This is fitting. It’s too fitting. Our Detroit Lions get a chance to finish first in the NFC North for the first time since 1993. They get to do it at home. In primetime. On New Years Day. Versus their most hated team, the Green Bay Packers.

You can’t make this shit up.

Now, as far as what’s at stake for the game, it couldn’t be more enticing. Winner takes the division and claims a playoff spot, loser could potentially miss the playoffs all together. There are a few scenarios where the loser can back in, most notably our Leo’s can make it with a Washington loss…AKA a Giants win, and the same is kinda true for Green Bay. To confuse you further, here’s a low res Excel sheet someone in my fantasy chat sent:

This is an exciting matchup, but if you’ve been a Lions fan for, I don’t know, 8 minutes, you can’t feel good about this game at all. If you feel good, you are fucking delusional and/or just haven’t been watching the passed three weeks/decades.

After the Lions convincingly beat Drew Brees and the Saints on the road in week 13, the Lions’ fan base was burning with optimism. It was number 2 seed this! and MVP that! I even wrote an article expressing my excitement, but also cautioning knowing it was another smoke & mirrors tactic by this historically fraudulent football club.

Lions: 8-4, Packers: 6-6.

Lions had a 2 game lead in the division with 4 games to go. Fans looked ahead and saw- vs Chicago, @NYG, @Dallas, vs Green Bay. From that point on, the Lions…

-Edged out the lowly Bears in the final minute, with help from 2 penalties totaling ~60 yards.

-Didn’t score a touchdown (nor cover my teaser at a +10.5 spread, fuckers) @ the Giants and lost.

-Got completely lambasted on prime time by the machine that is the Dallas Cowboys, (Go Zach Zenner!).

And while the Lions fumbled around, yet again, with the idea how of how to be a good organization, the good organization in our division was being a good organization. Green Bay, in that same time, bitch smacked the Seattle Seahawks, beat the Bears late on the road, then officially laid to rest the free falling Minnesota Vikings.

Lions: 9-6, Packers: 9-6.

S.O.L. (Same Old Lions) is alive and well. It’s as healthy as it’s ever been and if you don’t believe so, YOU are the reason the Lions have made more money than any other major sporting franchise in this city despite being far and away the worst on-field product. When the clock hit zero in Jerry World, I had a friend text me “Aaron Rodgers is going to throw for 300 on us pants-less.”

Now, it may be unclear to you as to what that means, but it translates to “Aaron Rodgers, once considered to be having the worst year of his career, called out by the media and former players as being selfish and a psychological head-case, is now picking apart secondaries like a pre-sliced Honeybaked Ham, and is going to SHRED the Lions defense this Sunday at Ford Field.”

Long sigh. Long fucking sigh. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but this never pans out the way we want it to. Remember 2012? No? Does the name Matt Flynn ring a bell? How about last year? The Miracle in Motown?

The Pack are surging. The Lions are floundering, and not to mention banged up. If I’m a betting man, which I am, I wouldn’t be taking the Leo’s in this one. Especially not with Staff-Daddy rocking the Hamburger Helper on his throwing hand.

Don’t get me wrong. On Sunday I’ll be rocking blue and silver, (hammered) cheering for the boys on Sunday night. But I hope this city is ready for SOL, because the odds are not in our favor.

What do you say we do it like the 2015 Red Wings and back it right in, eh? (THX BOSTON!)

Let’s Go Giants.