MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Super Bowl Sunday is less than a month away, and a team considered one of the worst in the NFL for decades might qualify for the first time - the Detroit Lions. Not only that, there are predictions the Lions could win the big game. They'll have to get through Saturday's playoff against the Washington Commanders first. In the meantime, the mere possibility that the Lions could hoist the Super Bowl trophy is helping Detroit fans restore their roar. Quinn Klinefelter from member station WDET reports.
QUINN KLINEFELTER, BYLINE: The excitement in and around Detroit is palpable. It's evident in the line of hundreds of people outside The Home Bakery in suburban Rochester. They've come to see a huge cake in the bakery's window - a life-sized replica of Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown doing a headstand touchdown celebration - and for a chance to win scarce playoff tickets donated by the player. Rob Dolton and his wife took the day off work and drove over an hour to join the line.
ROB DOLTON: More than just watching them win, it's just watching all of our fans just be so giddy about what's going on with our team. It's been a long time since we've had a team that's looked like it could contend, and now we - now we're, like, the favorites, and I don't even know if we know how to take it right now (laughter).
KLINEFELTER: Nearby, Keena Benning-Dehnke touches up her Honolulu blue lipstick, one of the Lions' team colors. She says she and her husband are 38-year season ticket holders and showed up for more than cake and passes to a game.
KEENA BENNING-DEHNKE: 'Cause it's fun - and the whole atmosphere and the buzz around the whole team winning. And it's an exciting time to be a Lions fan 'cause we've waited so long for it. I think it means more to us as fans. As losers so long, we deserve it.
KLINEFELTER: Bakery owner Heather Tocco says people have lined up for days around the shop. She says her football player cake is just one slice of the millions of dollars in economic impact the Lions' playoff run has brought to metro Detroit.
HEATHER TOCCO: We are looking to drive some revenue for January sales because, typically, I have to lay off people and cut their hours. I would not have imagined in a million years that I would have a two-hour wait to get into this building to purchase a baked good.
KLINEFELTER: It's a fervor that's reached even senior citizen homes in the region, with some spreading their enthusiasm on TV.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Go Lions, and good morning, America.
KLINEFELTER: About a half-dozen burly, goateed men, dressed to look like Lions head coach Dan Campbell, led a pep rally at the Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit. Eighty-one-year-old Mike Schlussel remembers helping console Lions players following yet another defeat at a bar he frequented in the 1960s.
MIKE SCHLUSSEL: And they came in right after the game. They were willing to talk to you, even though they lost. All you could say to them was, we'll get it. We'll get it. And now we got it. It's been a long time coming.
KLINEFELTER: These days, the Lions excite fans with a steady string of wins and the aggressive actions of colorful coach Campbell. During his tenure, Campbell's had the Lions offense go for it on fourth down rather than kick it to the opponent more than any other NFL team. And Campbell says Detroit's recent rise from league doormats has the team ready for whatever happens on the football field.
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DAN CAMPBELL: We've been so good. We've been so bad. We're a laughingstock. Now we're great. And it's just been this roller-coaster of up and downs. And this is nothing new that we're in. We're in the middle of a circus, man, and it's about time to perform.
KLINEFELTER: Now Campbell and the Lions are just a few wins away from what once seemed almost impossible - an elusive Super Bowl victory.
For NPR News, I'm Quinn Klinefelter in Detroit.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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