Venerable video game maker Electronic Arts ran the annual "sim season" in anticipation of the release of the most recent installment of the "Madden" franchise. And guess what? The Lions not only made the playoffs, but they won the Super Bowl! Detroit drops 2006 champion and reigning AFC champion Indianapolis in Super Bowl XLV.
Quite a bold prediction. I think most people in Michigan would just settle for a playoff berth, let alone the franchise's second playoff victory ... EVER.
All this AND the Lions made Final Jeopardy this week. Apparently two of the contestants didn't even know the Lions had never won a Super Bowl! In fact, they're one of only four — and of those four, Detroit is the only non-expansion franchise (thanks Cardinals and Saints BTW) that hasn't even sniffed a Lombardi Trophy.
The celebration is quite detailed, especially when it mentions the "doom and gloom" parallels between the franchise and the forlorn city which berthed it. The last NFL championship I won was on Tecmo Super Bowl, which I hear is being remade (woo-hoo!) for XBox 360. As I recall, the extent of the victory was the QB high-fiving someone, a quick rundown of the team's roster in some gaudy, unimaginative font and then the bastardization of some poor programmer's life's work in a version of short-form credit scrolls. And for the record, I won the Super Bowl many times with the Barry Sanders Lions.