Detroit Lions

This team has a lot to feel good about: mainly the fact that Matthew Stafford, the former Number One draft pick is still upright and healthy after spending the off-season wrapped in cotton wool.

With Stafford, the Lions are a threat; a genuine threat in a division that boasts both teams to feature in last year’s NFC Championship game. There have been false dawns for the Detroit faithful before, but I have a real feeling this year they’re going to score a lot of points – probably a lot more than they concede. Now, if they manage to keep that positive ratio going from game to game, we’re going to see a very, very good record by the end of the year, but, as always with a team comprised of such talent but so little experience, I think it likely they will blow some of the weaker teams out of the water, and be similarly buried by the big boys.

The re-working of the Lions logo a couple of years ago was a good move. Their new badge can shed the shame of the barren years and be the insignia of a new era – an aggressive, exciting and victorious era.

The Lions have arrived; believe the hype.

Verdict: In a stacked NFC full of more experienced teams (two of the most experienced play the lions twice each this year) the Lions will struggle to get into the playoffs however good they are. I fancy them to split the season with the Packers, who will go on to win the group with a conference topping 13-3 record, and the Lions will finish on the same record as Chicago, perhaps a 10-6, but make it to the playoffs as the sixth seed by having swept the series against the Bears. Lions in the playoffs? You heard it here first!


Pick up THE HARE newspaper at Night and Day, Bar Centro, Font or Tiger Lounge in Manchester town centre, or the Oakwood in Glossop.

E-mail theharenewspaper@hotmail.co.uk with questions, comments or contributory pieces.