DETROIT — They say humans have inhabited this area for about 11,000 years, but it wasn’t until Sunday that any of them — from the tailgates of Eastern Market to the bars of Corktown — could stare into a fresh NFL season and utter, with both a straight face and reasonable confidence, the following words:
Super. Bowl.
The Detroit Lions have famously never even been to it, let alone ever won it. More than that though, never before has there been a legitimate belief that such a thing was even within reason. Prior to last January, the Lions had won just a single playoff game of any kind during the Super Bowl era.