For years, the Detroit Lions have been the laughingstock of the NFL. The butt end of jokes, Dan Orlovsky safeties, an 0-16 season oh and they haven’t won a playoff game since January of 1992.

This year however, these Lions have a roar to them and a swagger that has been built for three years with the leadership of Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes, which started with some questionable sayings from Campbell.

This is why we brought Dan Campbell to the Detroit Lions because the culture he’s built here is simply elite

pic.twitter.com/lkRpvE7H7t

— Grace (@gracesporttakes) September 29, 2023

Biting kneecaps at the time was funny, it was weird but you know what? It has worked and the Lions are off to a hot 3-1 start to the 2023 NFL season. Campbell’s original comments have blossomed into a culture and have gotten buy-in from all the players and now have made Detroit a destination for NFL talent and not a place where players go as a last resort.

Brad Holmes on the other hand has done an excellent job drafting talent with the likes of Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, Jameson Williams, Jack Campbell, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs and Brian Branch. When it comes to finding talent, Brad knows how to find talent.

These are all fundamental pieces to build what the Motor City faithful as a team that they can get behind. As Detroit currently has a problem with his other teams, the Tigers are missing the playoffs for the ninth straight season, the Redwings have missed the playoffs for seven seasons now and the Pistons lost 65 games last year. So, Detroit fans need the Lions the continue roaring and make the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and their first division title since 1993.

.@aidanhutch97 has our 6th sack of the day! #ATLvsDET |📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/ZGUTVbjlJM

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 24, 2023

Videos like this show that Detroit is winning games and able to have fun while doing so. Back to my original point on the Lions. This is a team that is living up to the hype that the NFL media was giving to them all off-season, a team that is no longer the butt end of a joke and this Lion is on its way to taking its role from a cat with a small meow to a ferocious roar heard league-wide. I was also skeptical of them because we see this time and time again, where a team gets hyped up and nothing i.e. the Denver Broncos.

Detroit is also changing the way teams hire coaches now instead of getting a guy who can come in and be an offensive and defensive genius, we are starting to see football guys who buy culture and get a 100% buy-in from its players, a buy-in that players get behind and a leader they want to go to war for, we’ve seen it in Houston and even in Arizona, Jonathan Gannon may not be a one and done coach anymore as the Cardinals play hard every single week, oh and they are 3-0 against the spread.

In the end, Detroit has a good team, a team with promise, a team with a culture and hopefully soon a winning culture. For now if you are a Lions fan and apart of the One Pride crew, enjoy the ride because you have earned it Detroit.