Detroit, MI
Detroit Lions a ‘special team’ with a ‘special staff’ says Dan Campbell. He is savoring every moment.
One of the more indelible images during the New England Patriots’ Death Star reign centered on a hug. The immutable and unsparing coach broke into a smile as he wrapped his arms around his offensive and defensive coordinators – Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel.
Coach Bill Belichick had just won his third Super Bowl when cameras caught the emotional embrace, emotional, in large part, because the three coaches knew they were never likely to coach together again.
They were right. They didn’t.
Life in the NFL can be a slog for teams on the rebuild. And then suddenly, it isn’t. Because the rise from the abyss speeds up exponentially at the end.
Savor the rise then, eh?
Dan Campbell is sure trying. Mostly because few things in sports are as thrilling as a team finding its way out of the wilderness. But also, because chemistry is an actual thing and not always a certain thing. He’s got it with his two coordinators, Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson.
So, when you’ve got it … well, it’s best to revel in it for as long as you can. Campbell is most ardently reveling.
He knows it and said so again Friday, that Glenn and Johnson will be head coaches soon. He also knows that if this season ends in a Super Bowl and on a confetti-drenched stage, then no season will ever quite compare, for obvious reasons.
Even if it doesn’t end with a parade, and the Detroit Lions lose before the Super Bowl, that doesn’t minimize what is happening now. Campbell understands this, too:
The 8-1 record. The expectation of winning. The comeback victories and the walk-off victories and the relatively dominant victories.
The Lions are a happening in the football world and they are taking over stadiums near you. Everyone wants to be a part of it.
“Yeah, man,” said Campbell, “I savor every bit of this because you’re not guaranteed – we’re not guaranteed any more wins, as far as that’s concerned.
“You’ve got to earn every one of them and you don’t know what’s going to happen the next day or the next game in front of you. But I know this, this is a special team and it’s a special staff.”
Endings come in a hurry when the going is good. Especially in the NFL, where everyone else wants to steal a piece – or more – of what propelled a team in the first place. And if the rest of the league can’t take your players, then coaches are the next best thing.
Campbell remembers that image of Belichick and his coordinators. Of all that joy and pride and love, but also the undercurrent of melancholy, because they knew that was it.
“It’s a great image and that was a special team,” said Campbell, “that really started it all.”
The New England dynasty, of course, and if Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have intentions on winning big here, they’ll have to survive moments like that one. Belichick won three more Super Bowls after Crennel and Weis left. Turns out Belichick and Tom Brady were the key, not that anyone didn’t know that at the time.
Still, it’s not easy losing coordinators. Ask Philadelphia, where the coordinators bolted after the Eagles made the 2023 Super Bowl and the Eagles struggled the next season.
Coincidence?
Probably not, but that’s getting ahead of the story, and beyond the point of the story, which is always the same in a season like this one: Drink it in.
Sip it, if you can. Smell it and taste it and do your best to feel this moment, and these Sundays – and Mondays and Thursdays – and remember that games like Sundays against the Texans, for example, don’t come around often.
Or ever.
In fact, no team since the 70s had won coming from two touchdowns down having thrown five interceptions. As Campbell said late Sunday night – or early Monday morning – that says something. Says a lot, actually.
About the grit and character of the team, obviously. But also, about the unseen and unknowable forces at work that make a win like that possible.
Magic? Karma? Fate?
Hey, something is happening when two field goals brush the inside paint on the uprights.
Whatever the reason, it is reason to embrace every moment of this ride, one that’s more than 60 years in the making, that took a lifetime to get here and could be gone in a flash.
So, yeah, Campbell and Glenn and Johnson are savoring every meeting, and every practice, and every day, and every game. And they are savoring the time with each other.
“Because those guys are going to be head coaches eventually, whether it’s now, whether it’s later,” Campbell said.
It’s only a matter of time. And in the meantime?
Campbell will keep telling himself this: “I’m fortunate, I’m blessed, I’m thankful that I have the coordinators − counting (Lions Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Fipp as well − (and) all three of those guys are superstars. And yeah … I know (that) hey, when it’s over, it’s over. But we’re going to make the most of it until that time comes.”
Everyone else who loves this team probably should, too. For what makes this feel so special is that it comes after so much heartache.
And that usually only comes once in a lifetime as well.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger and Fr. Mario Amore on restructuring
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger and Fr. Mario Amore on the archdiocese restructuring on Nov. 17, 2025 in Detroit
The list of Catholic parishes targeted for the possible stoppage of weekend Masses has grown to about 90 parishes across southeast Michigan, according to the latest proposed models the Archdiocese of Detroit has released as part of its major restructuring process.
The archdiocese released on Thursday the models for potential parish groupings for the six remaining planning areas in the archdiocese, and 32 parishes wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one of the models. Previously released models showed that 58 other parishes could stop holding weekend Mass.
The Archdiocese of Detroit recently completed listening sessions meant to garner feedback on the models, but parishioners can still share input through a survey that is open until July 31.
The archdiocese has been divided into 15 planning areas, or geographic areas, and three or four models are being proposed for each planning area, said the Rev. Mario Amore, executive director of parish renewal for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The models have different proposed groupings of parishes ― called pastorates ― in which a grouping would share a pastor and potentially other priests. In some cases, selected churches in the grouping would no longer hold Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass.
The models released on Thursday are for planning areas 6, 7, 8, 11, 14 and 15, which include parts of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties and parishes in St. Clair and Lapeer counties.
Sixteen of the parishes wouldn’t have weekend Mass under any of the models, including St. Alphonsus-Clement Parish in Dearborn, Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Redford Township and Our Lady of Hope Parish in St. Clair Shores.
