Being a Detroit Lions fan, you don’t ever get a chance to praise them for doing something right. For as long as I can remember, the Detroit Lions have always been the laughing stock of Detroit sports and, just, sports in general. They have mastered the art of giving you hope and then finding hilarious ways to crush it (I.E., Green Bay Hail Mary, Calvin Johnson Non-PI call in the 2014 playoffs, etc.). When Detroit had top-5 players in the NFL (Calvin Johnson, Ndamkoung Suh), they have found ways to drive these superstars away to different teams or retirement. If you looked up the definition of snake-bitten in the dictionary, the Detroit Lions logo would be shown next to it. It’s easy to give up hope on the Detroit Lions.

But…

Today, there seems to be a glimmer of hope that the Detroit Lions can start to build on. Darius Slay, a Lions cornerback, just re-signed for a 4 year/$50.2 million deal to stay in Detroit. If you don’t follow the Detroit Lions or football, Darius Slay is one of the brightest spots on this team. He plays the cornerback position, which in today’s NFL is perhaps one of the most important defensive positions on the field. He is so good at his position that teams were scared to throw towards his side of the field when he was in the game. Slay was a player that the Lions could rely on game after game.

That’s not even the best part about this deal.

One of the biggest reasons that this deal happened was due to Slay making it known that he actually wanted to stay in Detroit and play for the Detroit Lions. He actually made it known to the Lions and the whole world that he LOVED playing for the Lions.

If you’re a Lions fan, you probably haven’t heard words like “love” describe playing for the Lions.

This contract extension is a sign that the perception of playing in Detroit seems to be changing. Perhaps it’s because players have a renewed sense of faith in the organization due to a change in the front office. Bob Quinn, the new general manager, came from the New England Patriots organization, a team that prides itself on its winning culture. Slay has never played for Quinn before, he doesn’t know how Quinn would change the way things were operated in Detroit. Yet he is taking a gamble in signing a deal with Detroit now because he sees the positive changes already.

With all this being said, the Lions really need to use this Slay extension as a momentum starter instead of a bright spot. Fans are still going to be down on the Lions until transactions like these turn up in the win column. It’s on the players to keep the positive direction going. Hopefully players like Ezekiel Ansah and Matthew Stafford (preferably Stafford) will use the Slay extension to take their play to the next level. If they see Slay get paid for his improvement, they know that they will too.

It was a good day to be a Detroit Lions fan. Now we gotta have those good days on Sundays.