Sanders Makes Wounded Lions Still Dangerous

Ten years ago, the Super Bowl went to Detroit. It never went back.

We all froze our bumpers off that January, chillin’ out in the Motor City’s bullets of hail while the state’s tourism commission was busy inviting visitors to go skiing and sleighing and laughing and playing and walkin’ in a winter wonderland, neglecting to mention the part about the hypothermia.

So now, Detroit will try to go to the Super Bowl.

And there are several reasons why the Lions might just do it. Several reasons why Wayne Fontes and his mind-benders might just defeat the Dallas Cowboys in today’s NFC playoff game at the Pontiac Silverdome, then avenge themselves next week for that “Help! We’ve fallen and we can’t get up!” loss on opening day to the Washington Redskins, 45-0.

Once upon a time, these cowardly old Lions were nothing to fear. They were pretty much toothless. About the only time Americans ever gave them any thought was on Thanksgiving Day, when they were obliged to make their traditional pre-stuffing decision of what to watch on TV, Detroit playing football or the animated version of “Gulliver’s Travels.”

Today, though, the Lions:

--Have the inspiration, motivation and dedication of playing for paralyzed teammate Mike Utley, who was injured on the job and will never play football again.

--Also have the greatest running back in the game today, Barry Sanders, not to be confused with any other Sanders appearing on TV during the playoffs, Ricky, Deion, the Colonel, etc.

--Also have as much chance as anybody in this, the wackiest of NFL seasons, one in which Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta, New Orleans and the New York Jets made the playoffs while San Francisco, Cincinnati, Miami, Minnesota and the New York Giants did not.

--Also are totally overdue, not having won an NFL championship for about 35 years now, dating to a time when pro football had no Super Bowl, no NFC or AFC, no AFL, no “World” League, no indoor football, no TV instant replay used to review plays, no TV instant replay period , no TV football in color and no Gumbel brothers.

Yes, this could be Detroit’s year for the first time in, well, years.

There is only one reason the Lions won’t necessarily sleep tonight.

See that team photo?

That one there, the one snapped earlier in the season.

That man in the middle, grinning from ear to ear, that’s Fontes. He’s the coach. He’s a smiley-faced kind of coach, one who obviously missed the clinic on how to be a humorless old grump.

And there they are, lined up left to right, in the row right behind the coach. Some of Fontes’ favorite players, in full dress uniform: Mike Cofer (55). Utley (60). Jerry Ball (93). Eric Sanders (64). . . .

. . . Every one of whom went down shortly after the photo was taken with a season-ending injury.

In that order.

No wonder the Lions made it a point recently to shoot a new team picture. They will tell you it was to accommodate a couple of management types, including the team owner, who missed the first sitting. Deep down, though, football players tend to be a superstitious lot, the kind of guys who won’t change their socks (I regret to say) if their team has been winning, or who strap on their gear in the same exact sequence from week to week, or always eat 50 pancakes on the morning of a game.

So, with the biggest Detroit game in a decade or more about to be played, nobody is taking any chances.

Next man in line, in the row directly behind Fontes, is a guard, Roman Fortin, who said he wasn’t too uptight about the photograph when a sportswriter first tipped him off about it.

“I’ve got the man upstairs looking out for me,” Fortin said. “But this is weird.”

Smart enough to shrug off such nonsense, the Lions feel good today about two things in particular: Playing at home and playing with Barry Sanders. Should they win, though, they must go back to Washington, where the weather Saturday made Detroit look like the tropics.

Sanders would be there, presumably. He missed the 45-0 flop. This is not a bad little football team, but Detroit has about as much chance of defeating Washington without Barry Sanders as Lee Iacocca has of selling LeBarons in Lebanon.

In Sanders, Detroit has the best back in football. At quarterback, Detroit has Who, What and I Don’t Know. But that’s OK, because Fontes has scrapped the old run-and-shoot offense for the run-and-run-some-more. It’s a three-pronged attack: Sanders to the left, Sanders to the right, Sanders up the middle (fight, fight, fight).

By the way, don’t worry about Sanders for the playoffs. He’s sitting in front of Fontes in the photo.