If you must confront your demons to conquer them, the Lions better not blink. They're about to come face to face with their past.
The Lions' first home playoff game in 30 years will come against Matthew Stafford and the Rams, after seeding was solidified on Sunday. To wit: the quarterback who never won a playoff game over 12 years in Detroit and then immediately won the Super Bowl after being traded to LA could finally win a playoff game in Detroit while shattering Detroit's dreams.
Or the Lions could stomp Stafford out in what would be one of the most cathartic sports victories in the history of this city.
"That would definitely be poetic," said Taylor Decker, who used to protect Stafford's blindside.
It would be similarly satisfying for Jared Goff, the quarterback on the other end of Stafford's trade request. The Rams dumped him just two years after he'd signed an extension following a trip to the Super Bowl, and head coach Sean McVay all but kicked him out the door in his lust for Stafford. It remains a chip on Goff's shoulder, a prideful player who would relish the chance to get one back on his former team.
By the way, Stafford in LA: 75 TD-36 INT-95.8 rating -- and the Super Bowl that eluded Goff. Goff in Detroit: 78 TD-27 INT-96.5 rating -- and the division that eluded Stafford.
Should the Lions dispatch Stafford in his return to Detroit, they'd be facing a trip to their house of horrors. The Cowboys loom as the No. 2 seed. The No. 2 seed would belong to the Lions had they not just fallen victim to another ref-stained loss in Dallas, where an erroneous flag against Detroit on a potential game-winning play spurred flashbacks of an erroneous decision to pick up a flag against the Cowboys on a potential game-winning drive for Stafford and the Lions in the 2014 wild card round. AT&T Stadium has indeed been the Death Star for Detroit, who could be doomed in Dallas yet again.
Or the Lions could storm back into town 10 years after being robbed once and three weeks after being robbed twice and finally take what's theirs.
The Lions should not and will not fear either team that stands in their way. They are plenty good enough to beat them both. They've been hungry for a grudge match with the Cowboys from the moment last week's game ended: "I hope we see this team again," Dan Campbell said after the stolen victory. The Rams are rolling, winners of seven of eight with Stafford playing his best ball of the season, but good luck rolling into Ford Field for maybe the most anticipated game this town has ever seen. We're talking about a 30-year wait heightened by a 60-year heartache. Has anything compared?
Goff says the 2023 Lions "don't carry the weight" of the franchise's history. But the past is still theirs to shake, and this is their path to take. They have a fearless coach in Dan Campbell, who returned to Detroit after playing here "to be part of the team that turns it around." They have a hardened quarterback in Goff, elevated by an elite offensive line and an armory of weapons. They have a motivated defense that's starting to play angry, with reinforcements on the way. Linebacker Alex Anzalone said the unit wants to "change the narrative of how we’re viewed as a team," meaning the defense isn't the weakness. The Lions, together, can change the narrative at large.
"Once you have gone through the great suffering, if you will, as it pertains to sports and Lions football, man, that’s when there’s a great triumph," Campbell once said. "And to be a part of that, to be able to help it become that, that’s something special."
It might not be the Lions' year yet. The 49ers remain the class of the NFC and the Lions learned exactly where they stood against the class of the NFL in a beatdown at the hands of the Ravens in October. They are a couple pieces away from legitimate Super Bowl contention. It remains their year to sever ties with who they've been. They are not the Same Old Lions, insists Decker, the team's longest-tenured player. "We've overcome that," says the local prodigy Aidan Hutchinson. These Lions can shape new perceptions. A great triumph is still within their grasp.
"We gonna be a fu*king problem," C.J. Gardner-Johnson said after returning to the lineup in the Lions' win over the Vikings in Sunday's season finale. "Like Coach Dan says, we’re seasoned for this. We're perfectly scarred for this."
"We had to take the hard road to get to where we’re at," said Decker, "to get to the point where we’re having success and still standing."
So why take the easy one now? The Lions have spent most of the last seven decades lost in the dark, and blinded by brief bursts of light. The present is leading back into the past, and the only way out is through. It could conjure nightmares and spawn more terrors.
Or the Lions could slay their demons at the dawn of a new era.