On the plane ride back from the Detroit Lions’ gut-wrenching loss to the San Francisco 49ers, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson’s mind wandered about his future. Johnson had just completed one of the most impressive seasons in Lions history. He had already conducted a few head coaching interviews, and more awaited him when the plane touched down.
But then he remembered an analogy Lions coach Dan Campbell made early in this era of Lions football.
“We’re sailing down the ocean, and at that moment, we were in the Arctic,” Johnson recalled. “We were hitting the icebergs, we had the storms going on.