Detroit Lions Update: Playoffs?

It’s hard to believe that it’s already December. It feels like yesterday when I started college, and now my first semester is almost over. This is just amazing to me, but there’s something that truly is beyond belief. The NFL season has only three weeks left until the playoffs begin!! I can’t even begin to describe how fast the year has gone by. I remember watching the Lions play the first Monday Night Football game of the year, and now they’re in the middle of a playoff race with 8 contenders fighting it out for 6 spots. Before I discuss who the other teams that Detroit must deal with for the next month, let me start out by discussing how week 14 played out. 

This week, the Lions played host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a rebuilding franchise who tried to play the role of spoiler for Detroit’s season. In this game, the Bucs had nothing to lose, while the Lions had virtually everything to gain. In games like these, it’s the special players that need to step up and give their team the advantage. With this in mind, who better than both Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson to carry Detroit to victory. Making sure that no upset-of-the-year game would occur, Stafford lit up Tampa’s Defense, throwing for 311 yards, along with three touchdowns. Johnson would be his main target, as Megatron caught 8 catches for 158 total yards, one of them being a 6 yard touchdown reception.

With the offense firing on all cylinders, the league’s top defense would slam the door shut on the opposition. They intercepted Tampa’s quarterback Josh McCown twice, and also forced him to fumble the ball, which gave the Lions a boost of motivation. When your defense is playing at the level Detroit’s has the past two weeks, it becomes fairly simple to get a win. That’s exactly what happened, as Detroit won 34-17.

There are only two games left on the Detroit Lion’s schedule, and there’s nothing easy about it. Next week they travel to Chicago to take on the Bears, a rival that would love nothing more than to spoil Detroit’s dream season. If we’re fortunate enough to escape with a win, it might clinch us a playoff berth for the first time in three years. However, if the Lions want to make a statement on the rest of the NFL, then the last week of the season would be the perfect opportunity. Detroit will travel to Lambeau Field to face off against the Green Bay Packers, arguably the best team in football. A main reason why is because of the play of their quarterback Aaron Rodgers, an easy choice for the MVP award. As of right now, Detroit’s tied with Dallas and Seattle with a 9-4 record. The problem is that there are two wild card spots, which means one team will be left out. As of now, Detroit would be in because Dallas beat Seattle in week 5, which gives them a tiebreaker. That’s what it looks like right now, but many things can happen in the next few weeks. We’ll see what happens, but until that time, GO LIONS!!

Favorite Athlete

In my life, I’ve been able to witness many great athletes from many different sports. The big question that comes to my mind however is which one’s my favorite? I’ve been lucky enough to watch possibly the two greatest quarterbacks of all time, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. I’ve also seen great baseball players such as Miguel Cabrera, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw. I watched swimmer Michael Phelps win a record eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics. The game of soccer is being dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who both could go down as the greatest soccer players in history. With the amount of historic talent that I’ve been grateful to see in my life, I must tell you that my favorite athlete isn’t mentioned above. This may come as a surprise at first, but I promise you that once you find out who it is, you won’t question it. My favorite athlete of all time is Michael Jordan, and there are many reasons why.

The first reason why Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete is because he’s the best basketball player of all time. I know it’s cliché to say that, but I can’t find another way to describe him. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good players today like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and others. However, none of them are better than Jordan was. To make this easier to understand, I’ll start by saying that Jordan made an impact on not only basketball, but pop culture as well. When someone thinks about basketball, even if they don’t know anything about the game, chances are they’ve at least heard of Michael Jordan. If you acknowledge the fact that millions of people today say that he’s the best, then he must’ve been pretty good.

Another reason why Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete is because transcended the game of basketball during the 90’s like no other athlete did before or after his tenure. Michael Jordan made everyone want to play basketball in the 90’s because he grabbed everyone’s attention. He usually did this by making shoots that seem impossible to make. An example of this is when he was surrounded by three defenders and in mid-air, weaved through them and made the shoot. Michael Jordan made the impossible a piece of cake, and left fans around the world shaking their heads in disbelief.

Finally, the main reason why MJ is my favorite athlete is because he did the most important thing, which is winning. I believe that in order to be considered great, you must have victories to prove it. Michael Jordan fits perfectly with this description, as he won six NBA Titles, six Finals MVP awards, and five regular season MVP awards included. Not only did Michael Jordan affect pop culture and wowed audiences, but he proved himself as a champion as well. These are the reasons why Michael Jordan is my favorite athlete of all time.