And now back to our regularly scheduled Lions disappointment

Earn a first-round bye and then lay a gigantic egg? That's Lions football.

We now know who’s going to the Super Bowl this season. And, for the 59th year, it won’t be the Detroit Lions.

For more than two weeks, a post about the Lions, No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and my hometown team, bounced around in my head. How the Lions offense was firing on all cylinders, how the defense was recovering from catastrophic injury, how not only had they advanced to become the top seed, they shed their identity as lovable losers to become favorites. Sentimental favorites even.

But I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on the post. As a Lions fan for my 50-plus years, all I could tell myself was this: Let’s not tempt fate. How about they advance first?

And they took their first-round playoff bye and laid a gigantic egg in losing to the Washington Commanders.

My reaction: That’s Lions football.

You know, the first NFL team to go winless for an entire season. Or lose Barry Sanders (shown above during his playing career with Lions great Billy Sims) and other stars early because of the relentless grind of losing. Or the lack of postseason success in the Super Bowl era of NFL football.

Being a Lions football fan is heartbreak, a mantle of identity as dependable as the Cubs or Red Sox before winning their World Series titles. (Losing is a disease … as contagious as …)

But let me salvage what had been in my head before the loss to the Commanders to explain what a huge climb these past two seasons of Lions football, ones that dare utter the words NFC Championship Game, had been for us, the long suffering.

First you have to understand the “decades of darkness,” (a Jeff Daniels term). That legacy puts any hope to shame, and I thought about reciting the play-by-play of Lions playoff disappointment in my lifetime. But really, neither you nor I have the time for that Ja'chuq of pain scarring generations of Lions fans. Really, all you need to know are these numbers to see the sad legacy. Let me embed the most important part as a photo. No, it isn’t the preponderance of L’s, but the lack of entries, in how quickly it gets from 1957 to the 1990s. Forget blank slate. Try a black hole. A postseason record of nothing. And never were these losers lovable. Just plain losers.

Jump ahead to this season, and Detroit grabs the No. 1 seed, leading to memes, national TV appearances and commercials. The Lions are … respected? In demand? Talk of a Lions playoff window?!? Talk that Detroit, not Dallas, is America’s Team?!! Plus head coaching jobs for the Lions coordinators, even after losing big on the national stage.

Frankly, that turnaround, from the nadir of 2008 to the verge of greatness now, might be a bigger accomplishment than making a Super Bowl. And here’s how I know: What would you call that? Hope? From Lions fans?!?

But I’d still take a trip to the Big Game before I die. These kids would, too.

Postscript: When I shared on Facebook this photo of my Minnesota-raised boys amid the NFL-themed decor at the Mall of America, part of the hoopla of when Minneapolis last hosted the Super Bowl, my godfather chided me for trying to get those boys interested in what generally has been considered a sorry-ass football team.

In the years since, the Lions and I have tried our best to break that generational trauma, thanks to the success and hope I mentioned. But my boys have grown into a whole load of new generational trauma to deal with. They’re Vikings fans!!!