Culture
Lions are winning playoff games and changing perceptions of what they can accomplish
DETROIT — There’s an oft-shared experience among those who’ve played for the Detroit Lions. A rite of passage, really. You’re told you won’t win anything. That this franchise is known for losing. Players know it all too well and have heard it all too often.
“‘Oh, you guys are no good. You guys aren’t gonna do anything.’ Everyone on this team, I’m sure someone’s told them that,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said Sunday evening. “‘You’re on the Lions. You guys aren’t gonna do anything.’”
Leave it to St. Brown — the man with more receipts than your accountant during tax season — to put it in layman’s terms. This was his experience. Three years ago, he joined a roster stripped to its core, set to face another rebuild. The general perception? Why should this one be any different? These are the Lions, after all. They weren’t going to win anyone over at an introductory news conference. In order to rewire the way people view this city’s football team, it was up to St. Brown and so many others acquired over the years to win when it matters most — in January.
“We know what the perception is of being on the Detroit Lions,” St. Brown said Sunday, three years after this thing began, after the Lions’ 31-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to advance to the NFC Championship Game. “But we feel that we have a chance to change things — not just for this year, but for years to come.”
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Three years ago. That’s when this thing started. It’s when Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes were hired. It’s when players like St. Brown, Jared Goff, Penei Sewell and so many others touched down in Detroit, told they’d never win anything of substance as long as they donned the jersey of a franchise known for losing.
Many players had to experience the same losing their predecessors did, the same losing they were told they were good for. But for this team to get where it is now, it was a necessary step. To change the perception of others, the Lions had to know if their perception of themselves was real.
“When you’re 0-10-1, you find out about people,” Campbell said last week. “You find out about players and coaches, people in the organization. And so, that’s why you have the best perception of what those people are and how they’re made and what drives them and what they’re willing to do for those around them. That’s a much better viewpoint and look at people than when everything’s going great and you’ve got 12 wins.”
That’s where the Lions’ trust in what they’re doing stems from — that first season together. Left tackle Taylor Decker referenced a scene from HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which aired ahead of the 2022 season. The Lions were coming off a 3-13-1 season. During training camp one morning, the team was in full pads, with coaches ramping up the intensity to prepare them for the season ahead. They were going hard because they were being tested.
Perhaps noticing the rolling of eyes and comments mumbled about the intensity level, Campbell made a speech to his players.
Like everything else along the way, they remember it.
“He said, ‘Guys, just trust me, I’m doing everything I can to put you guys in the best position possible,’” Decker recalled after Sunday’s game. “‘I’m not crazy, just trust me and just follow the plan.’ That’s what we’ve done, and we believe in each other. We believe in our coaches, and it’s turned into something pretty cool.”
That trust, between player and coach, is why the Lions are here. Those votes of confidence add up over time, manifesting in ways fans of this team could once only dream of but are now witnessing in real time. We saw it in Week 1, when the Lions went to Kansas City and took down the Chiefs on banner night. We saw it in the wild-card round, when Goff beat his former team and the quarterback for whom he was traded, in Detroit’s first playoff win in 32 years. The Lions fully believe they can match up with any team in the league and win on a given Sunday. This is the team they were meant to be.
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It all led to Sunday. The Buccaneers were in town, and the winner would go on to play for a trip to the Super Bowl. What you saw Sunday was what the Lions expected. The stars like Goff (30-of-43 for 287 yards and two touchdowns), St. Brown (eight receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown), Aidan Hutchinson (one sack and three QB hits) and others played up to their potential in a playoff game. Detroit’s rookie class, one criticized at the time of the draft, continues to flourish. This was the vision initially laid out, as the powers that be built this thing.
“I envisioned that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys, and that’s where we’re at,” Campbell said.
It’s not just the stars, though. Look around this roster, look at Sunday’s box score, and you’ll find unheralded players the Lions identified as their guys, added to a roster built to win. Brock Wright, an undrafted free agent three years ago, has a thankless job as Detroit’s No. 2 tight end. He doesn’t often get media attention — that goes to rookie sensation Sam LaPorta. As a result, his contributions don’t always earn headlines. But in this game, when the Lions needed a big play, he caught a pass and scampered his way through Tampa Bay’s defense for a gain of 29, amid a tightly contested 10-10 ballgame.
Running back Craig Reynolds, a product of Kutztown University, also arrived in 2021. He’s RB3 behind two stars. His opportunities to contribute on offense are few and far between, but this staff has a knack for picking spots. The last time these teams played, in Week 6, Reynolds was thrust into action, with both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery dealing with injuries. He provided perhaps the block of the year, paving the way for St. Brown to score in a 20-6 win over the Bucs.
On Sunday, the Lions went back to Reynolds — his first rush attempt since Halloween — on a fourth-down run he finished off in the end zone. Touchdown, Lions.
4th and Goal? Lions are going for it.
📺: #TBvsDET on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/frRD38ClOq pic.twitter.com/x9nVpCrGhP— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
And finally, as the Lions looked to close out the game with one final stop, it came down to their defense. A group that has been questioned, doubted, criticized all season needed a play. It got it from Derrick Barnes, a fourth-round linebacker who took three years to emerge as a starter on this defense. It was his first career interception, and it helped the Lions punch their ticket to the NFC Championship Game.
DEFENDED THE DEN @derrickbarnes21 | #AllGrit pic.twitter.com/hGhOJ3lFXn
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 21, 2024
“They all had a vision, and we did, too,” Barnes said in the locker room. “That’s why you push yourself each and every week, each and every day. Because we know the potential that we have, and we don’t accept anything less.”
“We’re going to the NFC Championship Game with that group of guys,” Campbell said. “And they love football, they play football and that’s what they respect, and they respect their teammates and not anything else. And when you’re able to care more about the person next to you than … about yourself, you can do some pretty special things, and that’s where we’re at with this group.”
That’s how these Lions are comprised. They are unlike any Lions team that came before them, and they’re proving that when it matters most. They keep winning because of what they went through together. They keep advancing, they have proof of concept and are now looking to prove to others they’re for real. They will head to San Francisco for an opportunity to play for this franchise’s first Super Bowl.
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After the game, when the scrum around St. Brown dispersed following his comments about changing the perception, I stuck around and asked him if he feels that perception changing, based on what the Lions are doing. His answer was telling, providing a peek inside the mind of a player chosen to play for these Detroit Lions.
“Kind of,” he said. “Not really. I mean, we’ll see. Next week, we got the game picks. They’ll probably have San Fran winning. I feel like you just gotta keep winning. If we win next week, we’re lucky enough to go to the Super Bowl. I think winning cures everything. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Look what it’s already done for this franchise.
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(Photo of Amon-Ra St. Brown: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega
December 18, 2025
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
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