Keegan-Michael Key grew up in Detroit, went to college in the city and helped found one of Detroit’s most well-known Improv theaters (Planet Ant in Hamtramck, Michigan) before heading to Hollywood to star in the former Comedy Central hit show, “Key and Peele.”

Along the way, the 44-year-old never lost his Detroit Lions fandom, including vivid memories of Billy Sims karate-kicking a defender on a hurdle in a game -- something Key said he tried to emulate as a kid, getting him in trouble. After chatting with Key about the potential acting future of Lions wide receiver Lance Moore, we spoke about his Lions love – including his Hail Mary reaction and what he thinks of the Lions now.

Keegan-Michael Key has been a Lions fan since the Billy Sims teams of the early 1980s. Casey Curry/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

Have you always been a Lions fan? Is this a lifelong deal?

Keegan-Michael Key: I’ve been a Lions fan since I was, gosh, 9 or 10, go over to my friend’s house in the University District over by U of D and watch the games because they were winning games. They were winning games. I’ve always loved Billy Sims and any time I bump into a Detroiter out here, we always talk about ‘Mel Farr, Superstar, for a Farr better deal,’ and Lem Barney and stuff like that. It’s been a big part of my life. My parents were not big sports fans, but my mother loved Barry Sanders, but she wasn’t a huge fan. Now she likes Calvin Johnson. He’s such an amazing athlete and such a wonderful, humble guy.

I’ve always been a fan and I was about to jump off an airplane. I was in the sky on an airplane when they lost that Thursday night game on a Hail Mary to Green Bay. I could have opened the window and jumped out the plane. I couldn’t believe it. And I had this feeling of dread come over me as soon as they made the face-mask call, which, by the way, I thought was a wonderful piece of acting by my friend Aaron Rodgers. He should go into acting. He definitely has a future in acting. Fifteen yards. Anyway, the Hail Mary pass and I turned to a complete stranger sitting behind me on the plane and said, ‘Did you see that? Did you F’n see that?’ Fifteen yards, first down, one more play left, Aaron Rodgers and he puts the pass deep. I’m like, this is going to be it. This is against the Lions.

Being a Lions fan is like being a Cubs fan. You just have to keep going. You don’t have a choice. You can’t give up because one day when it happens, and I believe it’ll happen, then you can really savor it because you were there in the doldrums and you get to be there in the victory. I don’t want anyone ever accusing me of being a fair-weather fan. I’m wearing a Lions hat right now.

Do you watch every game live? What’s your routine?

Key: I have my NFL package but I’ve been having a really, really, really busy year. So I missed Sunday’s game and I haven’t been able to watch. I’ve been traveling back-and-forth between Los Angeles and New York. I am an avid television watcher and I’ve watched the least amount of television in the past few months than I think I have in my entire life. Including birth. And so I’ve not been able to watch all the games but my typical plan for the past seven years of my life living in Los Angeles, or 10 years of my life, I would either go to church, DVR the game, go home and watch the game every single Sunday. Or, I would go down to my friend’s house and we’d watch the game at his house. So I try as hard as I can to not miss games. This year, I was going to go to the game on [Dec.] 27, but I’m not. I have to travel. Next year, I’m going to make much more of a concerted effort to go see more games, like literally see live games. I’ve yet to be in Ford Field. I haven’t even been able to go yet. It’s a good thing to say about the career that I haven’t had the time. But I’d like to sneak a few games in there.

What do you think of the Lions now?

Key: I think there’s more frustration now, a lot more frustration now, but for good reason. People have been saying this for about 15 years but if you’re a lifelong fan, 15 years of frustration is good because we’ve been trying to build and build and build and build a team that was worthwhile. Now we have a lot of component parts and so what I think the issue has to be is it has to be front office. We have such talented players on our team and people talk like, ‘Detroit is so good, why can’t they get their act together?’ I don’t know the answer to that question, but I would rather take that frustration over the frustration of them just being horrible all the time. There were times when Joey Harrington was there, we just can’t get it together. Joey is one of those people where you get so frustrated because you went, ‘How can someone that talented, why can’t we get it together?’ It’s actually more frustrating now than it was in the late 80s and early 90s. We were just bad, like we were just horrible, we don’t expect anything, who cares. Now, the Lions fans are more apprehensive and we care more because we know the talent is there. We’re not one player away, we’re one coach away. We’re one general manager away. That’s what’s going on now.