The Lions Wanted Germany So Bad They Sacrificed Their Own Bodies for It
The schedule dropped and Lions fans immediately spotted the problem. No bye week after the Germany game against New England. Instead, we get three games in 11 days including that brutal stretch right into Thanksgiving. Classic Lions luck, right?
Wrong. Turns out this one is on us.
The Lions pushed harder than anyone to get that Munich game. Rod Wood and the front office lobbied the league relentlessly, knowing full well what they were signing up for. They wanted Amon-Ra St. Brown playing in his ancestral homeland badly enough to take on a schedule that could break players’ bodies.
Bayern Munich Runs the Show
Here’s the thing about Germany that nobody talks about. Soccer owns that country, and Bayern Munich basically owns the stadium we’re playing in. The NFL has to wait until November when the soccer schedule allows it. That puts any Thanksgiving team in a scheduling nightmare.
According to NFL broadcasting VP Mike North, the Lions knew exactly what they were getting into. “We knew that Germany game was going to be a mere two weeks before Thanksgiving, and it was important enough to Rod, to the organization, to our international folks, certainly to your wide receiver that it made a lot of sense for the Lions to play in that Germany game.”
They volunteered for this mess. Eyes wide open.
The Counterplan That Had to Be Enough
The Lions did negotiate something in return. Instead of the usual Thursday to Thursday turnaround after Thanksgiving, they worked out a 10-day break. A mini bye week instead of the real thing.
“Credit to the team, really, for volunteering,” North said. “They knew what they were getting into, and I think it broke the way they hoped it would.”
Look, I get wanting to showcase this team internationally. I get wanting Amon-Ra to play in Germany. But this is still the Lions we’re talking about. The team that has dealt with more injuries than a MASH unit in recent years. Trading a bye week for a cultural moment feels like the kind of decision that sounds great and terrible later.
Maybe the Lions know something about roster depth and injury management that we don’t. Or maybe this is just another example of the Lions making things harder on themselves than they need to be.
Did the Lions make the right call trading a bye week for bratwurst and international exposure, or are we about to learn why bye weeks exist the hard way? Let me know in the comments.
I’m honestly excited about this. Brad and Dan made a call they believed in and got something in return. Yeah the schedule sucks but this team has the depth and the coaching to handle it. Plus how cool is it that Amon-Ra gets to play in his home country? That’s the kind of thing that builds a winning culture.
Look I want to believe in this front office because they’ve earned it so far, but giving up a bye week still feels wrong. A 10-day break isn’t the same thing and we both know it. I hope they’re right about the roster depth because if we’re limping through December with injuries I’m gonna be real frustrated.
You know what? I’ve watched this franchise do some truly dumb things over the decades and this isn’t one of them. Holmes and Campbell actually think things through instead of just making moves to look good. If they wanted Germany bad enough to trade the bye, they had a reason. That’s so different from how things used to be.
The fact that Rod Wood actually fought for this shows how much they believe in where this team is headed. Not every organization gets to play internationally like this. It’s a statement that we’re relevant now and we belong on that stage.