Lion Through Your Teeth

I thought she was kidding me when she said it.
However, I'm not one to argue with my sportsically-gifted spouse.
The Detroit Lions are undefeated.
Say what???
I was born in the Motor City and have spent time in and out of it through the years.
Aside from the Red Wings and Pistons, our football and baseball teams have been
at best, a yawn in the pro sports world.
Until recently.
The Tigers have rebounded (thanks to some Pittsburgh faces in the management office), and now the Lions, once the worst team in the NFL, is making a comeback in a big big way.
And I wasn't about to argue with my wife when she predicted a playoff berth.
My wife knows something about every kind of sport.  If she doesn't particularly like it, she knows the basics enough to hold her own in any conversation.
Not me.  I've written sports stories in my 23-year career, and the only thing I haven't done is on-air sports-by-play or color commentary.  Not even sideline reporting.
But I'm taking Margie's word for it.  Maybe this could be the year for the Lions.
Owned by the Ford family's deep pockets, winning has never been a priority.  Like our Pittsburgh Pirates, the franchise has had a loyal fan base to keep the seats at Ford Field filled and the franchise profitable.
It used to be that fans would shun their team once they were out of the pennant races after so many consecutive losses.
Not anymore.
Guess we've become more about 'unconditional love' in recent years.
In Pittsburgh, yeah, we get our panties in a twist when the Steelers play a bad game and we're out for blood.
Because we still come back.  Sometimes with egg on our faces.
We may whine and complain about bad plays, but if the black-and-gold were to pack up and move tomorrow, we'd fight it tooth and nail.
It's just what we do.
We're the spoiled children indulged at will.  Then mom and dad decide to stop.
We throw the temper tantrum. 
But we get over it.
Most of the time anyway.

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