The Lions open the season as contenders. For 60 years Detroit fans said "this is our year." This year it might be, which is the most dangerous thing that's ever happened to them.

Shelton is the first Black American man in a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972, in a stadium named after Arthur Ashe. It took 54 years for the building to see someone it was named for. The Lions have been waiting since 1957, and they don't even have a building named after anybody.

The Lions are undefeated. Enjoy it. In Detroit, hope has a shorter half-life than the paint on the Ambassador Bridge.

The Lions open Sunday as favorites. Detroit fans have never had hope survive October. This year they'll find out what it costs. Spoiler: last year, plus a stadium tax and interest.

The Lions' running back is the consensus number one fantasy pick. Detroit finally has something people fight over that isn't a parking spot.

A regular-season NFL game in Australia at 8 a.m. their time. Fans in Melbourne will watch football before work. Fans in Detroit will watch it at 4 a.m. and call in sick, which is a Michigan tradition older than the Lions' last title.

Sixty years of "this is our year" and a stadium tax. Detroit fans aren't optimistic. They're conditioned. Pavlov had a dog. Detroit has a season ticket.

The Lions open Sunday as Super Bowl favorites. Detroit has never had hope survive October. This is the year it finds out what hope costs. Spoiler: last year's price, plus a stadium tax, plus interest, plus a Coney at 1 a.m.

A Detroit fan bought a Lions jersey this week and left the tags on. That's not a purchase. That's a hedge. Sixty years of practice.

Lions, Sunday, Ford Field, favorites. Sixty years of "this is our year" and a stadium tax. Detroit fans aren't optimistic, they're conditioned. Pavlov had a dog. Detroit has a season ticket.

Sunday at 4: a 23-year-old from Georgia serving 144 mph against a German who said out loud he hopes the American dream doesn't come true. If you're from Michigan you'll be watching with one eye on the Lions. That's not a conflict. That's Sunday.

The Bills open their new stadium tonight against the Lions on Amazon. A billion-dollar building, a team that's lost four Super Bowls, and a Thursday night game streamed by the company whose cargo plane just crashed. Everything in Buffalo is a delivery that might not arrive.

The Lions open at home Sunday and the whole state is pretending it's calm. Michigan football needed a bad call to beat a MAC team, the Tigers are in a race, and Detroit's collective blood pressure is now a public health category.

Karen Khachanov is 16-18 on the year and in the US Open semis. A losing record and a run to the final four. He's the Detroit Lions of tennis, except he made it.

Bills-Lions tonight in a brand-new stadium. Two fan bases, one Super Bowl between them combined, and it's the Lions', from a movie they're still writing. The winner of tonight gets to be the favorite until January, when it doesn't matter.

The Lions open Sunday as Super Bowl favorites in some books. Detroit has never had hope survive October. This year it'll find out what hope costs. Spoiler: the same as last year, plus a stadium tax and interest.

Khachanov, 16-18 on the year, is in a Grand Slam semifinal. A losing record and a run to the final four. He's the Lions of tennis: nobody saw it coming, and it ends with a loss to a guy from Germany.

Detroit hosts the Saints Sunday. The Tigers are in a race, Michigan needed a blown call to beat a MAC school, and the Lions are favorites. The state's blood pressure is now a public health category, and the cure is a Coney at 1 a.m.

This week: a German won the American dream in Queens and didn't notice, the Lions won by one and aged everyone ten years, a horror comedy set the Emmy record, the Supreme Court said mail your ballot, and the vice president cut off 870,000 people with the word "screwed." Tell one. Vote. Watch the Bills game.

The Tigers are in a September race and the Lions are favorites. The last time Detroit had this much September hope, the auto industry was about to need a bailout. Somebody check on Ford.