Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

Rod Wood was on a relationship-building mission when he went to New York to spend a few days at NFL headquarters in February.

Wood, who had taken over as Detroit Lions president months earlier and was new to the league, wanted to meet as many executives as he could in order to find out how they might be able to help the Lions.

Among his meetings was an hourlong sit-down with senior vice president of broadcasting Howard Katz, the league's longtime scheduling guru.

It was during that session that Wood told Katz that the Lions had finished four of the last five seasons on the road and had played back-to-back road games to close the year in 2014.

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"I pointed that out to him and just said it’d be really nice if we have a meaningful game ... that it’d be home versus on the road," Wood said. "I think he at least took note of that and, when the schedule came out, we did have Week 17 at home, and as it turned out, it was against the Packers, and as it turned out, it’s very meaningful. I don’t know that I deserve any special credit for it, other than pointing out that it would be nice to, at least once every couple of years, have that game be at home."

The Lions (9-6) host the Green Bay Packers (9-6) on Sunday night at Ford Field (8:30, NBC) in what amounts to an NFC North title game.

If the Lions win, they'll win their first division title in 23 years and host at least one playoff game. If they lose or tie, the Packers will win their fifth NFC North championship in the last six years, and the Lions will need help -- a Washington loss or tie against the New York Giants -- to reach the postseason.

Wood said he expects a "big, hopefully rowdy" crowd on Sunday night -- the Lions are opening the gates to Ford Field 30 minutes earlier than normal on Sunday (at 6 p.m.) to accommodate the crush of fans -- and most within the organization acknowledge that this is the biggest Lions game in the building's 14-year history.

"We're excited," Wood said. "I'm glad it's (at home)."

The NFL asks its teams to submit a list of hard scheduling conflicts shortly after the end of each regular season, such as stadium conflicts because of concerts or parking conflicts with other major events in town.

Last year, Wood put just one conflict on the Lions' list: an Oct. 29 Luke Bryan concert at Ford Field.

"I didn’t say give us home game Week 17 on that scheduling request because it wasn’t a conflict that needed to be taken into account," Wood said. "It was more just pointing out to him that it would be nice if, when I met with him in person, we could have that consideration for a home game in Week 17."

Katz, in an email, said the league did factor Wood's request into the scheduling formula.

"We began scheduling only division games in week 17 back in 2010 and yes, Rod certainly pointed out to us back in February that the Lions had played their week 17 division game on the road in four consecutive seasons," Katz wrote. "So while we’re unable to address every scheduling request that Clubs make, this was an anomaly that we felt had to be addressed from a competitive standpoint. As such, it was most definitely a factor that was given a considerable amount of weight as we put together the 2016 NFL Schedule."

The NFL generates tens of thousands of potential schedules as it goes through its monthslong process of planning games.

Wood said he doesn't believe that the league, with so many requests to factor into every year's schedule, even realized that it put the Lions on the road for three straight season finales (2013-15). The Lions lost two of those three games. In 2014, they fell to the Packers, 30-20, at Lambeau Field with the division on the line.

How much home-field advantage in Week 17 means this year remains to be seen, but, with a little nudge from Wood, at least the Lions will find out.

"I just was aware of it and thought I should point it out to him," Wood said. "And obviously, at the time I was meeting him in February, we had no idea the magnitude of what Sunday’s game will mean. But we certainly hoped that it might be as meaningful as it turned out to be."

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Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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