My whole life I’ve been a sports fanatic. Growing up in the suburbs of New York City, the hotbed of American sports only added to my passion. So when it came to picking a football team, why did I bypass the Jets and Giants, my hometown teams, or even the Patriots, from my dad's native city, in favor of a team over one thousand miles away?
Like I said, ever since I was in the early years of elementary school, I’ve always followed my favorite sports teams religiously. The Knicks were my first love and still are to this day. I was a die-hard Yankee fan for a couple years in middle school, then converted to the good side to root for the Mets. Yeah, I understand it makes little sense. But that’s a story for another time. Anyway, I had always been a pretty big fan of the NFL, watching games on Sunday afternoons, but up until my freshman year of high school, I never had a team to call “mine.” That’s when I started playing fantasy football and my life as an NFL fan would change forever.
Those who know me well understand that I am a notoriously bad drafter when it comes to fantasy sports leagues. No difference was the case in this 2011 season, but I did land a great asset in star running back Jamaal Charles. Long story short, I traded him in an incredibly lopsided deal, but I did receive Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson. Now that I had both Detroit’s star quarterback and wide receiver, it gave me a reason to start following the team a bit more. Given that I had no favorite team at the time, I began to track these two players’ progress more and more each week. Despite being one of football’s worst franchises, the Lions remarkably got off to a stellar 5-0 start in this season. Watching Calvin Johnson, known as “Megatron” due to his domination of the league, catch multiple touchdowns on a weekly basis, I was immediately hooked.
Not only was Calvin arguably the league’s best player at this time period, but he also reminded me of what every kid wanted to be. Playing pickup flag football, it’s the dream to be the guy catching the game-winning, one-handed touchdown over two defenders in the end zone. If I had any more reason to root for this once-in-a-generation athlete, he also was, and remains, a true role model in how he has handled himself off the field and during post-game interviews.
Every time I get asked the question ‘What sports teams do you follow?,” I am almost always met with immense confusion when I tell people that the Lions are my favorite football team. Honestly, I’ve never even been to a Lions home game, let alone the state of Michigan. But that has never bothered me. In a way, it’s an awesome feeling being the only one of my friends to root for this team. When they’re playing well and the Jets or Giants are performing poorly, I can boast as much as I desire. It was also an awesome experience seeing the Lions play the Jets at MetLife Stadium in 2014, where I got to meet a bunch of other Detroit fans while tailgating prior to game time. It made me realize that, hey, maybe I’m not the only fan of this lonely team in the tri-state area.
When Calvin Johnson retired from the NFL last month, I was, of course, very disappointed. The man who gave me a team to follow each week was gone from that very team. My friends just assumed I would pick a new team. After all, now that Megatron was gone, what reason would I have to root for a team that most people outside of Detroit care nothing about. To be honest though, I have become too attached to this franchise. I’ve sat through two Lion games in opposing stadiums getting heckled by two of the most brutal fanbases in sports, those of the Jets and Patriots respectively. It's quite an experience getting mercilessly booed by an entire section of "Gang Green" while just walking to get food. Or after the Lions got mutilated by the Patriots, when a Pats fan proceeded to tell me to "go back to Detroit." Additionally, I've nervously watched two playoff games, holding out hope that somehow the Lions would not fail me once again.
Despite all of the negatives I’ve endured as a fan, I’m sticking with what I got myself into. With or without Calvin Johnson, this is my team for the rest of my life, and I couldn't be more proud of that fact.
