Season-ticket sellout shows Detroit Lions fans are on the hype train

Dan Campbell worries the “hype train” is outta control. That makes sense if you suit up for the Detroit Lions’ head coach.  

Not that he’s trying to manage your expectations, or even his players; he wants them to have big goals, and to believe. He’s just trying to keep his guys focused. Coaches do that, for good reason.  

But when a team — any team — is favored to win anything for the first time in three decades, well, hype is hard to control. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. 

In fact, the business side of Lions headquarters surely loves the expectation surrounding the franchise. For the first time since the team moved to Ford Field (in 2002, by the way,) it sold out of season tickets — or, as the Lions call them, “Lions Loyal Memberships." 

That’s a mouthful of letters to describe a season ticket, and in the team’s release announcing the sellout, it helpfully translated the phrase. There’s no need to translate what the rush for season tickets means. Though I will, since it’s what I do. 

Here goes: The upcoming season is the most anticipated in 30 years, at least. As Dan Miller, the team’s radio play-by-play announcer said Thursday morning after practice: “Never seen anything like it.” 

He's only been around the franchise for 27 years. A newbie, if you will. So, forgive him.  

Why the hype? I asked him somewhat rhetorically. 

“They’ve got good players,” he said, “lots of them.” 

Sounds simple, eh? 

And it is, if you’ve been a fan in other markets. In this one? Not so much.  

Oh, the Lions have had good players before — great players, even. Just never enough of them in the right spots. We’ll see if they do this fall. 

If they don’t, that’ll be a bummer for the legions hanging onto the hype train. Or, as one reader put it to me recently in an email: 

“If the Lions stink this fall, it’ll hurt more than ever.” 

It brings to mind Lord Alfred Tennyson’s line: “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” 

It's like he wrote it for Lions fans, all the way back in 1849.  

The team could use a house poet, come to think of it. Or at least use a new one. The ode to pain is getting old — has gotten old — and it helps explain why the season tickets are sold out and why folks spent hours online a few weeks ago queuing up electronically to snag training camp tickets.  

“You (can) feel it,” said Jerry Jacobs, the Lions cornerback who arrived in Detroit as an undrafted free agent before the 2021 season and found a home. 

Jacobs is a self-described dog — or perhaps “dawg.” Either one is fine with him. He was quick to point out Thursday that this surge of hype and expectation shouldn’t overshadow what the fanbase has been like all along. 

“Even when we were having a bad season my rookie season, they were still here,” he said. 

Mostly because they are always there, which is to say you are always there. Yet this still feels new, and now we have more proof. 

“Having sold out tickets for this season is amazing, man,” Jacobs said. “They're gonna make us feel like we’re lit out there. I’m excited for that.” 

As for the hype? Or the hype train? 

Jared Goff isn’t too worried about it.  

“I don’t know, I think it’s funny to me that, like, you go 9-8, you don’t make the playoffs, and now you’re all of a sudden a favorite,” he said recently when asked about his coach’s worry. “Of course, we’ve got good players, we’ve got good coaches, we’ve got a good team, but we haven’t done anything, and we have a lot of work to do, and Minnesota won 13 games last year. Green Bay has won the division a handful of times in the last handful of years. So, we’ve got some work to do to put a stamp on who we want to be and are nowhere near that yet.” 

But? 

“We’re on our way,” he said.  

That, of course sounds like it could be a train. Perhaps at least an acknowledgment of movement. Maybe the compromise then is to call this a “hype jog” or a “hype walk.” 

Would that keep the coaches satisfied that their players aren’t getting lost in the noise? 

Nah. Coaches are always gonna worry. It’s their job.  

And it’s your job to worry about your heart, and how much you want to expose it. As I’ve heard from many readers lately, it’s not easy to keep believing this is finally going to be the year. 

Then you do. Will the story finally change this year? 

We’ll see. One thing for certain is that it’ll have more witnesses than ever before.  

Tennyson would approve.