The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor posted a column which discusses the Detroit Lions’ training camp as a magnet for both sports personalities, politicians and plain old self-promoters over the past couple of weeks.
Windsor includes the Red Wings’ coach and player visitors among the throng, and he notes that Lions coach Dan Campbell tried to speak with the Wings last year, to no avail. Said coach Derek Lalonde:
“I woke up one morning to a 6:15 text from Coach Campbell and he said, ‘hey, can I come talk to the guys today?’ It didn’t work because we were flying out, but to me it’s … he woke up with us on his mind and I thought that was pretty cool.”
Pretty cool, eh?
Gauging by the company the Lions are keeping, no spot is cooler. Lalonde said he can feel the “cool” emanating from Allen Park all over metro Detroit.
“We felt it last year, (too),” he said.
It began when a couple Lions players and a coordinator started hitting the horn in Little Caesars Arena to kick off the games, if you’ll pardon the pun. Hutchinson took a turn. So did receiver Jameson Williams. So did offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
…
Lalonde’s team was playing a home game the day the Lions played Tampa Bay in the divisional round of the playoffs. About an hour before the Wings’ game began, the Lions were battling for a spot in the NFC title game a few blocks away.
“We were playing in an hour and the guys were watching in the lounge,” recalled Lalonde. “[Alex] DeBrincat was doing a fist pump on first down. And I’m like, ‘did you just fist pump on a first down?’ And he said, ‘yeah, big first down.’ So, they were pumped.”
Continued; right now, the Lions’ training camp is the hip, happening place to be, and a place where sports people are soaking up “good vibes.” Let it be so.
