Chris Spielman will be inducted into the Pride of the Lions Sunday afternoon at Ford Field because the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker made play after play over eight years in Detroit. And when a play had to be made, when the game was on the line and the ball was about to be snapped, what was going through Spielman's mind?
"OK," he said Friday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "We’re going to get a little dark here."
Which is fitting -- football can be a dark game.
"Look, I told my kids this so I’ll tell you this," said Spielman, a father to four children with his late wife Stephanie. "I used to picture that bad guys kidnapped my family and if I didn’t make the freaking tackle that they were going to take my family out. I would tell that to myself over and over and over," "And when I went into the game, I did everything I possibly could to do my job at the highest level."
That's exactly what he did throughout his 10-year career. Spielman is the Lions' all-time leader in tackles and he was the heartbeat of the team's only sustained stretch of success in the Super Bowl era. He started every single game from 1991-95, during which time Detroit made four trips to the playoffs, won two conference titles and reached the NFC Championship in 1991.
"The other thing I thought about, I never feared an opponent," Spielman said. "I never feared tackling Bo Jackson, I never feared tackling Barry Sanders (in practice), the Nigerian Nightmare (Christian Okoye). I had no fear of those guys. It’s me and them and one of us is going to win.
"What I did fear, my only fear, was I never, ever wanted to let my teammates down, I never wanted to let the fans down, I never wanted to let the coaches down by not being prepared or not doing my job and giving everything I absolutely have. Because I set the standard for myself and I did everything in the world not to drop or lower that standard for 11 years."
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That loss in the '91 NFC Championship is the closest the Lions have come to the Super Bowl. The game was close at the half, but Washington outscored Detroit 21-0 in the second half to win 41-10.
"I still live with that freaking nightmare," Spielman said. "We got our ass kicked. That’s the truth. I can’t hide from that."
Spielman was so angry when the Redskins starting kneeling the ball in Lions' territory with the clock winding down in the fourth that he called all three of Detroit's timeouts to prevent Washington from running out the clock.
"They took a knee in the NFC Championship game, which was humiliating," he said. "I was ticked that they were taking a knee going in for another touchdown, so I called a timeout. They took another knee to burn the clock, I called timeout. So I had both sidelines pissed at me, but I didn't care. What are you gonna do to me? You already humiliated me and kept me from my life-long dream. You’re gonna get mad at me for calling timeouts? Go ahead, I got bigger problems."
The Lions surprised Spielman with his induction into the team's ring of honor by having him record a video reading the accomplishments of "one of the greatest Lions ever" until he realized they were his own. He cried when he realized what was happening and said the "first thing I thought about was my family."
Fitting.
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