In Richard Linklater’s 2014 movie Boyhood, there’s a scene where the boy is leaving home and his mom Patricia Arquette isn’t handling it perfectly. He’s excited to be growing up and she’s realizing that not only is a major part of her life over, but she’s now gone through most of life’s major milestones. “The rest”, to her, is just a general, nebulous decline until death. In what I think is some of Linklater’s best writing, she laments, “I just thought there would be more.” Patricia Arquette delivers it with such heartbreaking humanity. It’s a very understated yet poignant “human wrestles with mortality” moment in movies.
Obviously if I’m starting off with a reference like this I’m not feeling totally excellent about the Lions.
One of the more emotional stories about last season’s terrific playoff run was the guy who was caught crying on camera when we beat the Rams. He wasn’t misty-eyed, he was weeping. “Ugly face crying”, in the parlance of our times. It was shown by NBC as a genuine moment encapsulating the sincere elation and relief that win brought, but the story that came out shortly thereafter drove the point home even further. The weeping guy’s dad used to have season tickets back in the Silverdome days, his son often in tow. They couldn’t keep affording them. Years later, his older brother surprised him with those Rams tickets. He said it felt like he was watching with his dad again. It was a moving story. The Lions made sure the guy had tickets for the next two games as well. I think they even sprang for travel to California.
What makes those moments go from sweet to bittersweet is the knowledge that every year the Lions don’t win a Super Bowl, that’s another year of the Lions not winning the Super Bowl. And not everyone makes it through every year. All of us here now are people who haven’t seen it yet, but those who’ve passed on are people who’ll never see it. At least not on this tangible plane of existence. It hurts to think about stuff like that, and a lifetime of emotional investment without the feeling of completion that comes with a championship feels cruel. But you have to acknowledge it’s a possibility. Despite what the Chiefs have been pulling off, winning a Super Bowl is really difficult. You need to be really good and really lucky at very opportune times for most of a season, and then even more so in the playoffs when as the stakes and pressure get exponentially higher.
Which brings me to my beloved Detroit Lions. This free agent class wasn’t an all-timer, to be sure. There weren’t a lot of bona fide game changing players on the list. But the general feeling in the immediate aftermath is like the mom in Boyhood: we just thought there’d be more.
We’re a good team. We’re close. Even though we blew it in a heartbreaker, we know we have the ability to beat anyone if we play our best. Watching the Super Bowl confirmed these feelings. It still sounds funny just to say and weird to type, but it’s the truth: the Lions were close to a Super Bowl and have a great — maybe even improved — team that should compete for one again. We have a lot of cap room. I know we have to save some money for the future, but who knows what the future holds? Maybe injuries become catastrophic. Maybe the division gets much harder and we’re not as good in the playoffs on the road. Maybe the guys for whom we’re saving the money decide in a couple years, “Hey, nothing personal, my family and I just really need a change of scenery in my life. Love you always, Detroit.” You’re telling me you can’t imagine that kind of full-page-love-letter-in-the-newspaper-type exit from some of our key young guys? And Goff is not a spring chicken QB. And our line is probably at its zenith before it may need a slight retooling, at least. The defense had some weaknesses, but that’s what was to be addressed in free agency and the draft. In short: this was an offseason to, if not go all-in, at least re-raise.
Don’t get me wrong. The guys we added look to have the exact right makeup we’re always looking to add; fearless, confident, monstrous effort guys. Maybe DJ Reader comes back from his second quad surgery and is a brick wall DT. Maybe Carlton Davis is a guy who can shut off a third or half of a field. It doesn’t seem likely, but it’s entirely possible. I still think we should’ve begged, borrowed and/or stole to get a top-flight edge rusher to complement Hutchy. Myles Garrett finally got some help this year and he leapt from really great to DPOY. Hutchy has that same potential, gang. I’m talking 18 sack seasons. Is there no way we could’ve cajoled Mack or Bosa from Harbaugh? Wouldn’t a hulking Christian Wilkins have all but guaranteed single-teams for Hutch all season long? Come on, spend some of that large chest of cheddar. Like I said, the scenarios for which you’re saving it might not even exist. This chance we have here and now is real.
And also, every year it seems like we’re being forced to play a 3rd or 4th stringer for several weeks in a row in the secondary. Our yearly secondary availability (or lack thereof) is effectively a reverse advertisement (reverse-a-tisement?) for Henry Ford Health Systems and their sports therapy department. We’re constantly banged up in pass protection? So why did we let Ceej Gar-Jo return to the Eagles for ~$11M a year? We say we’re all about building a culture and an identity — he epitomized that culture and identity! Perhaps more than anyone else on the defense. He was completely fearless and doggedly determined. He worked his ass off for us to return from injury this year. And he was pretty good! He was worth more to us on our team than the dollars we saved by letting him go to a team we might have to fight through come playoff time. I really wish he was still a Lion and I can say he was one of my favorite blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Lions we’ve ever had alongside Amendola.
I’m still excited about our upcoming season. We didn’t add exactly who I wanted but we added good guys. In keeping our spending as flexible as possible, perhaps we’re setting up for the future and relying on a strategy of having as many “make the playoffs and anything can happen” seasons as possible. Our main contributors are still entering or right in their prime. The schedule’s gonna be harder, but we should be plenty better. Maybe after another great draft we’re three weeks into next season I’ll look like a dumb Chicken Little over here. I genuinely hope so. But for free agency, I just thought there’d be more.
That’s all my Lions thoughts at the moment. Is it weird to be contextualize Lions personnel moves with things like mortality and chaos theory? Perhaps not. Oh well, Saint Patrick’s Day and baseball are right around the corner. Panem et circus! Auf Wiedersehen!