The models are part of the archdiocese’s biggest restructuring plan in years. Announced last fall, Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said the archdiocese can’t maintain the roughly 200 existing parish buildings and is working to “right-size” the archdiocese, along with its personnel and financial resources.
Holly Fournier, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Detroit, emphasized that the models are just draft proposals “intended to solicit feedback from parishioners.” She said no decisions have been made regarding pastorate groupings, weekend Mass schedules or any other aspect of the restructuring process.
The Rev. Mario Amore, executive director of parish renewal for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said in May that parishioners understand that the archdiocese “needs to do something” about its challenges. But when it becomes personal for people, it’s “very difficult,” he said.
“And there’s a lot of human emotions, and … we need to honor that,” Amore said. “We need to be attentive to that, and no one’s saying that it’s an easy process, and it’s not a process that … we’re happy that we need to undertake, but it is one that we do need to undertake.”
What the latest Wayne County models show
Planning Area 6, which is in the southern section of Wayne County, excluding the Downriver area, includes 16 parishes. Eight of them would stop holding Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass under at least one of the models for the planning area.
They include St. Mary, Cause of Our Joy in Westland, St. Richard in Westland, St. Aloysius in Romulus, St. Sabina in Dearborn Heights, St. Linus in Dearborn Heights, Divine Child in Dearborn, St. Alphonsus -St. Clement in Dearborn and St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Dearborn.
Planning Area 7, which includes the northwest portion of Wayne County, has 15 parishes, four of which wouldn’t hold weekend Mass under at least one model. They include Our Lady of Loretto in Redford Township, St. John XXIII in Redford Township, St. Priscilla in Livonia and Resurrection in Canton Township.
What the latest Oakland and Macomb Co. models show
Planning Area 8, which is in southern Oakland County, has 13 parishes, six of which wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one of the models. They include St. William in Walled Lake, St. Gerald in Farmington, Prince of Peace in West Bloomfield, St. Joseph in South Lyon, Church of the Transfiguration in Southfield and Our Lady of Albanians in Southfield.
Planning Area 11, which includes the southeastern section of Macomb County, the Grosse Pointe communities and one parish in Detroit, has 14 parishes. Seven of them wouldn’t have weekend Mass under at least one model. They include Our Lady of Hope in St. Clair Shores, St. Lucy in St. Clair Shores, St. Basil the Great in Eastpointe, St. Margaret of Scotland in St. Clair Shores, Holy Innocents-St. Barnabas in Roseville, St. Matthew in Detroit and St. Clare of Montefalco in Grosse Pointe Park.
What the models in St. Clair, Lapeer counties show
Planning Area 14, which is in St. Clair County, has 12 parishes, five of which wouldn’t have Saturday Vigil or Sunday Mass in at least one model. They include Sacred Heart in Yale, St. Edward on the Lake in Lakeport, Holy Trinity in Port Huron, St. Christopher in Marysville and Immaculate Conception in Ira Township.
Planning Area 15, which is in Lapeer County and part of northern Macomb County, includes ten parishes. Two wouldn’t hold weekend Mass under at least one model. They include St. Mary Burnside in North Branch and St. Cornelius in Dryden.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Carl’s Chop House, 3020 Grand River in Detroit, 1923-2008
It was one of the most prominent restaurants in Detroit throughout the 20th century. Carl’s Chop House served Detroit for decades, from the Great Depression through the new Millennium.
Founder Carl Rosenfield first opened as the Grand River Chophouse in the early 1920s and he moved the business across the street and renamed it Carl’s in the 1930s. The often-repeated story goes that he won the full ownership of a bar from his partner in a poker game and turned it into Carl’s Chop House.
Prior to his restaurant success, Rosenfield was a well-known tire merchant. At one point, Rosenfield also owned a lighthouse near Port Sanilac.
As a restaurateur, Rosenfield persevered through many trials, including the Great Depression and a beef shortage during World War II, which left the steakhouse to serve chicken, lobster, sturgeon and “a lot of fish I never heard of,” he was quoted as saying.
A sirloin steak dinner was $1 when Carl’s Chop House opened.
By the 1960s, business was booming, and the restaurant was serving thousands of customers daily and had plans to expand the 850-seat dining room to 1,200. By then, steak dinners were up to $6.
They bounced up to $10 in the 1970s when longtime Detroit News restaurant reporter and critic Molly Abraham included Carl’s in a column, pointing out that even though the restaurant was a bit out of fashion — it had been open for more than 50 years by then — she describes the place as having “an infectiously festive, informal atmosphere.”
Along with the steaks, convivial atmosphere and firm handshakes, Carl’s Chop House was known for always being open, even on Sundays. The only day of the year it was closed was Christmas Day, Dec. 25, which was also Rosenfield’s birthday.
Rosenfield, who would support local farmers by purchasing cattle and other livestock from the Michigan State Fair, was still working at the restaurant in the 1980s when he was in his 90s. He died in 1991 at age 95.
The new owners of Carl’s Chop House ushered it into the next century for another generation to enjoy.
It wasn’t the same without its namesake proprietor, who was known for an absolutely crushing handshake, however. In 2008, owner Frank Passalacqua filed an application with the state for a topless permit, hoping to turn the property, which was now a neighbor of MotorCity Casino, from a steakhouse to a strip club.
Passalacqua, who was more successful at Mario’s Italian restaurant in the Cass Corridor, said he was losing $1 million a year on Carl’s. The gentleman’s club idea never materialized. Carl’s closed in 2008 and the building was demolished in 2010.
mbaetens@detroitnews.com
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