The Detroit Lions, whose roots stretch back to 1930, are just one of four N.F.L. teams to have never played in the Super Bowl. (Pop quiz: Can you guess the other three?) Before this season, the team had won only one playoff game since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. So Lions fans were justifiably delirious when their team won its division for the first time in three decades and broke its playoff drought this month, beating the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team’s playoff run has provided much joy and a boost for local businesses around Ford Field, the team’s stadium.
‘On playoff day, it’s been nonstop.’
Buddy’s Pizza, a restaurant in downtown Detroit, was packed on Sunday.
“It’s really big for us and a lot of other bars and restaurants in the area,” said Andrew Stanek, a manager at the restaurant’s location near Ford Field. “The fans of the Detroit Lions, through thick and thin and through all the 60 years of bad, they just stick with their team.”
A few blocks away, at Harry’s Detroit Bar & Grill, a line had formed outside the restaurant and down the sidewalk.
Cesar Ramirez, an assistant general manager at Harry’s, said the restaurant had record sales during the Lions’ first playoff win against the Rams.
