the 25 names wear the Honolulu Blue and Silver. We’ve grown to embrace Jared Goff and can even give Matthew Stafford some love for supplying us with a boatload of draft picks AND a QB who knows how to win.

The draft and free agency filled some needs and there are many reasons for a rosy outlook, right? At N3 we were thinking this year’s theme for the Lions would be “It’s Next Year!
Then Sports Illustrated had to ruin it all.

They predicted the Lions would win the Super Bowl. Over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Why is this bad news?
Well in the 24 years they have been doing this, they correctly predicted the winner…
Once.

Last year? Eagles over Bengals. Neither made it. Year before? Bills over Buccaneers. Neither made it past divisional playoffs. Of their 48 selections for Super Bowl participants they got it right 6 times.

Though not one to dwell on jinx mentality, it would have been a bit easier had they not chimed in by selecting our Lions. After all, when you are the fans of one of 4 teams to never make it to the big one, there will undoubtedly be a lot of angst, even when you have a team that has seemed to do it right with an eye on the prize.

But hey, let them climb aboard what should be a fun bandwagon as former Lion pessimists as myself enjoy the ride and embrace the smugness of being a frontrunner formerly restricted to the Packers and Vikings and even once upon a time the Bears.
Whatever happens this season the team has certainly gotten its mojo back. 
Well, getting it  back would mean they once had one. Let's call it mojo acquisition.
Go Lions.