

Nick Fairley

For 31 other NFL cities, the Super Bowl takes place in February.

Here in Detroit, it’s on a lazy Thursday night in the early part of May.

Welcome to the world of Lions fandom, where playoff games come around once every decade, but top-10 first round picks are a yearly ritual.

Without significant late-season football games to concern ourselves with, the NFL Draft has long been our biggest event of the year.

It’s a night when hope springs eternal, where everybody wins, and even a franchise as hapless as the Lions can walk away feeling like they did their city proud.

As always, everyone has their own unique opinion on who the proper selection would be.

“Of course it has to be a receiver!! Move up to take Sammy Watkins! What good is it to have Megatron if you aren’t going to surround him with other elite wideouts?!??”

”You’re crazy if you don’t address the secondary right away! We haven’t had a quality defensive back since....Bennie Blades? Take that Darqueze Dennard kid from MSU and call it a day!”

”It’s gotta be Aaron Donald from Pitt! That guy is a beast! Plus, we need to replace Suh for when he goes on an extended hiatus in the near future, or gets suspended for stomping on a quarterback’s face!”

Of course, at this point in the proceedings, there are no wrong answers.

A Possible Bust

Each potential pick comes equipped with the possibility of a bust in Canton 15 years down the road. Or said player could just be a plain old bust, desperately holding onto a CFL roster spot before his 25th birthday rolls around.

With the Lions, it’s hard not to envision the latter. We’ve just seen it too many times before.



Jahvid Andre Best

There was the unexciting Chris Claiborne. The overweight and underperforming Stockar McDougle. Joey Harrington and his right arm that doubled as a swimming pool noodle. The entire Charles Rogers experience. The depressing Mike Williams era. Ernie Sims and Jahvid Best garnering first-round status despite dueling histories of concussion-issues. The promising, but often frustrating careers of Brandon Pettigrew and Nick Fairley.

You wonder why this franchise is the lone remaining NFC team yet to play in the Super Bowl -- look no further than that last paragraph.

There’s that glass-half-full portion of every Lions fan’s DNA that believes the next year’s first-round pick is the one to finally get this club over the top. It’s the main reason this event always plays to such a big audience in this town.

But is it ever really the case?

The Detroit Lions have called Ford Field home for 12 seasons. You know how many times in that span they’ve won even eight games, enough to call themselves a break-even football team? Once. One stinkin’ time.

Yet somehow, someway, come April or May of each year, we come crawling back to the Land of Optimism, salivating for that new top-ten toy, a pigskin savior that will fly in to rescue our sad-sack franchise.

Does it make sense? Absolutely not.

Is there any reason to think that this new addition will suddenly transform a perennial loser into a title contender? Of course not.

Yet we will still be glued to the television when Roger Goodell steps to the podium this evening to announce the 10th overall selection.

Maybe one day we’ll actually get to experience watching the Lions on the biggest of stages.

But for now, the NFL draft is our Super Bowl. It’s a sad but unavoidable truth.