Bob Wojnowski: Lions and Detroit earned this massive draft party

DETROIT — When you look around, be sure to look everywhere. When you listen, be sure to hear everything.

You’ll see fans from all cities, celebrities from all corners. Outside of the Super Bowl, the draft is the NFL’s most-celebrated event, and the impact is witnessed in the streets and written on the walls. Look up and you’ll see Detroit as rarely viewed, by a captive national audience for three days, starting Thursday night with the first round.

It’s amazing what you can see, and what you can do, when not bound by the past. It’s not just the Lions, who blasted through decades of slumber to roll to the NFC championship game, agonizingly close to the franchise’s first Super Bowl. The renaissance of the team, led by people driven for redemption, is the lure, but the story is grander than just football.

Peer up at the 97-year-old Cadillac Tower building and see the mural of Lions defensive star Aidan Hutchinson, his right arm raised beneath the message, “Dreams get made here.” Yes, more than automobiles get made here.

The timing is reflective, the irony is rich. The team reached unprecedented heights as the city rose with it, and just 11 years removed from Detroit’s bankruptcy, construction cranes and towers dominate the skyline. The civic bows are well-earned, as Detroit prepares to host as many as 300,000 people in all nooks of downtown, centered in Campus Martius Park.

Jared Goff still marvels at what his new home has become, three years after arriving from Los Angeles. He was a quarterback adrift who found a team adrift, guided by new owner Sheila Hamp, new GM Brad Holmes and new head coach Dan Campbell.

Sitting in an elegant room in the stately 19th-century Detroit Club, Goff chuckled when he described what he tells his friends back in California.

“When I explain to them the city is in a renaissance, a lot of people don’t realize it,” Goff said. “I didn’t realize it when I was in L.A. I had friends come here to visit almost every week last year. They love it, they can’t get enough of it. They love it all, the fans, the people.”

Goff said the most common question he gets is where to eat downtown, and he has more restaurants than ever to recommend. He’s surprised the ubiquitous “Ja-red Goff!” chant still rings out, and the crowds will have plenty of chances Thursday night. The Lions don’t pick until No. 29 (where I’m guessing they’ll take a cornerback), and I’d suggest a healthy “Ja-red Goff!” chorus every time a quarterback is selected.

There’s still plenty of room to grow and build, as the Lions chase the Super Bowl and Detroit expands and evolves. But from the spectacular 3.5-mile RiverWalk, to Dan Gilbert’s rapidly rising Hudson’s building, to the dramatically refurbished Michigan Central Station, the symbols are strong.

...continued

swipe to next page