Jared Goff expects Detroit Lions fans to attend NFC Championship game in full. Is he right?
There may be almost 2,500 miles between both teams’ stadiums, but the Lions star believes his team’s fans will be out in force for Sunday’s game in the West.
Sunday will see the Detroit Lions traveling across almost the entire country to the Bay Area where they will face the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game. As you can imagine that’s quite a trek, but given how long the Lions and their fans have had to wait for this moment, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is going to be a lot of blue and silver on show in Levi’s Stadium.
Jared Goff & the Lions’ faithful
One need only take a casual glance at press coverage and other occurrences in recent weeks to know that Jared Goff is a man who is well-loved in the city of Detroit. During a recent Red Wings game, fans could be heard chanting the star quarterback’s name, something that tells you the city is behind their signal caller as he prepares to lead the Lions into battle against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Indeed, that’s precisely why Goff believes that regardless of how far they will have to travel, they will definitely be there and in large numbers too.
When asked recently by ESPN if he had ever experienced fan support at this level, the 29-year-old was clear, saying, “Not like this.” Goff then expanded, admitting “This is a little different. Obviously the circumstances of it all kind of feeds into that. But, yeah, these fans are unbelievable. Expect to see a lot of them this weekend. It’ll be fun.” Where specifics are concerned, we can of course expect that the larger percentage of fans present will be those of the 49ers, but expect the Lions’ to be well-backed come kickoff. As of Wednesday, 22% of all tickets that had been sold for Sunday’s game were bought by Lions fans according to reports.
What are the fans saying?
While it’s all well and good to have the take of one of the players themselves, it stands to reason that the fans themselves know what it means to them and what they’re willing to do to be part of Sunday’s massive game. One such fan is 29-year-old Alex Willis, a Grand Rapids native who said that he paid $650 for nosebleed tickets. “I think it’ll be cool to be there, with the happenstance,” Willis said. “I wish a little bit more of my family could stumble into this situation.”
If you’re still unsure as to why this is all such a big deal, let us remind you that this is the first time that the Lions have been in the NFC championship game since 1991 when the legendary Barry Sanders was still part of the team’s roster. Of course, the NFC’s title game is one thing, but we have to imagine that the Lions and their fans will be hoping to play one more game this season following Sunday’s showdown, and that would be the one that’s taking place at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada on February 11th: The Super Bowl. Kickoff for Lions vs 49ers is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. Don’t miss it.