Stan Swies rooted for the Detroit Lions and University of Michigan for most of his 80 years. He finally decided on some divine football intervention.
“I told God: ‘If you let Michigan win the national championship and the Lions win the Super Bowl –you can take me.’”
Until this year, Swies – who lives in the Village of Palo Alto — had nothing to worry about.
But this month, Michigan beat Washington to win the college football title. And now –unbelievably – those lovable losers known as the Detroit Lions are on the cusp of a Super Bowl.
Should the Lions beat favored San Francisco on Sunday, they will be NFC champs and headed to the Super Bowl. Swies, meanwhile, is thinking about his deal with a higher power.
“I don’t know,” said the officer of the Michigan Club of The Villages. “I’ve got a lot of people praying for me. I think God understands.”
It’s been a long time coming for Swies and the growing legion of Lions’ fans. They used to wear paper bags over their heads at home games. Now, the Motown faithful are roaring like kings of the NFL jungle.
Somehow, thanks to old-school, tough-talking Coach Dan Campbell, quarterback Jared Goff and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson –the Lions have blossomed into America’s underdog team from the underdog city.
“The real story of the Lions is the rebirth of a team and a city,” said Jim “Z-Man” Zurak of The Villages. He and his wife, Nancy, lived in a Detroit suburb for 13 years before moving here nearly 20 years ago.
Zurak believes the turning point came when the Lions moved from the suburban Silverdome to downtown’s Ford Field in 2002.
“The move to downtown Detroit was an economic gift that the economically failing city of Detroit desperately needed,” Zurak said. “It allowed the instant removal of hundreds of deteriorating condemned homes…that the city could not afford to tear down.
“It was a gift that keeps on giving in the form of a stadium (that brings fans downtown) who spend lots of their suburban dollars in the city.”
Greg Stanbury, a snowbird from Michigan who winters in The Villages, revels in the Lions new winning spirit.
“This has been a long, hard haul; the Lions were a friggin’ disaster ” Stanbury said. “But what’s happening now is a testament to Lions’ fans and the city of Detroit.
“It wasn’t that long ago that the Lions were 0-16. But the fans kept believing, and now we’re in the playoffs and have a chance for the Super Bowl. When you think about it, it’s kind of amazing.”
Stanbury can’t forget the hard times.
“I graduated from college in 1973, and got season tickets in 1974,” he said. “I went through 34 years of bad teams, but when you follow the Lions, you never let good judgment get in the way of fandom.”
Things began to change when Dan Campbell was named coach. Last year, the Lions went 1-6 to start but won 8 of their last 10 games. This season the Lions went 12-5 to win the NFC North division.
Stanbury loved Campbell’s first press conference when he described his style of play this way:
“We’re gonna kick you in the teeth, and when you punch us back, we’re gonna smile at you, and when you knock us down, we’re going to get up, and on the way, we’re going to bite a kneecap off.”
Them’s fighting words for Lions fans.
“Some people thought it was over the top but I thought it was great,” Stanbury said. “We finally got a coach who would play smashmouth football and kick the other guy’s butt.”
The Lions’ rise has changed perception about the team and the city.
“This is huge for Detroit,” Stanbury said. “The recognition has lifted everybody’s spirits. It’s refreshing to see so much positive publicity for Detroit and Michigan.
“We needed it. Detroit is known as a blue-collar town and a ‘work hard’ kind of place. People identify with their sports teams. The Tigers, the Red Wings and the Pistons have all won championships. But the last time the Lions won was 1957, and I was six years old. Things are changing for Detroit.”
Now, “Detroit Rock City” –as the band KISS labeled it — is coming to San Francisco gunning for a title. Speaking of rockers, Michigan’s Bob Seger, whose song “Beautiful Loser” might have once described the Detroit football squad, has a different tune.
“Go Lions,” Seger posted on his X page, with a picture of him and actor Jeff Daniels at a playoff game. Other famous fans at Lions playoff games include rap stars Eminem and Flavor Fav. Chad Smith, drummer for the Red-Hot Chili Peppers, showed up, joining a couple of former Lions stars—Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson.
What will the fans do if the Lions lose to San Francisco?
“We’ll be discouraged but we’ll be back,” Stanbury said. “These are not the same old Lions.”
Stanbury and his wife Nora have a good luck tradition watching Lions’ games. She wears a Lions’ jersey. He keeps his Lions’ jersey on a bed, and touches it before each game.
“We’ve done that in the playoffs and we’re doing it again,” he said.
Which brings us back to Stan Swies, who was a Lions season-ticket holder back in Michigan for nearly five decades until moving to Florida.
“I knew our team would come around and be good someday,” Swies said. “After you have so many bad years, sooner or later you have to get better.”
The Lions were part of Swies’ childhood. He remembers seeing quarterback Bobby Layne lead the team to its last NFL championship back in 1957.
Layne, who won three titles with Detroit during the 1950s, broke his leg in 1957. He was traded to Pittsburgh and said he was “hurt” by the trade. In a way to get back at the Lions, Layne, who died in 1986, said in a 1971 interview, “I tried what they referred to as a hex.”
Now, 67 painful years later, the Bobby Layne curse could be in its final days. “I remember Bobby Layne and I remember the curse,” Swies said. “I hope we’ll end it.”
God willing.
Local Lions fans will gather at 6 p.m. Sunday at Gators Dockside in Spanish Springs to watch Detroit play San Francisco.
Tony Violanti is a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan and understands football agony.
