We are celebrating Detroit.
It has been eleven years since Detroit emerged from bankruptcy. The largest city in the history of the U.S. to ever file bankruptcy. The city’s reputation was in the same shape as its finances.
Thanks to people who believed in Detroit and its people, things are much different now. Starting tonight, Detroit will be in the national spotlight as the NFL draft begins tonight and runs through Saturday. It is estimated over 300,000 people will come to Detroit for the draft. The leaders have spruced up Detroit in ways that we have not seen in my lifetime. Yes, even better than the Super Bowl in 2006.
I turn to Bob Wojnowski, sports columnist extraordinaire of the Detroit News to tell the story. Here are excerpts from his article today. Enjoy!
When you look around, be sure to look everywhere. When you listen, be sure to hear everything.
You’ll see fans from all cities, celebrities from all corners. Outside of the Super Bowl, the draft is the NFL’s most-celebrated event, and the impact is witnessed in the streets and written on the walls. Look up and you’ll see Detroit as rarely viewed, by a captive national audience for three days, starting Thursday night with the first round.
It’s amazing what you can see, and what you can do, when not bound by the past. It’s not just the Lions, who blasted through decades of slumber to roll to the NFC Championship Game, agonizingly close to the franchise’s first Super Bowl. The renaissance of the team, led by people driven for redemption, is the lure, but the story is grander than just football.
Peer up at the 97-year-old Cadillac Tower building and see the mural of Lions defensive star Aidan Hutchinson, his right arm raised beneath the message, “Dreams get made here.” Yes, more than automobiles get made here.
The timing is reflective, the irony is rich. The team reached unprecedented heights as the city rose with it, and just 11 years removed from Detroit’s bankruptcy, construction cranes and towers dominate the skyline. The civic bows are well-earned, as Detroit prepares to host as many as 300,000 people in all nooks of downtown, centered in Campus Martius Park.
Jared Goff still marvels at what his new home has become, three years after arriving from Los Angeles. He was a quarterback adrift who found a team adrift, guided by new owner Sheila Hamp, new GM Brad Holmes and new head coach Dan Campbell.
Sitting in an elegant room in the stately 19th-century Detroit Club, Goff chuckled when he described what he tells his friends back in California.
“When I explain to them the city is in a renaissance, a lot of people don’t realize it,” Goff said. “I didn’t realize it when I was in L.A. I had friends come here to visit almost every week last year. They love it, they can’t get enough of it. They love it all, the fans, the people.”
…There’s still plenty of room to grow and build, as the Lions chase the Super Bowl and Detroit expands and evolves. But from the spectacular 3.5-mile RiverWalk, to Dan Gilbert’s rapidly rising Hudson’s building, to the dramatically refurbished Michigan Central Station, the symbols are strong.
“We’ve got a chance to introduce ourselves again to America,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “And when we do, we hope to be just like the Lions, and introduce America to a very different Detroit than they expected.”
It’s not a coincidence that Hamp, who took over the franchise long run by her parents, described the team’s reshaping with one word: Collaboration. Same with the city. From billionaire developer Gilbert to the Ilitch family, to Duggan, to the behind-the-scenes minds on the Detroit Sports Commission, more things are possible.
The Final Four is coming in 2027 and the push for more events is unrelenting.
Ambassadors for the city are everywhere, and not just at the highest levels of celebrity-dom. Eminem is visible and valuable and authentically Detroit.
Detroit’s true ambassadors are in the streets, and especially in the stands when they invade opponents’ stadiums. Walk around downtown and you’ll encounter new sights, large and small. For one, there must be approximately 300,000 porta-potties in the parks, seemingly one to accommodate each fan.
“I’ve fallen in love with this place,” said NBC broadcaster Mike Tirico, who has lived in the Detroit area since 2000. “It’s so much fun now, to have seen Detroit struggle, go through bankruptcy, come back up, get cut down at the knees by COVID, and get back up again.”
Tirico’s voice reaches millions on national telecasts, and he’s not bashful about touting where he lives. As he spoke from the seventh floor of the Detroit Athletic Club, the spires of the Hudson’s building were visible through the window above his head. Imagery isn’t everything, but when reinventing and courting investment, it matters.
“I was in the booth during the two home playoff games (at Ford Field), and I remember the TV shot as it got to dusk, seeing downtown all lit up,” Tirico said. “That was the only moment of the broadcast where I stopped, and I was really proud. You’re trying to be professional, but when I saw it, I was like, America, look at this city. It’s beautiful and it’s vibrant and the fans are as passionate as any. They care, and they get it.”
