To All Those Fair-Weather Football Fans

Detroit is the perfect example of a comeback story and the definition of scrappy.

I hate football. Not a fan. I get bored by the sport and frankly, I hate the toxic masculinity of it. The only reason I watch the Super Bowl is to analyze the commercials and marvel at the half-time show.

But last night, I ate dinner in front of the TV and watched the Lions game with my husband and kids. Because, well, I’m a Detroiter, and we’re scrappy. Every day of our lives is a comeback story.

I wasn’t bored, and I wasn’t there against my will. I was excited for our hometown team, rooting for those boys in blue, buying into the hope and the dream.

If you’re from this bootstraps town, you know what the world thinks of you, and you really don’t give a damn. You keep pressing forward, doing your thing, believing in stories of redemption and perseverance and living a life that you love because you know that deep down, you’ve got grit, heart, camaraderie and community, and one day, you’ll show the world what you’re made of.

This season has been incredible for my hometown team, and it’s more than earned. Just like when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1996 after a 42-year drought. I am a hockey fan, and I was at that game. We stood and cheered and sang and cried for an hour after the game ended, and then spilled into the streets to cheer and sing and cry some more with people we didn’t know, who all share in this Detroit dream.

Detroiters know that if you believe long enough, and try hard enough, some day you’ll win.

Perhaps that’s why my father had season tickets at Joe Louis Arena for all the years that we were known as “the dead wings.” He took us to games, and we cheered even as we lost, feeling like those boys on the ice were our family. We believed in them when no one else did, when the world thought Detroit was a wasteland to forget about.

When this is the legacy you grow up in, you can’t help but ignore the doubters. Anyone who says how hard it is to write a book and get it published, I sort of ignore. It IS hard. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Whenever I travel and tell someone I’m from Detroit, they make a face and say something like, “Is it safe there?” It’s funny because all the times I’ve traveled to Israel, I’ve gotten the same response, and I feel safer there than anywhere in the world.

Same goes for Detroit.

I guess safety is relative. Perception and perspective. Maybe even choice.

Safety isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, either. I know people who are afraid to leave their doors unlocked, afraid to go places they don’t know, afraid to take a hike for fear of how steep it might be, or slippery or muddy.

Safety is boring, frankly. If we stick with familiarity, life might be easy, but where’s the fun in that?

My mother always says that if a thing were easy, everyone would do it. I hear that mantra in my head all the time. As I climb mountains. As I write books. As I make publishing choices that go against the mainstream. As I write candidly, openly, frankly about the experiences of my life.

As I cheer for the underdog team because they come from my town.

The Detroit Lions had a real long shot at making the Super Bowl this year. But they showed up and played their best and came pretty damn close.

I like coming from an underdog town. No one expects much of you, so you constantly surprise them. And you learn not to care what other people think because you know they’re most certainly going to get it wrong.

The feverish pitch of enthusiasm, of we’re-all-in-it-together, has enveloped my town for weeks. It feels so good to be part of a community that believes in itself, to share that knowing look when you see someone wearing Hawaii blue.

The musician Mayer Hawthorne said, “Nowhere on earth has more soul than Detroit.” I 100% agree. And I also like what Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said: “Detroit is a metaphor for America.”

Last night, my daughter kept saying, “It doesn’t matter if we win. We got this far. We’re proud of our team.” That’s a Detroiter, for you. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My hometown is a place for taking risks, a place to innovate, a place to try anything because you have nothing to lose. A place with challenges and great opportunities.

A place that keeps trying because we know, deep down, one day, we’ll rise to the top.

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