There are three words I’m tired of hearing when it comes to the Detroit Lions.
“Restore the Roar.”
We’ve been hearing these words connected to the Lions for decades. When Barry Sanders was drafted in 1989, the phrase was being used so much it made it into the media address from the soft-spoken, hard running rookie who would become a Lions legend and Hall of Famer.
“I feel it is a privilege to be one of the players that will help restore the roar in the dome,” Barry said.
No one roared on the field like Barry Sanders. As long as he was on the team, you couldn’t help but think the Lions had a chance of winning.
Of course, winning is not what the Lions have become known for over the years. And a call to “restore the roar” has been a legitimate rallying cry. Never more so than when the Lions hit the historic low of a winless, 0-16 2008 season.
The roar badly needed to be restored.
The Detroit Lions had a whimper. This was a losing team. Other NFL teams and fans of those teams looked at their schedules and when they saw the Detroit Lions on it, they could pretty much count on that as a win. A change needed to happen. And it did.
During the winless season, Matt Millen was finally fired and then so was head coach Rod Marinelli. This cleared the way for Martin Mayhew to take over as general manager and the fiery Jim Schwartz to take over as head coach.
Say what you will about the Schwartz era, but as Mayhew worked to increase the talent level of the Lions roster, Schwartz helped bring fight and pride to the team. The Lions no longer were a team others could count on beating. The Lions became relevant, even finally making a long-awaited return to the playoffs, but only once during Schwartz’s five-year reign.
When it was apparent Schwartz reached his limitations on how far he could take the Lions, the organization switched out one Jim for another. Enter Jim Caldwell.
Caldwell inherited a Lions team that was a legitimate contender in 2014, and with an 11-5 record, they returned to the playoffs. Now, despite the major loss of Ndamukong Suh, the Lions are more talented than they’ve ever been. In fact, they have enough talent, top to bottom, to rival any team in the league.
No team is looking at their schedule and just counting their game against the Lions as a win.
With the discipline and focus brought by Caldwell and carried out by the staff and players, the second year in the coaching system could see a Lions team in the top five on both defense and offense. That’s a scary roar. Fans of the team should stop using a rallying cry that implies the Lions’ roar is missing.
The roar has been restored. Lions fans have a team to root for that is a legitimate playoff contender. Not just that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the team, as Jim Miller predicted on Sirius XM NFL Radio, roared all the way to a Super Bowl 50 win.