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Sports Illustrated picks Detroit Lions to win Super Bowl 59, puts them on preview cover
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Detroit Lions, Super Bowl champions?
That’s the prediction of Sports Illustrated, as the publication features Lions players Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell sitting in a Ford Fairlane vintage 1957 on the cover of its annual “Football Preview” issue, with the headline: “DRIVE TO REVIVE: The Resurgent Lions: Right Team, Right Town, Right Time.”
SI NFL writers Greg Bishop and Conor Orr picked the Lions to win the Super Bowl. The Lions last won the NFL championship in 1957.
“I think you just get a feel for some of these teams,” Orr told the Free Press on Wednesday. “You know, how complete they look, how well coached they are, but the Lions just seem to have every kind of biomarker of a successful team. I mean, they look like the most complete team in football right now.”
The Lions are coming off a 12-5 season and NFC championship game appearance, their best finish since 1991, and the hype in Detroit — and around the world — is at an all time high.
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“So what Greg Bishop and I really wanted to do was we wanted to try to tell a story, a Detroit story, along with the story of the Lions,” Orr said. “What we did was, we tried to focus on this one part of rebuilding of this community church that was parishioner-led in terms of all the money that went toward it, and largely volunteers, you know, and parishioner contractors.”
The dueling “grit” of the team and the city were a focus of Bishop and Orr.
“We thought that kind of embodied the the grit and the determination of the city,” Orr said. “Really went into almost telling the story of the Lions as well, sort of the place that no one really believed in, no one thought was going to come back. And, you know, in really kind of getting into the DNA of the people who are helping orchestrate that turnaround.”
Also playing a big role in SI’s Super Bowl pick: The Lions’ offensive and defensive lines, a point of emphasis in the rebuild led by general manager Brad Holmes.
“I think just the confidence that you have, not only in their offensive line, like I think at both lines of scrimmages,” Orr said. “I think their lines are superior than everyone else right now. I mean, you know, tackle to tackle, their offensive line, defensive line, I think they’re super-underrated.”
Head coach Dan Campbell hasn’t shied away from big expectations for the team, and avoiding complacency. Likewise, the SI writers believe the Lions are prepared for the big stage and the path to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans in February.
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“I think with any of these teams, like the second that you turn from, cool story, into perpetual contender, there’s this situation where every game is now a prime-time game,” Orr said. “You’re going to have a bigger target on your back. I think the regular season is going to be tough again. The NFC isn’t really a pushover, maybe like it was a couple of years ago. I think there’s gonna be a lot of kind of good rising teams, and even within their own division.”
While the Lions being a Super Bowl pick might have been a surprise, SI’s choice of the cover athletes was not, according to Orr.
“I think the Lions have a town that just really loves this team, and anyone can kind of grab on to that nationally,” Orr said. “And you can pick up on that. You can feel the energy, you know, in addition to that, I think guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, and Jared Goff, I mean, it’s really that star potential. I think they, have what it takes to to ‘win the press conference,’ as well as the ‘on the field.'”
The Lions are the only NFC team to never make a Super Bowl appearance. They have four NFL titles (1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957.)
Lions fans: Get ready for this season by reliving the team’s epic 2023 season with a new book from the Free Press, “From Grit to Glory.” Order now!
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