Maybe the next Jake “The Snake” Plissken movie can be called Escape From Detroit. The Snake already escaped New York and LA. The motor city mostly looks like something out of Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome already. Hollywood would not have to pay for a complete makeover for a city desperate for money and a good football team. Matthew Stafford can play Jake “The Snake” Plissken, a player who escaped the tragedy of playing Detroit Lion football. Now it will be based on a true story as Matthew Stafford escaped Detroit by being traded last off-season to the LA Rams. Stafford last Sunday helped the Rams win the Superbowl in his first season after all those bad years playing in Detroit.

The last time the Detroit Lions won a playoff game was in 1991. Lions at that time were playing their home games in the Pontiac Silver Dome in Pontiac, Michigan. Lions moved into Ford Field in 2002 and it took all the way until 2019 to finally get the last remaining pieces of the Pontiac Silver Dome removed from the property, which Amazon would end up purchasing. The Lions have never won a Superbowl. To remember the last time the Lions won ,you’d have to go back to 1957 when they won the NFL Championship. Lions have 4 NFL Championships, all of them coming between 1935 and 1957. During the 1950’s, Lions won three of those NFL Championships. The 1991 Lions actually had a bye the first round as they were the number two seed. Erik Kramer behind center led the assault on the Dallas Cowboys at the old Pontiac Silver Dome and they crushed them 38-6. Cowboys did not have Troy Aikman in that one. The Lions then would get crushed in the NFC Championship by what was then the Washington Redskins. Matthew Stafford spent 12 seasons in Detroit and played in three playoff games, all losses. Stafford’s one season as a Ram, including the Superbowl win, went 4-0 in post season play.

Ndamkong Suh was another Lion that escaped Detroit. Last year, Suh won the Superbowl with the Buccaneers. Suh spent 5 seasons in Detroit before he left to Miami, then played a lone season for the Rams, and finally went to Misfit Island in Tampa Bay. Suh played with Matthew Stafford on the Lions as the former teammates exchanged some heated words in the playoffs a few weeks back when the Rams went into Tampa Tom’s house and beat them. Suh has been known as a dirty player over his career. I did not mind how he beat up on Jay Cutler when he was on the Bears and Suh was on the Lions. If anyone needs to get a beat down, it would be Jay Cutler. Suh reminds me of a guy in those Jake “the Snake” Plissken movies that runs the prison camp even though he is a prisoner himself. Whatever goes on inside the Apocalyptic city that is just a prison camp, everything needs to go through Suh who is in charge as he put the fear into anyone who dares to step in his way. Suh would be the guy who could leave and come back at will. Suh would be a Lion who got out of Detroit and earned a ring. Not many can say that.

That 1991 playoff team, the Lions had the best running back in the league, Barry Sanders. That 1991 Lions team also featured some very talented wide receivers in Herman Moore and Brett Perriman. Let’s not forget Lions legendary linebacker Chris Spielman on defense. Years later Megatron, Calvin Johnson, would emerge in the motor city. Megatron was one of the elite receivers in the entire league. Just a quarterback’s dream, being a tall target who could jump high and grab the ball out of the thin air and come down with it. Barry Sanders and “Megatron” Calvin Johnson both walked away from the game and retired at an early age. Barry Sanders would have easily broke, at the time, Walter Payton’s record for the most rushing yards if he continued to play. Megatron could have added to all of his stats as well. Megatron rewrote all the Lions receiving records in nine seasons he played in the NFL, all with the Lions. What’s it tell you about Detroit when two Hall of Famers walk away from the game early?

For the Rams this year, Matthew Stafford tied a career high for himself and threw 41 touchdown passes. For Stafford, in 2011 was the first time he threw 41 touchdown passes. Stafford’s record behind center in 12 seasons in Detroit was 74-90-1 as he threw 282 touchdown passes with 144 interceptions in a Lions uniform. Stafford still threw his interceptions of which a number of them this season for the Rams were pick sixes. Stafford was one of the league leaders with his mistakes. Difference is, what Stafford is surrounded by in LA rather than what he was surrounded in Detroit by. Stafford is a middle tier quarterback in the NFL. Stafford would need to win more Superbowls before I consider him to be Hall of Fame material. Even Jim Plunkett of the Raiders had two Superbowl rings and he is not enshrined in Canton, Ohio. You can see what he could have been in Detroit if the Lions did get enough talent around him and a good defense. You need every aspect of your team to be good to have Stafford as your guy.

Jared Goff is probably feeling the size of a golf ball after watching his replacement win the Superbowl. Goff is a young quarterback still and has time to improve his game. Goff has been to a Superbowl and won playoff games. Goff has also lost in the Superbowl and was only able to muster up 3 total points in perhaps the biggest yawner of Superbowl, a few years back versus the Patriots. Goff’s throwing stats will probably be on the rise because the Lions seem like they are always playing from behind. Goff had to throw the ball a lot in his first season behind center in Detroit, just like all those games Mathew Stafford had too. Nothing changes in Detroit. Except now and then they fire and hire another coach. Not sure who the next Lion to escape Detroit and get to the Superbowl will be. Goff might not be that Plissken-like to find his escape as he would get taken out by his own teammates before getting to the wall to climb out of the Detroit metropolitan Apocalyptic Lion world. Not many can escape Detroit, and live the Superbowl dream to talk about it.