FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Rob “Lion Eyes” Gonzales stood on a swath of the turf from Pontiac Silverdome in his basement, sporting his signature shades with blue frames and leaping lions on silver lenses that obstruct his view.
“For years, that was a good thing,” he joked Thursday.
No one is laughing at the Detroit Lions anymore.
The Lions, one of the NFL's worst teams for much of its 90-year history, are Super Bowl favorites for the first time and long-suffering fans are loving every minute of it.
Detroit will kick off a potential run to its first league title since 1957 against the Washington Commanders on Saturday night at Ford Field.
It's the hottest ticket in Motown — and the NFL.
The average ticket price is $836, according to Vivid Seats, and that's more than $300 more than tickets in Philadelphia and about three times more expensive than it costs to watch games in Kansas City and Buffalo.
Just two games other than the Super Bowl since 2010 had a higher average price for sold tickets, according to the secondary-market ticketing site.
Brittany Sayles, assistant principal at Ann Arbor STEAM, said she potentially could sell her pair of $400 tickets for $1,500 each.
“I remember some games when I couldn't go, I couldn't even give tickets away,” said the 39-year-old, season-ticket holder from Detroit. “Now, everyone is asking for tickets.”
Sayles has raffled off tickets to staff at her school in the past, but she is not going to miss witnessing the divisional round or the first NFC championship game played in Detroit if the Lions avoid an upset against Washington.
“This may not come again in this lifetime,” she said.
A lot of fans never thought they would see what has happened to the most popular team in a sports-crazed state.
The Lions made their NFL debut in 1934, following a four-season run in Ohio as the Portsmouth Spartans, and were a powerhouse in the 1950s with three championships in a six-year stretch.
After the franchise won its last NFL title in 1957, it had only one playoff victory until last year's breakout.
Detroit won two playoff games in one year for the first time since its last league championship before losing a 17-point, third-quarter lead at San Francisco in the NFC championship game to remain one of the four teams without a Super Bowl appearance.
The Lions started the season with unusually high expectations and lived up to them.
They have even become a popular team with people that don't have local ties thanks to a high-scoring, trick-play heavy offense and charismatic coach Dan Campbell, who memorably said his players would bite kneecaps of opponents at his introductory news conference four years ago.
“The (Dallas) Cowboys are America’s team, but I guess we’re America’s favorites," All-Pro safety Kerby Joseph told The Associated Press. "There’s so much love and support. I have fans come up to me, `I’ve been a fan since like 1933 or something.′ They always believed in us.
"It means everything to give back to this team, this organization and to the city.”
The team's renaissance has mirrored the Motor City's.
Detroit, once one of the nation's most powerful and populated cities, has been working on a comeback since filing for bankruptcy in 2013.
“This city was in ruins 10, 15 years ago,” Gonzales said. “The city’s coming back, and our team is coming back.”
In the heart of downtown, where the NFL draft drew record crowds last April, the largest construction project in the city in more than a half-century is taking shape. A 685-foot skyscraper that will become the home of General Motors and will have 1.5 million square feet of retail, office, dining, hospitality and residential space is making progress.
The long-abandoned Michigan Central Station underwent a renovation that transformed the 18-story, 113-year-old train depot from an eyesore into a source of pride.
New hotels, high-end and trendy restaurants and bars are popping up on a regular basis in a once-maligned city that has changed the conversation with its fewest number of homicides since 1966.
The Lions have played a key role, according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, in lifting the spirt of fans and showing the world what an NFL franchise and an area is capable of with the right leadership.
“I think what the Lions have already done for the city is remarkable," Duggan said. "I’m one of these nutty fans that after the game the next day I rewatch the game on TV, and not just for the commentary.
“The shots of Detroit going across the country are spectacular.”
The view in Gonzales' basement is pretty impressive, too.
After the Lions left the Pontiac Silverdome following the 2001 season, everything in the domed stadium was for sale and Gonzales made the most of the opportunity.
Gonzales — who lives about 30 miles south of Detroit — filled up a 17-foot moving truck with a 10-yard section of the turf, which included the 10-yard line that has stains he thinks might be blood from a player, his two seats along with three more chairs, light fixtures and ceiling titles to decorate his 1,400-square foot house.
“You could not have put another screw in that truck,” the 2023 Detroit Lions Fan of the Year said.
The retired steel mill supervisor has autographed Lions jerseys — including No. 20s Barry Sanders, Billy Sims and Lem Barney — on a wall along with framed photos and autographs, bobbleheads, footballs, trinkets and much, much more taking up almost every inch of space.
“Being a Lions fan is not easy — it's been hard," he said, wearing a Lions jersey, cap and slippers and a replica, 1957 championship ring. "We’ve had some horrible years, and some terrible things have happened, but we’re overcoming that.
"And we now have a historic team. This team is like no other that we’ve ever seen.”
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Follow Larry Lage at https://apnews.com/author/larry-lage
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Larry Lage, The Associated Press