It took a little while, and a lot of deep pockets, but business leaders get it, using sports as an impetus and a connector. A lot progressed even while the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons struggled, and the Lions’ blueprint was just forming. When Little Caesars Arena opened in 2017, Detroit became the only American city with all four pro teams in arenas clustered downtown. In every way — physically, emotionally, historically — the city and its teams are inextricably linked.
Holmes and Campbell got it immediately, and kept pushing it even when the game pushed back, when the team started 4-19-1 under their regime (22-8 since). The Lions’ culture mirrors the city’s — no-nonsense, mash over flash — with the standard caveat that much work remains.
“I was eternally optimistic, even when things were as bad as they could be,” said Goff, who arrived in the Matthew Stafford trade in 2021.
Finally, the Lions and the city are worth chasing. Detroit fell behind for a variety reasons,…but one thing has never changed — the emotional connection to sports.
You see it in large ways, with the cheering, sobbing throngs of Lions fans at games, and also in small ways. Back at the Detroit Club, Goff fought back tears as he presented a retirement gift to Lions director of security Elton Moore, who befriended the quarterback admittedly shaken after the trade to Detroit.
Michael Robinson, 76, gulped hard when honored as one of the team’s super-fans. He grew up in Detroit but now lives in Oshkosh, Wis., and makes the 500-mile drive for every Lions home game. He was there for the 2022 opener against the Eagles and didn’t feel well but stayed until the end. The Marine Corps veteran left in an ambulance with dangerous sepsis from a leg infection. He’s attended Lions home games for 66 years, and after Goff handed him his award, he could scarcely express himself. “Blew me away,” Robinson said. “I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Never, ever dreamed I’d have this happen to me.”
Goff and Jared Jewelers also presented donations to the FATE Program, which promotes mentorship and leadership development. The beams on the faces of the dozen kids on stage, taking pictures with the quarterback, were priceless.
That’s part of what can be the enduring legacy. In its pitch to the NFL, the Detroit Sports Commission said it would donate $1 million to support two community causes — youth sports and literacy.
“The economic impact is important, but so is the community impact,” said Dave Beachnau, executive director of the commission. “We wanted the legacy to be sustainable, and for the residents and the kids to be part of these big events. Once the circus folds up its tents and leaves town, what’s left behind?”
Look up, look down, look all around. It’s a question Detroit is happy to field, and confident to answer.
Let the emotional roller coaster begin.
The first of Boyne’s ten golf courses opens on Friday. By mid-May all ten courses will be open. Each round will bring the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. There is no getting around it, no matter how good or how bad you are. As one teaching pro said, “Golf is diabolical.” As I say, “patience and amnesia are must haves.”
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Quote of the Day: “I’ve fallen in love with this place. It’s so much fun now, to have seen Detroit struggle, go through bankruptcy, come back up, get cut down at the knees by COVID, and get back up again. I was in the booth during the two home playoff games (at Ford Field), and I remember the TV shot as it got to dusk, seeing downtown all lit up. That was the only moment of the broadcast where I stopped, and I was really proud. You’re trying to be professional, but when I saw it, I was like, America, look at this city. It’s beautiful and it’s vibrant and the fans are as passionate as any. They care, and they get it.” said NBC broadcaster Mike Tirico, who has lived in the Detroit area since 2000.
Orchid of the Day: Nancy Berge, my sister who turns 70 on Friday. I am blessed to have a sister like her. She is one of the most caring people I know. She has spent her life taking care of children with special needs. She is more than a sister; she is a friend. Not only to me, but to Leah, Chris, Katy, and all our grandchildren. Every one of them adores her.
She is a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt. She is active in the community, especially her church. She is not afraid to speak her mind, but always in a caring way.
I am proud to call her my sister.
A second Orchid of the Day: To the football fans who have descended to Detroit. As of 6:30PM tonight the draft area is full and fans are being encouraged to go to other draft venues. The draft does not start until 8:00pm.
Video of the Day: Ki Rock-Detroit Michigan, which he introduced at the halftime of a Lions’ Thanksgiving Day Game.
Kid Rock’s New Album Rebel Soul Detroit Michigan / Lyrics (youtube.com)
Congrats to Detroit. Barton Malow, dad’s firm, built Ford Field & LCA and now the new Hudsons building. The Riverfront with the huge food truck event. I have worked as a security at Ford Field. What an amazing experience to be in Detroit.
Great article in your blog today 👍