Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell has said some wild things since he was hired in 2021. From his caffeine consumption to the famous “bite kneecaps” line, Campbell has always said whatever comes to his mind — even in front of the media.
But perhaps his craziest idea occurred soon after he joined the Lions when he wanted to get a pet lion to live at the team’s practice facility. He said on the “Pardon My Take” podcast that in 2021 he wanted “a legit pet lion on a chain, a big-ass chain” whom he could walk around with at practice.
Live animal mascots aren’t uncommon in the NFL. The Baltimore Ravens have two, the Denver Broncos have an Arabian horse, the Seattle Seahawks have a hawk and the Cleveland Browns have a bull mastiff. The Kansas City Chiefs used to have a pinto horse and the Miami Dolphins used to have a live dolphin.
But none of those animals offers the same size and terror as a lion would. Sadly, Campbell will have to keep dreaming.
Three years ago, the Detroit Lions introduced their new coach, Dan Campbell, in a press conference that was, well, let’s just call it gritty in the extreme. When asked what the football world could expect to see in his Lions and what his coaching philosophy would be, he replied that people were tired “of the same old “sh*t,” and rather than give them another dose of coach speak, he spoke off the cuff.
“I wanted this job … bad. Because I felt like I knew this community. I played here,” Campbell began. He went on to say that as far as team identity or culture went, this team was going to take on the identity of the city of Detroit. “This city has been down. It’s found a way to overcome adversity,” Campbell continued. “This team is going to kick you in the teeth … and when you knock us down, on the way up we’re going to bite a kneecap off … and we’re going to get up … and if you knock us down again, we’re going to get up and bite off the other kneecap.”
The clip was a head-scratcher and a headline-maker. Memes followed – the Detroit Lions were all about biting kneecaps – and went viral, some affectionate, but most incredulous and totally convinced that here, in the person of a coach who in truth looks like 10,000 auto workers in Detroit, only a bit bigger, was another reason to make the Lions the butt of a joke.