The news was less than 24 hours old, after Detroit’s historic Sunday night win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, before sports pundits began discussing the significance of the Lions making the NFC Championship.
Most stuck strictly to football. But somehow esteemed ESPN host Stephen A. Smith fell into the trap of dissing Detroit during his Monday morning talk show, “First Take.”
That play is over 50 years old, and we’re losing the patience we’ve held for a Super Bowl appearance.
Nearly 11 years after Detroit hit bottom — becoming the largest American city to file for bankruptcy — we thought we were past this narrative.
Apparently not.
Let me say this, for the record: Detroit is not dead. It’s never been dead. It’s not a utopia, either.
I cringed hearing his comments, not because I’m a Detroit apologist, but because I’m appalled at how inaccurately the city was being portrayed by arguably the biggest name in sports media.
While saying that the Detroit Lions were the best story in football, whether he meant it to land like that or not, Stephen A. took a cheap shot at a city that’s taken way too many media haymakers.
Stephen A. suggested the Lions are reviving Detroit. It reminds me of when people mistakenly thought that it was the people of Detroit, not our government, that was filing for bankruptcy.
