What would Mark say?
I'd love to know what my dearly departed brother would make of the first-place - yes, first place - Detroit Lions. What would he say ...?
Certainly not his standard "Same old Lions," spoken with a gleefully sardonic smile.
Mark, a life-long Detroiter, died last November at age 69, meaning he was born in 1953, making him too young to have remembered the Lions championship of 1957.
For Mark's whole life, the Lions stunk, winning only one playoff game and achieving the NFL's longest postseason win drought. And who could forget 2008 when the Lions made history by losing all 16 of their games.
But did Mark despair? Oh, no - he wore an "0-16" T-shirt and laughed his big laugh. "Same old Lions."
A defense mechanism ...? Maybe, but one that he relished, because his connection to the team went beyond wins and losses. The Lions were part of the fabric of Detroit; so was Mark.
It's too bad Mark's not alive to enjoy the success. You can bet that he wouldn't just be riding the bandwagon, he'd be driving it.