Will the real Detroit Lions fans please stand up?
Many of them are, as it turns out, standing up at Ford Field watching their team play the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game.
Ford Field was sold out on Sunday as thousands of fans gathered to cheer on the Lions at a watch party for the ages, complete with mega-television screens, cheerleader performances, and pyrotechnics. Fans went wild every time the Lions’ offense had the ball, and in the first half, they had the ball quite a lot.
Detroit put up the first two scores of the game thanks to rushing touchdowns from Jameson Williams and David Montgomery. Up 14–0, the Lions couldn’t have asked for a better start, and their fans tried their best to channel their juiced-up energy all the way over to their team playing 2,500 miles away on the West Coast.
The @Lions watch party ERUPTS during Jameson Williams’ game-opening touchdown! #AllGrit
📹: @lilyalta pic.twitter.com/ZmII0bxyMY— Detroit Free Press (@freep) January 28, 2024
Ford Field on 🔥
Detroit Lions fans losing themselves in the moment as David Montgomery scores a touchdown.
Lions – 14
49ers – 0 pic.twitter.com/W414fuN7nH— Coy Wire (@CoyWire) January 29, 2024
go off, @fordfield!!! pic.twitter.com/R6FjjU7wdE
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 29, 2024
The Lions scored on four of their five offensive drives in the first half, taking an early lead and never looking back.
“The excitement is palpable. You can feel it in the air,” Emily Griffin, the Lions’ marketing chief, said ahead of the matchup. “Tickets sold out unbelievably fast. We made an offer to our season ticket holders, and then opened it up to the public. After just a few hours, 34,000 tickets sold.”
Given that the Lions are playing for their first-ever trip to the Super Bowl, the hype feels very much warranted, as every fan from Benjamin Capp to Eminem has been waiting for this this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The Lions are not blowing their shot so far, up 24–7 over the No. 1-seeded 49ers going into the second half.