No one believed deluded Dan Campbell, who has crazed Detroit on Super Bowl doorstep

Happy anniversary, Lions of Detroit. The Lions emerged victorious in the NFC championship game, exactly three years after newly hired coach Dan Campbell gave his first press conference, which was largely regarded as the speech of a misguided dreamer hoping to mend an irreparably broken team. Detroit is one of four NFL franchises that has not yet made it to the grandest stage in football, while the other three teams competing in this weekend’s conference championship games—San Francisco (five), Kansas City (three), and Baltimore (two)—have a combined 10 Super Bowl victories.

These Lions, who knocked off Tampa Bay on Sunday after beating the Rams a week early, are the gritty, feel-good team of the postseason. In the aftermath of a 31-23 victory over the Buccaneers, Campbell said life’s a little tougher in Detroit than other parts of the country, and that helps forge the football community. “It’s not the first thing you think of if you go to L.A., or just in general,” said the coach, a onetime NFL tight end. “You’ve got the sun, you’ve got the beach, you’ve got plenty of other things going on. And here, man, it’s harsh winters, auto industry, blue collar, things aren’t always here. And I just think that’s what we’re about.

“You want something the city can be proud of. You can look at these guys and say, `Man, I can back that guy. I can back that team. I can resonate with those group of guys.

They taste a little salty. They don’t give up. They put a lot of effort into their play. Thus, I believe we’ve accomplished it.” Two Sunday games will determine who advances to the Super Bowl: Detroit vs. San Francisco at 3:30 and Kansas City vs. Baltimore at 12 PST. Jared Goff of the Lions views the NFC title game as a homecoming. He was raised in the Bay Area, supported the 49ers during his college career, and attended Cal. The Rams selected him with the first overall pick in 2016 then traded quarterback Matthew Stafford to Detroit following the 2020 season.

Goff got to the Super Bowl with the Rams in the 2018 season, with Los Angeles winning the conference championship game at New Orleans – a game that included a controversial pass interference by the Rams that was not flagged. Campbell and other members of the current Lions – linebacker Alex Anzalone and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn – were part of that New Orleans team. Goff said they all joked about that coincidence after Sunday’s game, easy to do now that they’re pulling in the same direction. “I don’t want to say this arrogantly,” Goff said, “but we expected to win the first [playoff] game, we expected to win this game, and now we expected to be in against a really good team at their place, and we’re going to come into it expecting to win.”

The Lions are in the minority in that regard. As of Monday morning, top-seeded San Francisco was favored by 6½ points. Goff is 3-6 in his starts against the 49ers, the first eight of those coming in his years with the Rams. San Francisco advanced to the conference championship game Saturday night with a closer-than-expected, 24-21 victory over Green Bay. After facing former No. 1 overall selections in the first two rounds – Stafford and Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield – the Lions will address the other end of the spectrum, as San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy, a most-valuable-player candidate this season, was the last player chosen in the 2022 NFL draft.

The AFC matchup pits two-time MVP Patrick Mahomes and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, in line for his second MVP honors. The Chiefs have advanced to the AFC championship game for the sixth consecutive time, meaning Mahomes has played in one every season as a starter. But Sunday was his first true road playoff game, not counting three neutral-site Super Bowls. (One of those was in Tampa against the Buccaneers, but only 22,000 fans were allowed to attend because of COVID-19 restrictions.) He said Sunday that the hostile crowd in Buffalo bonded him and his teammates. “I think it’s that guys come together,” Mahomes said. “I love being at Arrowhead and playing in front of that crowd. But when you’re on the road, it’s you versus them, it’s you versus everybody in the stadium, and you have to come together as a team, and the guys do that.”

Regarding the Lions, they’re proud of how far they’ve advanced to go to the NFL Final Four. Goff remarked, “You think about the dark times there early on in 2021,” alluding to the 3-13-1 season Detroit had that year. There are numerous individuals in this room who are shouting for [Campbell’s] head. And to be able to play in the NFC championship and be able to sit up here is really good. Indeed, it feels good.

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