Since 2001 the Lions have had a dismal record of 21-59. Football fans associate Detroit with losing. (At least when it comes to football.)

For Lions fan watching the Super Bowl, it might have been a miracle to see two good teams playing pro football at Ford Field.

Obviously, the Lions have never won a Super Bowl. They’ve never eveb been to the big game, one of only six teams to never have made it.

The franchise can only boast one playoff win in the last 49 years. That was all the way back in 1992, which put them in the NFC championship game. The Lions would go on to lose to the Washington Redskins, destroying Detroit’s Super Bowl chances.

So, for Lion’s fans in Detriot, Sunday was the closest they’ve ever gotten to the taste of the big game.

It may be the closest Detroit may get for quite awhile.

It may also be pain Lion’s fans to see a promising young quarterback win a Super Bowl in just his second season, while their once promising young quarterback may end up riding the bench next season.

Fans also witnessed the departure of future Hall of Fame running back, and hometown boy, Jerome Bettis. While Bettis ended his career with a Super Bowl win, Detroit great and Hall of Famer Barry Sanders finished his career on a 5-11 Lions squad.

Sanders, one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, dazzled fans for ten years but was never able to hold up the Lombardi trophy.

This is not to disrespect Bettis and his accomplishments, but as a sore reminder to Lions fans, their all-time great running back never experienced that triumph.

So now that the Super Bowl has been played and the media and fanfare has packed up and left town, Detroit is left wondering, hoping that sineday they may experience this again, not as ost, but as participant.

Detroit looks to their Lions every year to produce a better team than the previous year.

However, every year, fans see their team become mathematically eliminated in October.

Three weeks into the season, criticsm of Joey Harrington begins to stir and fans become even more irate than they had been already over Matt Millen.

Two weeks and probably two losses later, fans start asking the questions “When does basketball season start?” and “How are the Wings suppose to be this year?”

One day, Detroit will experience a Super Bowl from a different perspective, as participants, but for now, don’t hold your breath Lions fans.

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