“It was a great team victory. Once again we demonstrate that we know how to complement each other. When all three units work, we are on the best possible path“Campbell said after the game against the Titans.
The truth is that the romance between Campbell and Detroit, a city that officially declared bankruptcy around 2013 after the dream that catapulted it as the paradise of the automobile industry during the 20th century, was seriously threatened by an embarrassing incident. stemming from the heartbreaking loss to the 49ers last year. It turns out that Campbell had to put the house he and his wife, Holly, in a northern Detroit suburb in — originally built by Red Wings hockey legend Igor Larionov — up for sale after receiving threats and pranks. risqué on the part of some fans of the franchise.
When questioned about it, Campbell said that, despite the incident, he couldn’t think of any better place to live, no better team to coach and no better fans to represent, showing great class in his response. This while being aware that being a coach of the Lions in a city like Detroit requires different attributes than being a coach of any other team in any other city.
In the age of precocious geniuses and overanalysis, it remains important for a coach to have the sensitivity to empathize with the social environment of his franchise. A head coach, no matter how avant-garde his playbook may be, cannot abstract himself from his context in the process of mounting a true revolution. The team of a city blue collar —as Paul Schrader’s film shows— they do not train the same as the team of a cosmopolitan and progressive city.
In that sense, the best news for the Detroit Lions was not having abandoned the gloom and doom, but rather having found a leader who enhanced the performance of his players, gave them a competitive personality and was genuinely linked to the type of place they were in. what it represents: a working class city with wounded pride.
