Hope is good and you should cheer for the Lions

“Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things and…” etc etc.

May I introduce you to the Detroit Lions?

If you hate football, please stick with us. We’re going somewhere.

I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been a huge fan of the way the world has been going recently would say it’s been a great few months. The American election was terrible for anyone who isn’t a billionaire, whether they know it yet or not. The next Canadian election will hopefully be less extreme, but will likely be similar in tone.

The planet is melting, and you can absorb as much or as little news about that as you want, but it’s happening regardless. The economy is technically great, which seems to mean in practice that it’s not great for most people. And in general, the suffering you encounter in your daily lives—whether that is Gazan homes exploding on your social media feeds or encampments and overdoses in your local park—has risen. You can argue that with me if you like but if so you’re rich or wrong and probably both.

Vibes ain’t great. It is what it is. And more cliches borrowed from the world of sports. Which is why we are mentioning it today.

I had a coffee with a friend I’d missed this week. And as we were recounting the many ills of the world and of our personal lives—mine more than his, it’s been a tough month over here for reasons beyond work and news—I started talking about the Detroit Lions, who were playing that night against the Green Bay Packers. And… I smiled, and gushed, and bragged about them like the 13-year-old fan I used to be.

(Incredibly brief primer for non-football fans: The Detroit Lions are both one of the oldest and least successful franchises in NFL history. Their last championship was before the Super Bowl had been invented. They have authored one of only two 0-16 seasons in the history of the league. They have had two generational superstars play for them, and both retired early rather than continuing to suffer the humiliation of playing for the Lions. That’s about all you need to know.)

Yet the Detroit Lions are somehow currently the best team in football. And it’s not the football that matters here so much as the fact this outcome is possible, and the manner in which it became so, that matters here.

When I gushed about the Lions, my friend said, “you have a lot riding on this team, huh?” And I was abashed, at least for a moment, because it seems silly. And definitely seems not great as far as a coping strategy goes for dealing with whatever the world throws at you. But what if it’s plenty, at least for the moment?

Admit it: You were rooting, at least a little bit, for the Healthcare CEO shooter. I don’t mean that you condone vigilante murder, or that you see it as a valid solution to the ills of the world. I don’t mean you wanted that particular person to die in that manner, or that you wished suffering on his family. But it’s very hard right now to remove the actual news from the continuous stream of content, disinformation, bad-faith and blather we’re all immersed in. So even the real things don’t seem that real anymore. And this was an anti-hero straight out of prestige TV, who looked cool and got away—for a while!—from the cops.

It was also, for millions of people, a shred of hope. A blow, however twisted, against the oligarchs who condemn so many Americans—and Canadians and others, universal healthcare is nowhere near ‘universal’ and medical insurance can screw anyone—to bankruptcy, indignity and/or death.

It doesn’t matter so much that this blow was struck in the wrong direction. In a public and hideous manner. By a person who certainly seems not to be the righteous freedom fighter some of the more gleeful meme-ing made him out to be, but more of just another in America’s long litany of mental health struggles meeting cable news and firearms.

It won’t be a “win” for the folks who explicitly cheered the murder over the long term. But the fact that it might briefly make the people who always win feel as though, perhaps, that is not preordained, that those under their feet might not always stay there, that because someone has always been a loser that they will continue to be…that mattered to a lot of people who don’t have a lot of hope right now.

In our hearts, of course, we know why that works. That’s why we love underdog stories. If the Lions had always been successful, I would care a lot less about this season. If health insurance was fair and accessible, more people would have condemned this murder on the spot. But neither of those things are true, and the further you zoom out, the more it looks like this is the age of Goliath.

So I’m not going to feel abashed finding my David where I can, even if mine’s just a damn football team. Nor should you. Whatever gets you through the day.