The Lions held an introductory press conference for head coach Dan Campbell on Thursday and his opening statement will likely win him a few fans in Detroit.
Campbell played for the team for three seasons and said he wanted the job “bad” when it became open last year. He said he came into the process knowing that Detroit was a great community and identified the ways he wanted the team to identify with their home.
“This place has been kicked, it’s been battered, it’s been bruised and I can give you coach-speak all day long, ‘Hey, we’re gonna win this many games.’ None of that matters and you don’t want to hear it anyway. You’ve had enough of that s--t. Excuse my language. This team is going to take on the identity of this city. This city’s been down and it found a way to come up. It’s found a way to overcome adversity. . . . We’re gonna kick you in the teeth and when you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you. When you knock us down, we’re gonna get up and when we get up we’re going to bite a kneecap off.”
The knockdowns and kneecap biting continued from there and Campbell wrapped up by saying that “before long we’re going to be the last one standing.” Campbell continued on to say that he knows it won’t always be easy, but that the team is going to fight and claw for every inch because “good teams find a way to get it done.”
As Campbell said, words only go so far but the prospect of seeing the kind of action those words promise is a welcome one in Detroit.