Getty Clete Blakeman reviews a 2017 play in Chicago.
The Detroit Lions were hosed once again by the referees and that’s something that hasn’t sat well with the team’s fanbase in recent days.
So what do you do when nobody will listen to your frustration on these matters nationally or seemingly understand the frustration you’ve endured for years? You buy billboard space to tell the world how you feel, of course. Once again, someone, presumably a group of Lions fans or someone who likes the Lions with some extra cash, put up a statement on the interstate about the last game, and it was a pretty good burn at the league.
Here’s a look at the board, which has been spotted along a few major freeways in the Detroit area.
Billboards take aim at referees in Detroit Lions-Green Bay Packers game t.co/xoUvxTYB9A via @freep
As is seen, it depicts a referee wearing a Packers cheesehead while making a call. The implication? That the referees are Packers fans, of course. That’s a frustration plenty of Lions fans feel after they suffered multiple blown calls at the hands of the officials during the game, including two hands to the face calls and a pass interference call that some folks should have been made.
It’s Happened Before
Lions fans have been using the billboard as an outlet for their frustration for some time around the Motor City. As Dave Birkett pointed out in his piece, similar boards were seen after the Lions suffered a frustrating Monday Night Football loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and also taunting Ndamukong Suh as he approached free agency.
There’s been a litany of chances for Lions fans to show their frustration, after all, there’s been plenty of frustrating moments through the years. In addition to the ones described above, the Lions were also doomed by a poor call in Chicago after a Calvin Johnson touchdown, watched as a Houston Texans runner scooped up a ball and ran unimpeded to the end zone, saw a 10 second runoff call go against them and countless other frustrations.
The billboard, though, only seems to surface after the watershed moments. This certainly was another one.
Moving Right Along
The Lions themselves aren’t taking any of the bait in terms of talking about the trouble with the referees this week after the game. Matt Patricia said he only believed in toughness for his team, while Matthew Stafford and Trey Flowers felt nothing needed to be said in the aftermath of the game.
“I don’t know if it’s that. I’m not really worried about it to be honest with you. There’s nothing you can do about it now, you just keep moving on. Minnesota coming in here, they got my full focus. Didn’t think about that for long at all,” Stafford told the media.
Flowers took it one step further, choosing to focus on all the damage the Lions can continue to do.
“It is what it is. When that clock hits zero, it’s nothing you can do about it. So you got to put your energy toward something that is sustainable,” Flowers told the media. “That’s the hard work we put into this week, and next week and the week after that. It’s early in the season, we got a long season. We put our energy towards the things we can control, we’ll be right where we want to be at the end of the year.”
The Lions players are clearly in the right place mentally not to let such frustration define them and hang over them for the next few weeks. That’s the best news off of frustration .
The fans? Well, they’re dealing with things in their own way, and possibly, the billboard can help bring some folks a measure of comfort despite their disappointment.
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