The last time the Detroit Lions were in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, I was still a month and a half away from being born. On January 5th, 1992, the Lions routed the Dallas Cowboys by the final score of 38-6 in a game played at the Pontiac Silverdome. This was one year before the Cowboys would go on to win their first of three Super Bowls in a four-year span. Since that game — a game that saw Erik Kramer carve the Dallas D up for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns — the Detroit Lions would go thirty-two years without winning another Playoff game, a sad streak that was broken last Sunday night when the Lions exorcised some demons, defeating former starting quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round.

Now the Detroit Lions once again host a Divisional Round Playoff game, this time against the surprising Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and if you're a Lions fan who is looking to get a ticket to this game, you better be ready to pony up some serious cash to get yourself a seat inside of Ford Field.

 

As a thirty-one year old supporter of the Chicago Bears, I tend to consider myself a “tortured fan.” I missed out on the '85 Bears Super Bowl title by six years, and from the time I can remember — we're talking late-90s — the Bears have had twelve quarterbacks lead the team in passing yards in a given season, seven head coaches who have won a combined 46 percent of their games, six postseason appearances, three playoff wins, and two doinks on a game-winning field goal attempt that still haunts me five years later.

However, my plight is admittedly not as bad as my cousin Gianni, a thirty-one year old Detroit Lions fan. Using the same time frame as I did above, the Lions have had just as many head coaches and fewer starting quarterbacks than the Bears, but also a lower winning percentage (33%), fewer postseason appearances (5), fewer postseason wins (1), and as many winless seasons (1) as the Bears have Super Bowl appearances since 1998.

Now surely, most Lions fans reading along probably tuned out when I interjected my own personal biases into this piece. I get it. This is an exciting time to be a fan of the Lions and you don't need a Bears fan chiming in with his own opinion. But if my own opinion counts for anything, let me say this: I'll be rooting for Detroit this weekend. And this isn't a “Oh, let me go ahead and cheer for every NFC North team so it makes the Bears division look good.” Nuh-uh. I hope Green Bay gets beat by literally one-thousand American football points this weekend. But for the Lions fans who have truly been tortured, including my cousin, I'm all about a Lions win on Sunday.