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ESPN Daily

Tim Keown Dives Inside the Mind of Dan Campbell

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Detroit Lions are usually considered one of the most hapless franchises in the NFL. They have never been to a Super Bowl, and are preparing to make just their second trip to the NFC Championship in the Super Bowl era. But most of that history predates their current head coach, Dan Campbell. He’s led an overhaul over his first three seasons that have the Lions on the cusp of their first Super Bowl appearance, and it’s safe to say that he’s got everyone in the Lions’ wake fired up. Televised tears of joy, fans dying their hair blue, even General Motors and the Ford Motor Company have joined in - issuing Lions themed logos in a show of support. Tim Keown took a trip to Detroit to witness firsthand just how much the culture has evolved under Campbell. And reports on a team, a fanbase, and a city ready to usher in a new era in Detroit Lions football. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Tim Kewen, there's a tweet for my friend Jane Kosten, host of the New York Times

0:05.6

podcast The Argument that I want to share with you.

0:08.4

It says, quote, if you're a Michigan and Lions fan, this has been the greatest two-week period of your life end quote

0:14.8

we just saw Big Blue win the national title and now the Detroit Lions are doing

0:19.4

things they haven't done in more than three decades,

0:23.0

winning their division, hosting and winning playoff games,

0:26.1

heading to their first NFC championship game in 32 years.

0:29.1

We remember, because we were there, it was in DC, I was a kid. You recently visited Detroit to spend time in

0:35.2

the Lions camp. What were the vibes like around town, sir?

0:38.8

Oh, you know, apologies to Michigan fans, but there's a whole different history with the

0:44.2

Lions than there is with Michigan. Michigan's expected to be good. They've been good

0:49.0

many many years. This team has captured this city in a way that you rarely see. It's classic first success, right, where this team comes together.

1:09.0

It's classic first success, right? Where this team comes together and everybody kind of grows up with them

1:18.0

and watches them. And I think that hope that they started with with Dan Campbell three years ago has really blossomed into something

1:25.2

that people really feel an ownership with this team in Detroit and they are they're just wildly behind them as you might expect.

1:35.0

Look at everywhere, look at this, you don't see nothing like this.

1:39.0

The Detroit versus everybody.

1:41.0

I happened to visit during week 17 which was after the infamous Cowboys

1:46.5

loss you know two days after the game that these billboards appeared around

1:51.7

town and there were several of them in Grand Rapids These billboards appeared around town.

1:52.5

There were several of them in Grand Rapids and Flint and Detroit

1:56.8

that just said Decker reported.

...

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