This happened 10 years ago. I had just finished covering the Detroit Lions’ 31-24 loss to the New York Jets at the Meadowlands in 2006. The Lions had fallen to 1-6 and appeared headed to another terrible season. (They finished 3-13. Another lost season amid a seemingly endless sea of lost seasons.)
A few Detroit reporters shared a cab back to the hotel. One veteran writer who had witnessed decades of failure said, “This team has just never had any luck.”
It was my first year covering the Lions. I thought it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.