Here is the strange, hard fact. The Detroit Lions have never played in a Super Bowl. A team that has been around since the 1930s, that won NFL titles when Eisenhower was in office, has never once reached the game that has defined the sport for nearly sixty years. I lost four of them. The Lions have not been allowed to lose one.

The long road that never reaches the door

Detroit’s last championship came in 1957, before the Super Bowl existed. The decades since have mostly been wandering, with one real flirtation in the early 1990s when a Barry Sanders team reached the NFC Championship Game and got blown out a round short. The recent Lions have been good, genuinely good, the kind that make a city believe again. The final door has stayed shut.

One waiting fan to another

I know about waiting, but at least my team got to stand on the field. Lions fans have done the harder thing, which is keep faith with a franchise that has never given them the day. There is something almost holy about that loyalty. Detroit, when you finally get there, the rest of us long-suffering types will be standing up for you. You have earned the welcome.