Getty Pat McAfee on a SiriusXM set in 2019.
There’s no football city in America currently on a heater quite like Detroit, Michigan, which feels strange to say given the usual misfortune of the hometown Detroit Lions.
If the Lions do go on to become a contender, March 28, 2022 will be remembered for a long time as the day the football gods finally turned in favor of the long-struggling NFL city. First, the NFL revealed that Hard Knocks would be visiting the team in 2022. Then, hours later, the league revealed that Detroit had won a bid to host the 2024 NFL draft. It was welcome news that folks from Michigan were celebrating in a big way.
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It wasn’t just Detroiters or Lions fans downright giddy at the news, however. Former NFL punter Pat McAfee was thrilled about the news for the city as well. As he said on Monday’s Pat McAfee Show reacting to the story in real-time, there’s nobody more deserving of such a break from the league as Lions fans given all the misery they have been forced to endure throughout the years.
“The 2024 NFL Draft has been awarded to Detroit” ~@RapSheet
The people of Detroit deserve something GREAT from the NFL
“The people of Detroit deserve something great from the NFL. The Lions fans have had to watch this turnover after turnover after turnover after turnover. Now they get to watch Hard Knocks, now we’ll actually get to see what’s in that building, what has been going on, and they get the draft? Good for the Detroit people,” McAfee said in reaction to the news.
Typically, football in Detroit represents nothing but heartbreak, but with a pair of good things happening consecutively, it’s possible there is some tangible evidence the winds of change are beginning to shift.
All Lions fans hope that change is firmly in the air, because it would be past time for some positive football news in town consistently just like this.
Detroit Beat Some Major Cities to Host 2024 Draft
To some folks, it might not be big news to see the Lions hosting the draft. The city, though, managed to beat out some solid NFL competition in order to host the draft in a few more years. The Lions managed to beat their rival Green Bay Packers as well as the Washington Commanders to host the event. NFL.com insider Tom Pelissero revealed that Detroit managed to edge out those locales to host the big day:
“Detroit beat out Green Bay and Washington, D.C. for the event. Upcoming NFL Draft sites: 2022 Las Vegas, 2023 Kansas City, 2024 Detroit,” Pelissero wrote in a tweet.
Typically, the Lions don’t beat Green Bay at all on the field, and for Detroit to edge out a place like Washington D.C. for a big-time event is also noteworthy. It proves that folks are coming around to the idea that the city and its team are to be taken seriously in the future.
Why Hosting NFL Draft Matters for Lions and Detroit
For many folks who have either never been to Detroit or considered it a city not worthy of their time, the locale will get a chance to step up and prove that they can merit some great attention on a national stage. Combined with Hard Knocks whetting everyone’s appetite for the Lions in 2022, the city is about to get a whole lot more eyeballs on it in the next few years, and it’s happening at the perfect time. Detroit has long been poised for a revival, and with some of the changes downtown, it’s different than many people remember it from the past. The team’s hype video for the 2024 draft also shows the excitement of everyone to show off the city:
The pick is IN‼️
A big-time event coming back to the city for the first time since Super Bowl 40 in 2006 is something for everyone to be excited about. With the Super Bowl becoming largely a warm-weather locale, landing a draft is the next best thing for the power brokers in town. All in all, it’s a big day, as folks like McAfee would know and have admitted.
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